Gun Violence and Public Safety

According to the AP–USA Today–Northeastern database, the U.S. has recorded 17 mass killings so far in 2025 — the fewest since the tracking began in 2006 — with 14 of those incidents involving firearms and roughly two‑thirds of mass killings occurring in or around private homes. Experts say the decline likely reflects a regression to the mean after 2018–19 spikes rather than a durable safety trend, note that none of 2025’s cases were at schools, and point to factors such as improved trauma response and new school threat‑assessment laws in 22 states (as well as parallel declines in mass‑shooting counts tracked by the Gun Violence Archive) as possible contributors.