If we look from September 2004 all the way back to 1900 (104 years), as the Washington Post lays out, there were 118 mass shootings. That breaks down to 1.13 mass shooting incidents per year, on average, from 1900 to 2004. In the eight years since the Assault Weapons Ban has expired, there have been 28 mass shooting events. That equals an average of 3.5 a year—an increase of over 200 percent. That is a startling jump, by any measure. If we further break down the years both Mother Jones and the Washington Post use, the statistics remain similar. From 1982 to 1994 (12 years), there were 19 shootings, an average of 1.5 shootings a year. From September 1994 to September 2004—the duration of the Assault Weapons Ban—there were 15 mass shootings over 10 years; again, an average of 1.5 a year. While some will point out that the ban did not reduce the number of shootings, on average, it is important to bear in mind that the ten-year period of the ban is a small sample size. There were five incidents in 1999 alone; the Columbine Massacre occurred in April 1999, and four other mass shooting incidents followed soon after. There is evidence that events like Columbine can inspire other mass shootings, so without Columbine and the following “copy-cat” events, the number of shooting incidents during the Assault Weapons Ban would have been significantly lower. What is an undeniable truth is that we have seen an incredible uptick of mass shootings since the ban expired on September 14, 2004.
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