FBI Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2023
Now that we've all had a little time to digest the FBI's 2023 annual report of active shooter incidents, I want to share a few observations based on my two decades’ view of these numbers. First and foremost, this is the second year in a row that we've seen a decrease in the number of incidents, though firearms deaths continue to rise.
That’s good news, given that those numbers were on a steady rise dating back to the year 2000.
Despite the depressing nature of the subject, this is a particularly helpful report because the FBI is providing us with a consistent look at these types of public shootings and we know all the data is accurate. As they note on the first page of their report, there is "no mandated database collection or central intake point for reporting active shooter incidents, as there is for other crimes.”
A caveat. Though many would like to see other types of crimes included in the FBI report, such as assaults with other weapons, shooter details, or anytime a gun is discharged on school grounds, take the time to read the methodology and note they seek to capture a particular type of public crime, where a shooter is actively seeking to kill people in a crowded area. I wrote an article about the varying ways we can count shootings here: “Differing data on school shooting casualties since 2013, were there 188 or 1,229?” None of the ways are bad, they are just different.
So back to this report. Using its same methodology, FBI researchers found a decrease from 61 incidents in 2022, to 48 this past year. That's a 21% decrease in two years. The numbers are still higher than in the past decade, but they are moving in the right direction. I attribute that to stronger threat assessment teams, social awareness about warning signs, and better-prepared police and civilians.
If you’re a community leader, security professional, school admin, or law enforcement officer, be sure to review the detailed data on the location of incidents, time of day, weapon used, and response time. This will help you write or amend your current emergency action plan. This would also be a good time to review one of my favorite reference documents A Study of Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters in the United States easily accessible on my web page.
Though active shooters make up a very small portion of firearms violence in the United States, every reduction we see, and every piece of data, informs other ways to reduce this kind of violence.
Other data points to consider:
22% decrease in casualties from 313 to 244 compared to the year prior
35% decrease in those wounded from 213 to 139
The shootings in Lewiston, Maine, where 31 were killed, is an example of how one event can impact percentages and skew the view of a year’s incidents
Two law enforcement officers were killed and 11 wounded in the 48 shootings
All but one shooter was identified as male
Shooter ages ranged from 17 to 72
12 shooters were killed by law enforcement, but no shooters were killed by civilians
There’s so much more. Take a read.
