A Guide to Understanding Mass Shootings in America

A gun rampage in El Paso, Texas was followed hours later by another in Dayton, Ohio. Here's the essential context for the latest examples of a deadly phenomenon.

A nation still processing the news of the latest mass shooting. The first incident occurred Saturday morning, August 3, in El Paso, Texas, where at least 20 people were fatally shot at a Walmart in a busy shopping center. Another 26 people were injured and a suspect is in custody.

Thirteen hours later, nine people were shot and killed and 16 others were wounded in downtown Dayton, Ohio, according to preliminary reports from the local police. The rampages come one weekend after 15 people were shot, three of them fatally, at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Northern California, and another 12 people were shot, one of them fatally, at a block party in Brooklyn, New York.

Here’s the big picture on mass shootings in America, and how they fit into our country’s epidemic of gun violence.

Read full article published by independent, nonprofit news organization The Trace.