In 2021, the United States saw a jump in active shooter incidents.

The FBI announced it designated 61 shootings as active shooter incidents in 2021, a 50% increase from the year prior. In these incidents, 103 people were killed and 140 wounded, excluding the shooters.

According to the FBI’s 2021 report on Active Shooter Incidents in the United States, active shooter incident data from 2017 to 2021 revealed an upward trend. The number of active shooter incidents identified in 2021 represents a 52.5% increase from 2020 and a 96.8% increase from 2017.

Casualties

According to the report, casualty counts are higher for 2021 (243) when compared with 2020 (164), indicating a 48% increase. The casualties in 2021 represent the third-highest total casualty count over the last five years (2017–2021).

2021 saw the highest number of deaths (103) since 2017, a 171.1% increase from 2020 and above the average (92.3) from 2017–2020. The report also reveals there was an 11.1% increase in people wounded (140) in 2021 compared with 2020 (126), but below the average (253) for the period 2017–2020.  

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Trends

The FBI’s report identifies of the 61 active shootings in 2021 — sixty shooters were male, and one was female, individual shooters carried out all the incidents, and the age range of the shooters was 12 years old to 67 years old. Two shooters wore body armor. Thirty shooters were apprehended by law enforcement, 14 shooters were killed by law enforcement, four shooters were killed by armed citizens, one shooter was killed in a vehicle accident during a law enforcement pursuit, 11 shooters committed suicide, and one shooter remains at large.