At least four people were killed in a mass shooting in Alabama on Saturday (April 15).
A further 28 people were injured at Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio in the city of Dadeville, where a 16th birthday party was taking place.
High school student Phil Dowdell has been named as one of the victims, but no information about the suspected shooter has been revealed at the time of writing.
Gun-related injuries are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and injuries every year in the US.
There have been 163 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the independent group Gun Violence Archive.
We’ve highlighted key figures and statistics around gun violence in the US below.
US gun violence facts and statistics
- In 2020, guns became the leading cause of death among teenagers and children in the US. More than 4,300 children and teenagers died of firearm-related injuries in that year. This was compared with the second-leading cause of death, car accidents, which killed around 3,900 young people.
- More than 45,000 people died of gun-related injuries in the US in 2020, more than any year before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some 43 per cent of these deaths were homicides.
- Around 1.5 million people have died from gun-related injuries in the US between 1968 and 2017. This is higher than the number of soldiers killed in every US conflict since the War of Independence in 1775.
- The US has the highest ratio of firearms per capita, with 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, up from 88 per cent to 100 per cent in 2011.
- In the US, 79 per cent of murders involve a gun, compared with 37 per cent in Canada, 13 per cent in Australia, and four per cent in the UK.
- There have been at least 28 school shootings in the US this year so far, compared with 34 in 2021, according to Education Week.
- There were 646 mass shootings 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which also states that more than 300 children (aged 11 and under) and more than 1,300 teenagers were killed last year.
- More than 12,000 people have been killed in gun violence so far in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The number of children aged 11 and under killed is 59, while there were 343 teenage (age 12-17) fatalities.
