How mass shootings in Pennsylvania and New Jersey compare to other states

Since 2014, the U.S. has seen a total of 1,927 mass shootings in which four or more people were killed or injured (excluding the perpetrator), according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Pennsylvania, which is cited as having lax gun-control laws, ranks 16th in total fatalities for its population size. New Jersey, which has among the nation’s strictest gun-safety laws, ranks just behind at 17th.

Nevada is highest because of the 2017 Las Vegas mass slaying by a gunman who killed 58 and wounded 422.

In Pennsylvania, just two cities — Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — accounted for two-thirds of the state’s mass-shooting incidents and casualties since 2014. Philadelphia alone has half of all incidents (41) and casualties (198), including 29 fatalities. Pittsburgh’s totals are not nearly as high, but because the city has a fifth of Philadelphia population, it’s mass-shooting casualty rate stands at 24.9 per 100,000 residents, twice that of Philadelphia’s. Pittsburgh also experienced Pennsylvania’s deadliest attack since 2014, last year’s massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27.

In New Jersey, more than half of the state’s mass-shooting incidents since 2014 occurred in either Newark, Trenton, or Jersey City. Trenton, a city of only 84,000 residents, totaled 62 casualties. That calculates to a extremely high rate of 73.8 casualties per 100,000 residents, 24 times higher than the statewide rate, and more than four times higher than that of Camden (16.2).

Trenton has been plagued with two incidents since last summer that injured more than 10 people. In June 2018, a neighborhood dispute escalated into a gun battle that killed one and injured 22 others at an all-night arts festival. In May, 10 people outside of a liquor store were shot when two men fired about 30 shots from a car.