In 77 cases out of a total of 155 reported mass shootings in the United States since 1982, the shooter(s) displayed prior signs of mental health problems. In 18 cases out of 150, there were no signs of mental health issues in the shooters.

Between 1982 and August 2025, 84 out of the 155 mass shootings in the United States were carried out by white shooters. By comparison, the perpetrator was Black in 26 mass shootings and Latino in 12. When calculated as percentages, this amounts to 54 percent, 17 percent, and eight percent, respectively. Race of mass shooters reflects the U.S. population Broadly speaking, the racial distribution of mass shootings mirrors the racial distribution of the U.S. population as a whole. While a superficial comparison of the statistics seems to suggest African American shooters are over-represented and Latino shooters underrepresented, the fact that the shooter’s race is unclear in around nine percent of cases, along with the different time frames over which these statistics are calculated, means no such conclusions should be drawn. Conversely, looking at the mass shootings in the United States by gender clearly demonstrates that the majority of mass shootings are carried out by men. Mass shootings and mental health With no clear patterns between the socio-economic or cultural background of mass shooters, increasing attention has been placed on mental health. Analysis of the factors Americans considered to be to blame for mass shootings showed 80 percent of people felt the inability of the mental health system to recognize those who pose a danger to others was a significant factor. This concern is not without merit – in over half of the mass shootings since 1982, the shooter showed prior signs of mental health issues, suggesting improved mental health services may help deal with this horrific problem. Mass shootings and guns In the wake of multiple mass shootings, critics have sought to look beyond the issues of shooter identification and their influences by focusing on their access to guns. The majority of mass shootings in the U.S. involve firearms which were obtained legally, reflecting the easy ability of Americans to purchase and carry deadly weapons in public. Gun control takes on a particular significance when the uniquely American phenomenon of school shootings is considered. The annual number of incidents involving firearms at K-12 schools in the U.S. was over 100 in each year since 2018. Conversely, similar incidents in other developed countries exceptionally rare, with only five school shootings in G7 countries other than the U.S. between 2009 and 2018.

This dataset providing for the article published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health

Included mass shootings from 2014–2019 along with shooting characteristics.

The second-deadliest workplace shooting in the United States took place in Edmond, Oklahoma in 1986 at a United States post office. There were 15 fatalities and six injuries in this shooting, and the incident inspired the American phrase “going postal.”

Workplace shootings

A mass shooting in the United States is generally defined as an incident where four or more people were injured or killed, though this can vary by source. It is sometimes difficult to identify the cause of workplace killings (also called rampage killings), although many involved disgruntled workers and some involve perpetrators with mental health problems.

Mass shootings in the United States

The vast majority of mass shootings in the United States are perpetrated by male assailants, and only four shootings have been carried out by women since 1982. Additionally, most of the weapons used in mass shootings were acquired through legal means, with only 16 incidents involving illegally obtained weapons since 1982.

In this paper, we investigate the economic consequences of mass shootings. We find that shootings have negative effects on targeted counties' economies. Estimates using three different comparison groups yield similar results. Examining the mechanisms, we find that residents of targeted areas: (i) develop pessimistic views of financial and local business conditions; and (ii) are more likely to report poor mental health, which hinders usual activities such as work, suggesting that shootings lead to decreases in productivity. Further, we find that greater national media coverage of shootings exacerbates their local economic consequences.

Objective: We test whether prejudice can influence lay attributions of mental illness to perpetrators of violence. Specifically, we examine whether people with negative attitudes towards Muslims perceive Muslim mass shooters as less mentally ill than non-Muslim shooters. Method: Study 1 compares attributions of mental illness to Muslim and non-Muslim perpetrators of recent mass shootings. Studies 2 and 3 experimentally test whether a mass shooter described in a news article is seen as less mentally ill when described as being a Muslim, compared to when described as a Christian (Study 2) and to when religion is not mentioned (Study 3). Study 4 tests whether a Muslim shooter is seen as less mentally ill than a Christian shooter, even when both shooters have symptoms of mental illness. Results: In all studies, Muslim shooters were seen as less mentally ill than non-Muslim shooters, but only by those with negative views towards Muslims. Conclusion: Those with anti-Muslim prejudices perceive Muslim mass shooters as less mentally ill, likely to maintain culpability and fit narratives about terrorism. This may reinforce anti-Muslim attitudes by leading those with anti-Muslim prejudice to overestimate the amount of violence inspired by groups like ISIS relative to extremist groups from other ideologies.

The statistic shows the results of a survey among Americans on the factors that led to the recent shootings all over the country, and how much those factors are to blame for the shootings. The survey was conducted in 2013 among adult Americans. 48 percent of the respondents said the failure of the mental health system to identify individuals who are a danger to others was to blame "a great deal" for the mass shootings.

As of June 2025, some 15 percent of Americans surveyed were of the opinion that opioids and fentanyl addiction is the number one public health threat in the U.S., a slight increase from 12 percent in February 2025. Furthermore, obesity was viewed as a top public health issue by 22 percent of Americans in June 2025.
U.S. healthcare issues The United States has the highest healthcare spending globally. The majority of Americans considered rising healthcare costs as the most important healthcare problem facing the U.S. in January 2023. While COVID-19 and cancer were ranked second on the list. Due to unfortunate mass shooting incidents in the country, gun violence is typically related to homicide and is not considered a healthcare issue. Although the most popular method of suicide among Americans who attempted it was a gun or firearm, the link between gun access and suicide is frequently ignored as a public health crisis.

In 2020, Turkey imported the most firearms into the United States. In that year, they imported 1,490,251 firearms into the U.S. Austria, Brazil, Croatia, and Sweden rounded out the top five firearm importers.

Gun market in the U.S.

In 2020, over 6.83 million firearms were imported into the United States, the majority of which were handguns, followed closely by shotguns. While the number of imported firearms is significant, it pales in comparison to the number of firearms manufactured in the United States. This figure hovered about three million in 1986, and remained relatively steady until 2007, when it began increasing swiftly. The number of firearms manufactured in the U.S. hit a peak in 2016, with about 11.5 million, and in 2019 stood at around seven million.

Gun control laws in the U.S.

Due to the recent increase of mass shootings in the United States, there has been an increased push in Congress to pass stricter gun control laws. The United States faces a high amount of mass shootings each year and Democrats are calling for more background checks and mental health checks. However, the two party system in the U.S. has caused a huge divide on this issue, resulting in a lack of legislation being passed.