What do you call a 4th of July when there are five mass shootings? …Yesterday …and just another July day in America. If it seems like there are a lot of mass shootings in July, that’s because there are. There is a seasonality to mass shootings in the U.S. and summer is the busiest season of the year. A mass shooting is defined as four or more persons shot in one incident, at one location, at roughly the same time.
America loves guns. We have a higher ownership of guns than any other country in the world. There are 120 firearms for every 100 American citizens; the next closest country is Yemen with 53 guns per 100 citizens. One out of three American adults own a gun and 42% of households have a gun. 
Interestingly, the percentage of Americans who own guns has been falling over the past several decades, even as the total number of guns has increased dramatically. This has been attributed to a rising number of “super owners” who posses 10 or more guns. We have 4% of the world’s population but U.S. civilians own 40% of the world’s firearms. Thus, it is not surprising that guns are our method of choice for both homicides and suicides. However, despite the fall in the percentage of Americans who own guns, the annual number of mass shootings continues to increase.
The Gun Violence Archive keeps a list of all mass shootings in the past 3 years and by analyzing their data, we can determine when mass shootings are most likely to occur and where they are most likely to occur. For the past 3 years, July has been the peak month for mass shootings with a total of 264. December had the lowest number of mass shootings at 95.
The number of people injured during mass shootings follows a similar trend. Over the three year period, there were 1,169 mass shooting injuries in July and only 349 injuries in December.
July was not the peak month for mass shooting deaths, however. That honor went to May with 228 deaths; July came in second with 215 deaths. However, the unusually high number of deaths in May is due to the large number of fatalities from shootings in Buffalo, NY (May 14, 2022; 10 deaths) and Uvalde, TX (May 24, 2022; 21 deaths).
Certain states are more dangerous than others when it comes to mass shootings. Over the past three years, Illinois has led the country with 199 mass shootings, followed by Texas with 152, California with 139, Pennsylvania with 108, and Florida with 100. Several states had no mass shootings in the past three years including Montana, Wyoming, Vermont, and North Dakota,
Mass shootings get a lot of public attention and are the focal point for calls for gun control. However, mass shootings are actually a relatively uncommon way to die from a gun. In 2022, there were a total of 44,357 deaths in the U.S. caused by guns. Of those, 24,090 (54%) were suicides and 20,267 (46%) were homicides. Only 1.5% of gun deaths were from mass shootings or mass murder. Indeed, there were more than twice as many unintentional shootings (accidental shootings) than mass shooting deaths.
CDC data from 2021 shows that the states with the most gun deaths from all causes are Texas (4,613), California (3,576), Florida (3,142), Georgia (2,200), and Illinois (1,195). On the other hand, three states had fewer than 100 gun deaths in 2021: Rhode Island (64), Hawaii (71), and Vermont (83). But total numbers alone can be misleading since states with larger populations would be expected to have more deaths from any cause, including guns. So, the rate of gun deaths per 100,000 population is more meaningful and is shown in the map below.
States with the highest rates of gun deaths per 100,000 are Mississippi (33.9), Louisiana (29.1), New Mexico (27.8), Alabama (26.4), and Wyoming (26.1). At the other end of the spectrum, states with the lowest rates of gun deaths in 2021 were Massachusetts (3.4), Hawaii (4.6), New Jersey (5.2), New York (5.4), and Rhode Island (5.6).
What should hospitals do to prepare?
For our country’s emergency departments and trauma surgeons, gunshot injuries and deaths are all too routine. But large numbers of gun casualties from mass shootings are infrequent. Nevertheless, they can occur anywhere at anytime. Mass shootings have been steadily increasing over the past 50 years and so it is incumbent on our hospitals to be prepared to manage mass casualties from gun violence.
Hospitals are required to do two disaster drills every year. Each disaster drill encompasses different scenarios, such as a bus crash, an infection outbreak, or a tornado. Several years ago, our community also did a mass shooting disaster drill. This was incredibly helpful to make us think about how we get enough units of blood, how we would triage a large number of patients with penetrating trauma, emergent expansion of the operating rooms, and which physicians can supplement the emergency medicine physicians and trauma surgeons. Every hospital should include a mass shooting drill every 4-5 years. Considerations should include:
- How quickly can off-duty emergency room doctors be brought in and how will you contact them? This requires having a list of phone numbers of all ER physicians in a readily accessible location.
- How can you increase the number of nurses in the ER on short notice? This may require calling in off-duty nurses and re-deploying nurses from other hospital locations.
- How many trauma surgeons and general surgeons can you mobilize? This requires having a plan in place for calling in off-duty surgeons. In an emergency, other surgeons may be able to operate on trauma patients or at least assist, including plastic surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, vascular surgeons, and surgical residents.
- How will you clear out the operating rooms to accommodate a large number of emergency trauma cases? Elective cases may need to be canceled or delayed.
- How will you mobilize additional anesthesiologists and OR nurses? Tactics can include calling off-duty staff in from home, using anesthesia residents, and CRNAs.
- How can you re-deploy other physicians to supplement the emergency room physicians on short notice? Hospitalists can often be used to care for the non-trauma patients in the ER.
- How quickly can your blood bank acquire additional units of blood? In the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, more than 500 units of blood were used.
- How will you track patients? Victims may not have identification or be alert enough to provide identifying information.
- How will your medical records department manage a large number of unidentified patients? This requires a system to provide multiple temporary patient medical record numbers until patient identification can be confirmed.
- How will your hospital disaster command center operate and who will fill each command center role? It is best to rotate who will fill each role during different disaster drills because when a disaster actually happens, not every hospital leader will be in town or otherwise available.
- How will you manage press communication, family reunification, and morgue demands? All of these can contribute to the chaos attendant to a true disaster. By having plans in place, chaos can be minimized.
- How will you transport patients to other hospitals once you reach trauma capacity? A disaster, such as a mass shooting, requires a community-wide response. All regional hospitals need to coordinate in order to take optimal advantage of each hospital’s available resources.
- How can the community be better prepared to provide pre-hospital care? The Stop The Bleed program is a great resource for community education and can result in a higher percentage of casualties arriving in the emergency department alive.
Situational awareness and preparation
The keys to surviving a mass shooting are situational awareness and preparation. It is up to every American to maintain situational awareness and to teach it to our children. Sometimes, there are warning signs before mass shootings take place: someone carrying a gun where a gun is not necessary; someone making verbal or physical threats; drug deals; or the presence of rival gang members. It is unfortunate but necessary that we always know where exits are and be willing to leave an area when warning signs occur.
For the average citizen, being prepared means familiarity with the Run, Hide, Fight strategy recommended by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For hospitals, being prepared means rehearsing how a large number of shooting victims would be managed in an emergent situation. Once rare, mass shootings are now a way of everyday life in the United States. Our hospitals can do their part to minimize the number of fatalities when mass shootings do occur.
July 5, 2023
