2023 mass shootings: 39 shootings in three weeks 

Only three weeks into the new year and there have been 39 mass shootings across the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive. 

The group classifies a mass shooting as any armed attack in which at least four people are injured or killed, not including the attacker. Most of the shootings this year have taken place in the South, including Texas, Florida, and Louisiana, the organization added. 

On Monday, alone several mass shootings took place. At least seven people were killed and several others were injured in two shootings in Half Moon Bay, California, near San Francisco. The same day, one person was killed and seven others were injured in another mass shooting in Oakland. 

Also on Monday, 11 people were killed during a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, during a Lunar New Year celebration, making it the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. in 2023. 

“A time of a cultural celebration … and yet another community has been torn apart by senseless gun violence,” Vice President Kamala Harris told a crowd in Tallahassee, Florida, on Sunday. “All of us in this room and in our country understand this violence must stop.”

On January 4, eight people, including five children, were found shot to death by police while they were conducting a welfare check. 

Gun violence in general has been on the rise in the United States with 1,214 people being killed so far this year from gunshots, including 120 children. The figure is expected to increase by thousands and even surpass the 2022 figure of 20,200 gun-related deaths. 

The Gun Violence Archive counted 647 mass shootings in 2022, 21 of which involved five or more fatalities. Similarly, the group recorded 690 mass shootings in 2021, with 28 involving four or more fatalities.