Memphis Records Mass Shootings Every Year
Memphis is no stranger to mass shootings.
Though it has never seen an event on the scale of Sunday’s attack in Las Vegas (59 killed), or at the Pulse nightclub in Miami (49 killed), Sandy Hook (32 killed), or Virginia Tech (27 killed), it records several mass shooting events each year.
Four people or more are shot and/or killed (not including the shooter) in a mass shooting, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a national nonprofit organization that collects data from government and media sources.
There have been seven mass shootings in Memphis this year, according to the group. Three of those were in September. All told, four have died in mass shootings here this year; 26 have been injured.
In 2014, Memphis recorded eight mass shooting events, the most recorded here in GVA’s records. Five were killed in mass shootings that year; 33 were injured.
Memphis Records Mass Shootings Every Year (2)
The events are the ones you see on local television news or in daily newspapers, like the shooting on September 26 outside a North Memphis barbershop that left four injured. A drive by shooting here left two dead and four injured in January
The Safe Tennessee Project, a grassroots gun violence prevention organization, said Tennessee has a “gun violence problem.”
According to its numbers, the state ranks 12th in the country for death by a firearm. It is the third most dangerous state, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Memphis leads the nation in the unintentional shootings of children; Nashville ranks 10th.
The group said it was “saddened” by the mass shooting in Las Vegas and sent thoughts and prayers to victims and the injured.
“But, we know that thoughts and prayers are not nearly enough,” reads a statement from the Tennessee Safe Project. “We remain committed to fighting the gun violence plaguing our country. Doing nothing isn’t an option. It can’t be.”