A Comprehensive Assessment of Deadly Mass Shootings, 1980-2018, United States

As deadly mass shootings constitute a pressing concern for Americans, the database was created to assess features and trends in all deadly mass shootings in America between 1980 and 2018. In these data, mass shootings encompass all incidents with four or more gunshot fatalities, not including the shooter, within 24 hours. Open source media reports as well as official police and court records were used to code and verify details of mass shooting incidents. The data include information on public deadly mass shooting incidents, as well as all the other deadly mass shootings that occurred over this period (e.g., those that happened in private spaces among family members, and those that occurred in public spaces but were part of another criminal event). In all, the database contains information on 719 incidents that occurred in both public and private spaces between 1980 and 2018.