Active shooters targeting the public spiked from 2019 to 2023 compared to prior 5-year period, FBI report says

Washington — Active shooters violently targeted members of the public across the U.S. at a rate that was 89% higher from 2019 to 2023 than in the previous five-year period, according to a new FBI report released Monday. Last year, 105 individuals were killed during active shootings, the highest level in recent years. 

The public safety numbers released Monday by federal investigators showed a mix of slight year-over-year improvements in some areas of concern across the country — including a 4% decrease in active shootings in 2023 compared to 2022 — and small drops in other metrics, like total casualties and "mass killing" events.

The report  — which by design examined just a portion of the broader incidents of gun violence nationwide — reveals a consistent trend in which shootings targeting members of the public remain historically high, an increase of 60% since 2019. Forty-eight active shooter incidents targeted, killed or injured people in 26 states during 2023, down from 50 in 2022. Among those attacks,15 met the federal definition of a "mass killing," in which three or more victims are killed during an attack. That's up from 13 in 2022.