US mass killings drop to 20-year low in 2025: Database

According to a database that records these incidents, the United States has experienced the lowest number of mass killings in 2025 in 20 years.

The Associated Press, which maintains the database alongside USA Today and Northeastern University, reported on Tuesday that a recent shooting at a family gathering in Stockton, California, left four people dead. This was the 17th mass killing this year.

That figure is down nearly 59 percent from the previous year, when a record number of mass killings took place, even though it may still rise in December.

Mass killings, defined as incidents where four or more people intentionally killed themselves within a 24-hour period, without including any offender, are tracked by the database using police and FBI reports, media articles, and court records.

Regression to the mean

The database’s manager, a criminologist at Northeastern University, James Alan Fox, reported to AP that the database’s tally for 2025 had decreased by about 24 percent from that of 2024, which in turn had decreased by about 20 percent from 2023.

He claimed that the decline in crime rates was most likely a result of a “regression to the mean” — a return to more typical crime levels after an unusually high prior year.

“Will 2026 see a decline”? Fox stated. “I wouldn’t bet on it,” he said.

The figures may be volatile because the database tracked a rare phenomenon, according to Metropolitan State University professor James Densley.

A small change could appear like a wave or a collapse because there are only a few dozen mass killings per year, he claimed, when it was actually a return to more typical levels.

“2025 looks really good in historical context, but that doesn’t mean the issue is over,” said one analyst.

improved response times for mass casualties

However, he said that some factors may be causing the decline, such as a decline in violent and homicide crimes, which reached their highest level during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He claimed that improvements to the response to mass casualty incidents may also be a factor.

He cited a shooting that occurred in August while attending a mass at a Minnesota school, which would not have been documented because there were only two fatalities.

According to him, “the only deaths that were caused by the first responders’ bleeding control and trauma response” and that the fact that the shooting “surfered at some of the best children’s hospitals in the country” also contributed.

While there are no longer any gun violence and associated deaths in the US, according to Eric Madfis, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Washington-Tacoma, “we still have incredibly high rates and numbers of mass shootings compared to anywhere else in the world.”

In the US, firearms were involved in about 82 percent of all mass murders in 2025.