It might feel like we wake up to a new mass shooting every day. And in a way, we do.
According to massshootingtracker.org, there have been 377 mass shootings in 2017. We’ve only had 309 days so far.
On Sunday, Devin Patrick Kelley killed 26 people at a First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX.
The shooting was the fifth deadliest shooting in modern history. Even more telling is the fact that all of the deadliest shootings in modern history have all occurred within the past five years. As the president, congressmen and senators send the same “thoughts and prayers” tweets in the wake of each shooting, there has been little, if any, comprehensive change to gun control laws. And the GOP continues to ignore gun violence for their own interest, calling for more guns and attributing this clear domestic terrorism as a “mental health issue.”
Take a look at the five deadliest shootings in modern U.S. history.
On November 5, 2017, 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire on the congregants of the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. In all, 26 people ranging in ages from 18 months to 72 years old were killed in the shooting.
AP
Adam Lanza killed his mother on the morning of December 12, 2012 at their Newton, Connecticut home before he drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School. Some time after 9:35 a.m., Lanza shot his way through the locked entrance doors of the school. The last shot was fired at 9:40 a.m., when Lanza killed himself. In those five minutes, Lanza murdered 20 children, along with six adults. In the aftermath of the shooting, President Obama pushed for mandatory background checks, but Republicans and the NRA blocked any comprehensive change to gun control laws.
EMMANUEL DUNAND/Getty Images
On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho began his rampage at Virginia Tech at one of the university’s coed dormitories. He killed two people at the dorm. Two hours later, 911 received a round of calls about a second shooting in classrooms at the engineering science and mechanics building, Norris Hall. In total, 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech. Cho committed suicide before being captured by police.
MANNIE GARCIA/Getty Images
On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, 29, entered Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida and fired more than 200 rounds into the crowded club. The popular gay nightclub was hosting Latin night and most of the 49 people killed and 58 wounded were Latinos. The shooting is the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT people in U.S history. Mateen was killed by the Orlando Police Department after a three-hour standoff.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
While concertgoers were enjoying the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock shot out the window of his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, firing hundreds of rounds into the crowd. When the shooting stopped, 59 people were dead with hundreds injured. Paddock turned the gun on himself an hour after the first shots were fired. This is the deadliest mass shooting in modern history by an individual gunman. As with several mass shootings, Paddock’s motive remains unknown.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images