(Image source from: cnbc.com)

The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University compiled a database which shows that, there were more killings in 2019 than any other year from the 1970s.

The first one was where a man killed four family members which includes his infant daughter with an axe and this occurred just 19 days after entering into the new year. Five months later, 12 people were killed in a shooting which took place in a workplace in Virginia. The incident at a Walmart in El Paso witnessed twenty two people being dead in August.

It was found that, more than 41 mass killings took place where in four or more people are killed with perpetrator being excluded. Of the 41 mass killings, 33 were mass shootings and more than 210 people were killed.

In the majority of the killings, the incidents took place involving the people knew each other as in family disputes, drug or gang violence or as anger being showed at co-worker or relatives.

The very first incident that took place in Oregon was one of the 18 mass killing which involved family members and one of the six that had no involvement of a gun. According to the AP/USA Today and Northeastern database, the second most killings prior to 2019 was 38 in 2006.

James Densley, a criminologist and professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota said that, "What makes this even more exceptional is that mass killings are going up at a time when general homicides, overall homicides, are going down.” he added saying that, “as a percentage of homicides, these mass killings are also accounting for more deaths.”

He believes that the mass shootings can be a by product of an “angry and frustrated time” and he mentioned that crime tends to go in waves with number of serial killers in the years 1970s and 1980s, school shootings in 1990s and child abductions and concerns of terrorism dominated the early 2000s.

By Shrithika Kushangi