More mass shootings than days of the year in the United States: 37 reported so far in 2023

In the first month of 2023, mass shootings in the United States have exceeded the number of days that have elapsed so far this year.

, according to the count of the organization The Gun Violence Archive.

In the past 48 hours alone, 18 people have been killed in California: 11 in a massacre at a dance hall in Monterey Park and another seven in two shootings in the city of Half Moon Bay.

According to The Gun Violence Archive, the attacks have happened in public places, at workplaces, meetings, due to conflict between gangs and two family massacres.

The Half Moon Bay event is the sixth mass murder, according to the nonprofit organization's tally.

Until January 23, he revealed, 1,173 deaths and 2,063 wounded by firearms were reported.

At least 119 minors have died from this type of violence.

The scene of a shooting on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, in Half Moon Bay, California. Jeff Chiu / AP

The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people are killed or injured.

By this time, in 2022, 25 mass shootings were reported.

At the end of the year, the count reached 647 compared to the 273 that occurred in 2014.

According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research project, in the United States there are 120 guns for every 100 people.

In the first days of 2023, several fatal incidents were already being reported.

In Utah, eight people from the same family, five of them minors, were found dead with gunshot wounds in a Cedar City home on January 4.

Two days later, 10 people were injured in a shooting at a restaurant in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Monterey Park Mayor Henry Lo kneels at a makeshift memorial outside the scene of a California dance hall massacre. Mario Tama / Getty Images

The Mass Shooting Tracker, another organization that tracks these types of armed attacks, even publishes a higher number of mass shootings: 45 so far in 2023. The difference is how they are counted.

By their definition, they report the number of people shot rather than the number of people killed in these incidents.

The deadly statistics for January come after the entry into force in 2022 of a law that strengthens gun control.

Qualified by the Government as "the most significant in 30 years to reduce armed violence", the regulations toughen the requirements for young people to buy weapons;

they are prohibited to abusers;

and help local authorities to take them away from those who may be considered dangerous.