Honestly, the numbers might surprise you. If you’ve been watching the news lately, it feels like every other week there’s another tragedy. But when you actually sit down and look at the data for recent mass shootings in USA, there is a weird, complicated shift happening right now.
We’re in early 2026. The dust is still settling on a year that most experts didn’t see coming.
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In 2025, the U.S. actually recorded the fewest mass killings in two decades. You read that right. According to researchers at Northeastern University and the Associated Press, the count for mass killings—incidents where four or more people die—dropped to 17 last year. Compare that to the record-breaking 41 incidents we saw back in 2019. It’s a massive 59% decrease.
But here’s the thing. While the "mass killing" stat is down, the broader category of recent mass shootings in USA—which includes any event where four or more people are shot, regardless of whether they die—is still a heavy burden. The Gun Violence Archive (GVA) tracked 408 of these shootings in 2025.
It’s better than the 504 we had in 2024.
It’s way better than the 600+ we saw during the peak of the pandemic years.
But 408 times a year? That’s still more than one a day.
The Reality of 2026 So Far
We’re only a few weeks into January 2026, and the honeymoon phase of those "declining" stats is already feeling a bit thin. Houston started the year with a series of shootings on New Year's Day that left two dead and seven wounded. Just a few days later, on January 9, a shooting in Cedarbluff, Mississippi, took six lives.
The South is currently seeing the most heat. Alabama, for instance, had 28 mass shootings in the last recorded year. Georgia and Arizona aren't far behind.
Why there?
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Experts like James Alan Fox call it a "regression to the mean." Basically, the crazy spikes we saw between 2020 and 2023 were the outliers. We are "returning to normal," but "normal" in America still looks very different than it does anywhere else in the world.
What the Data Misses
Numbers are cold. They don't talk about the Brown University shooting in late 2025 or the MIT professor who was killed in Brookline. Those high-profile cases stay in the headlines for months, but they represent a tiny fraction of the actual violence.
Did you know that nearly half of all recent mass shootings in USA happen in private homes?
They aren't all the "public active shooter" scenarios we see on 24-hour news cycles. A lot of them are domestic disputes that spiral out of control. It’s a family argument, a workplace grudge, or a neighborhood conflict that turns into a "mass" event because there’s a high-capacity magazine involved.
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Breaking Down the 2025/2026 Shift
- School Shootings: These actually hit a five-year low. There were 233 incidents in 2025 compared to 352 in 2023. Still too many, but the trend is finally moving down.
- The "Big Beautiful Bill": This is a huge factor in the 2026 conversation. Last July, the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" was signed, making it cheaper and easier to buy silencers and short-barreled rifles by removing the $200 tax stamp.
- Regional Clusters: The South is leading the country in firearm deaths, with some states seeing a 36-40% jump in fatalities even while national averages drop.
The Policy Tug-of-War
Right now, there is a massive divide in how the country is "fixing" this. On one hand, you’ve got 15 states that have now established official Offices of Violence Prevention. They’re focusing on community-based intervention—basically, getting to people before they pull a trigger.
On the other hand, the federal government has been dismantling the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. There’s a new "Second Amendment Task Force" that’s pushing for more guns in more places.
It’s a literal see-saw.
Some states like Maine and Connecticut saw massive decreases in gun deaths last year. Meanwhile, Wyoming saw a 40% increase. Your safety basically depends on your zip code.
Misconceptions We Need to Address
People often think mass shooters are "monsters" who appear out of nowhere. Honestly, the data tells a different story. Nearly two-thirds of public mass shooters in the last few years bought their guns legally. They had no criminal records. They hadn't been involuntarily committed to mental health facilities.
They were "law-abiding citizens" right up until the second they weren't.
Another thing: the focus on "AR-15s." While they are used in the deadliest public massacres, the vast majority of recent mass shootings in USA—the ones happening in Jackson, Memphis, and Louisville—are committed with handguns.
Actionable Steps for 2026
If you're looking at these stats and wondering what to actually do, the most effective "low-tech" solution being pushed by safety experts right now isn't a new law—it’s secure storage.
- Secure your hardware: A huge chunk of school shootings and domestic mass shootings happen because a kid or a relative got a hold of an unsecured "home defense" weapon. Use a biometric safe.
- Know your local "Red Flag" laws: Also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs). If a family member is spiraling, 21 states now have ways for you to petition a court to temporarily remove their firearms. It’s not a permanent ban; it’s a "pause button" for a crisis.
- Situational Awareness: Ken Trump, a leading school safety expert, recently pointed out that we rely too much on "security tech" like metal detectors and not enough on "active supervision."
The data for recent mass shootings in USA is finally showing a downward trend, but 2026 is already proving that we can't just look at a spreadsheet and breathe a sigh of relief. The lethality of the weapons is increasing even as the number of incidents fluctuates. Stay informed, keep your gear locked up, and pay attention to the local trends in your specific state.
Next Steps for Staying Safe:
Check your state's current standing on ERPO (Red Flag) laws to understand what legal tools are available in your area if you encounter someone in a mental health crisis. Additionally, if you own firearms, transition to a biometric or rapid-access safe to ensure your home defense tools are inaccessible to unauthorized users or children.