A partial list of mass shootings in Europe, Canada, and Australia since 2000

[Recursion]

Last edited Sun Dec 6, 2015, 04:56 AM - Edit history (1)

Since from what I can tell nobody seems to have heard of them. This does not include Russia (which has a significantly higher firearms death rate than the US anyways), nor does it include mass-casualty events that didn't involve firearms (mass stabbings and vehicular mass murder seem to be a European thing too, and obviously bombings have a long history in Europe). I've also left out ETA assassinations during their low-level guerrilla war in the 2000's, though I've included the one IRA mass shooting in the period. (On edit, I also figured the recent Paris attacks went without saying.)

Europe:

French railroad worker goes on rampage: kills 4, wounds 10.

Mentally ill alcoholic Swiss man shoots up canton parliament in Zug, killing 14 and wounding 18.

Italian man angry over eviction starts shooting at random into the street, killing four and wounding 8.

Mentally ill French man opens fire on the city council of Nanterre, killing 9 including himself and wounding 19.

Mentally ill Serbian man opens fire on the street in Jabukovac after a fight with his wife (and after jumping down a well and being rescued), killing 9 and wounding 4.

Bosnian man kills his neighbors and then boards a bus in Lipnica, killing 6 total.

A woman in Loerrach, Germany, kills her husband during a custody dispute then goes on a shooting and stabbing spree in a hospital, killing 3 and wounding 18.

A recently graduated German student returns to his high school in Albertville, Germany and opened fire, ultimately killing 16 and wounding 9.

A Slovakian man opens fire in Bratislava, killing 9 and wounding 8.

A British taxi driver kills 12 and wounds 11 in Cumbria.

A Serbian man goes on a shooting spree in the village of Velika Ivanca, killing 14.

A Czech man opens fire in a restaurant, killing 9.

A Slovakian man opens fire in an apartment complex, killing 8 and wounding 15.

A Belgian man opens fire (and throws grenades) at the town square in Liege, killing 7 and wounding 125.

On the same day, a right-wing Italian extremist shoots up a Senegalese marketplace in Florence, killing 3 and wounding 3.

A mentally ill Dutch firearms enthusiast opens fire on a shopping mall, killing 7 and wounding 17.

An Islamist in Frankfurt opens fire at US military personnel transferring in the airport, killing 2 and wounding 2.

A recent graduate returns to his high school in Emsdetten, Germany, and opens fire, wounding 22.

A student expelled from high school in Erfurt, Germany, returns to the school and opens fire, killing 17.

An Islamic extremist opens fire at an "art, freedom, and blasphemy" festival in Copenhagen, killing 3 and wounding 5.

An 18 year old Finn opens fire in Hyvinkaa, killing 2 and wounding 8.

A Finnish high school student goes to his school and opens fire, killing 9 and wounding 13.

A Finnish college student shoots up his campus, killing 11 and wounding 11.

A Finnish man kills his girlfriend after alleging her infidelity, then randomly shoots up a shopping mall, killing an additional 4 people and himself (for 6 total).

A still-unknown man shoots and kills 4 at a rest stop in Annecy, France (this may well have been a hit, with 3 of the people just in the wrong place at the wrong time).

A backpacker shoots up a traveller camp in Roye, France, killing 4 and wounding 4.

A gunman opens fire in Istres, France, killing 3.

A possibly Islamist Algerian (or possibly nationalist, or possibly just crazy) open fire targeting French military personnel and gensd'armes in Toulouse and then Montauban, killing 8 and wounding 5.

Irish Republican paramilitaries in "The Real IRA" open fire on a barracks in Antrim Town, killing 2 and wounding 4 in a (thankfully unsuccessful) attempt to derail the peace process.

A Swedish right-wing extremist shoots dark-skinned people in Malmo over the course of several months (comparisons were made to the "Beltway Sniper" MO).

A disgruntled British bouncer and tree surgeon kills 2 and wounds 2 in a shooting spree in Northumbria.

A Norwegian white supremacist shoots 67 children at a political camp after killing 8 with a bomb in Oslo.

An Italian security guard goes on a rampage in Turin, killing 8 including himself.

Canada:

A mentally ill New Brunswicker shoots police in Moncton, killing 3 and wounding 2.

A Quebecois convert to Islam opens fire on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, killing 2 and wounding 3.

A man with a history of domestic violence shoots and killed 8 members of his family and then himself in Edmonton.

An Indo-Canadian college student goes to his college in Montreal and opens fire, killing 2 and wounding 19.

Australia:

A mentally ill college student opens fire on his campus, killing 2 and wounding 5.

A mentally ill man shoots his neighbors, whom he suspected of poisoning his dog, and barricaded himself in his house until arrested after a siege: in total 3 died and 3 were injured.

Islamist extremists hold hostages in Sydney; in all 3 are killed and 4 are injured.

[thereismore]

1. Sure, that happens. Do they have one every day? Your list begins in Y2K. nt

[Recursion]

3. Yeah, I picked 2000 as an arbitrary starting point; like in the US the 90s were worse

Both the US and Europe were much more violent in the 1990s than in the 2000s and 2010s; so much so that multiple people getting shot often didn't get much media attention.

[VanillaRhapsody]

12. Were we having mass shootings faily?

I think not....nice try no cigar.

[Recursion]

15. Oh my God yes. Do you remember the 1990s?

Seriously. Go to the NYT or LA Times or Washington Post archives and look at the police blotter in 1991 or 1992. Literally every day there would be multiple mass shootings. But, black and Latino victims (even today) don't get much press.

[VanillaRhapsody]

30. As a matter of fact I do.....

18,000 a year? I think not....

[Recursion]

36. Again, "Oh my God yes". There were more gun murders in 1991 than in 2015

There were about 17,000 gun murders in the US in 1993; the total murder rate by all causes (not just guns) in 2015 looks to be about 14,000, and that's in the context of a much larger population (so the rate is significantly lower than in 1993).

[VanillaRhapsody]

41. So yeah increasing.....and more than THE most violent years

You proposed....

[Recursion]

45. 17,000 in 1993 vs. about 10,000 in 2015 is an "increase"?

Umm...

In 1993, the US population was 250 million, and there were 17,000 gun murders.

In 2015, the US population is 318 million, and there will end up being about 10,000 gun murders.

And you're saying that's an increase in gun violence?

[Rex]

2. How sobering, that is nothing compared to America. Thanks for showing us that.

Wow. We do have a problem.

[Recursion]

6. Remember this doesn't include most domestic multiple murders, nor crime-related murders

Just like in the US, most multiple murders don't make the news if they're considered "normal" (family dispute, crime organization dispute, etc.)

But, yeah, we do seem to have a higher rate of random mass shootings than most European countries except maybe Finland and Germany.

[uppityperson]

4. You missed a big one

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/13/world/paris-shooting/

[Recursion]

7. I figured that one went without saying (nt)

[MohRokTah]

5. The oddest thing about mass gun murders in America is, as the number of mass shootings increase...

the number of total murders with guns decreases.

It's a fascinating dynamic because overall, fewer and fewer people are being murdered with guns, but the visibility of murders with guns increase due to the nature of media reporting on mass shootings.

[Recursion]

20. I'm not convinced the number of mass shootings increased.

Somebody below posted a list of the 340 in the US this year; most of those are not the random spree killings everybody freaks out about but the much more common people caught in crossfire of some dispute scenario. That happened a lot in the 1990s, but doesn't seem to bother people like a nut shooting up a shopping mall does.

The Mother Jones study that showed them increasing made a point of not considering incidents involving domestic violence, interpersonal conflict, or another crime -- but that's most mass shootings.

[951-Riverside]

8. Now compare those 40 incidents since 2000 to the 309 mass shootings we've had in this country...

in 2015 alone

http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/mass-shooting

Is there a point you're trying to make here?

[Recursion]

9. If you want to make that comparison you'll have to find all the other European mass shootings

These are the ones that made international headlines. Just like in the US there are domestic and crime-related multiple shootings that never make the papers except locally (boyfriend kills girlfriend, child, and himself; drug dealer shoots three informants; etc.). If you want to do that comparison, go for it; since the US has a higher gun death rate than non-Russian Europe, I'm fairly confident the US will have more mass shootings in total. But it's not remotely a uniquely American thing.

[951-Riverside]

10. 40 mass shootings in 15 years vs. 309 mass shooting in one year ...hmmmmmmm

[Recursion]

11. 40 is only the ones that were famous. It's not a difficult point to understand.

How many of the 309 in the US have you even heard of? There were many more killings of multiple people by firearm in Europe during this period than these 40; these were the "random" ones that captured media attention.

How many additional mass shootings not on that list would I have to find before you admit your point isn't a good one? Pick a number.

[VanillaRhapsody]

13. How can anyone keep up?

Its a new one daily....apparently that's a difficult concept for you to understand?

[Rex]

14. Poor OP, their thread is not going the way the planned for it to.

And now they have to double down...sad really.

[Recursion]

18. Where would a thread be without Rex's misplaced smugness?

I'd never know I'd hit a nerve without it, thanks man!

[VanillaRhapsody]

23. Vey sad.....in fact pathetic....

[Rex]

69. Must be a slow day.

Too bad his facts backfired. Not really.

[Recursion]

16. There are firearms deaths in Europe every day

Some of those are multiple deaths. Every European country is smaller than the US (the EU as a whole is about half again the size of the US, though).

The US's firearms death rate is signficantly higher than the EU's, it's silly to think I'm saying otherwise. But the phenomenon of multiple people being shot at once definitely happens in the EU.

[VanillaRhapsody]

24. 18,000 a year in the U.S.......can EU beat that?

[Recursion]

31. They definitely beat it by having a lower firearms death rate than we do, signficantly

I have no idea what strawman you're trying to burn down. Europe is a much less violent place than the US.

[VanillaRhapsody]

34. Trying show you how ridiculoius your premise is....

You just do not seem to grok....

No amount of death and destruction is enough for you...

[Recursion]

40. OK, tell me what you think my premise is?

My premise is that random mass spree shootings are a really stupid driver for the discussion on gun politics, because we have about as many of them as Europe does (per Mother Jones we've had 44 since 2000). Where we do much, much worse than Europe is "normal" gun murders, and gun suicides.

[Thinkingabout]

17. Sometimes two in a day.

[951-Riverside]

19. Face it the numbers you presented do not look good

Yeah I get that you're trying to say that mass shootings happen in other countries too but you gave me 40 incidents in multiple countries in 15 years and I gave you 309 mass shooting incidents in one year in one country.

I don't know what you're trying to argue here but the numbers you presented does not bode well in your favor. By the way, we had 281 mass shootings in 2014 so that we've had a total of 590 between 2014 and 2015.

[Recursion]

21. You seem to think I'm trying to argue that Europe is as violent as the US

That would be a weird thing to argue.

I'm pushing back against the narrative that "this only happens in the US".

The larger narrative, that random mass shootings are the main driver of violence, would be equally wrong in either the US or Europe (and even most mass shootings are not "random", just the ones that get media attention), but unfortunately they are what drive our conversation on gun policy.

[951-Riverside]

33. Re: "I'm pushing back against the narrative that "this only happens in the US". "

You're doing a really poor job at it in my opinion. 40 mass shootings in 15 years vs 590 shootings in 2 years don't look good no matter how you try to slice it.

If you're going to do push back against the narrative that it only happens in the US you're better off using numbers from places like Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

[Recursion]

37. The comparable number is 73 in the US since 1982, per Mother Jones

That's random mass spree shootings.

So actually we're doing pretty comparably to Europe in terms of random mass spree shootings, which is why that shouldn't be what drives our discussion of gun laws. Our much higher rate of "normal" gun murders and suicides should be doing that.

[951-Riverside]

43. Except the writer (for whatever reason) excluded "robbery, gang violence or domestic abuse"...

How he was able to determine which was which is beyond me and he certainly has not said how he came up with those numbers or provided us with the data that he excluded from the study but yeah if you want to make yourself believe that Europe, Canada and Australia has had more mass shootings in 15 years than we've had in 33 years ...more power to ya and keep oiling those gerns.

[Recursion]

46. So did I, in this list of 40

but yeah if you want to make yourself believe that Europe, Canada and Australia has had more mass shootings in 15 years than we've had in 33 years

Umm... unlike you (apparently) I know that 73 is greater than 40, not less than.

Our numbers of random mass spree shootings since 2000 have been roughly comparable; the US's is slightly higher.

Where we do much, much worse than Europe is one guy shooting someone he knows. Not "guy goes into a mall and shoots people he's never met". But the latter is the only thing that gets people talking about gun policy, unfortunately.

[951-Riverside]

57. "I know that 73 is greater than 40, not less than." ...you're not very good at math

Because you're trying to assert the we've only had 73 mass shootings (which is a joke IMO) between 1982 and 2015 (33 years) but Europe, Canada, etc has had 40 between 2000 and 2015 (15 years).

So do the math.

73 / 33 (years) = around 2.2 mass shootings a year
40 / 15 (years) = around 2.6 mass shootings a year

[Recursion]

60. Ah, rate, yes; I agree

I read that as saying absolute numbers; sorry.

But, yes, Europe's spree-shooting rate is slightly higher than ours, though when you account for population we still probably come out with a higher rate per capita, since we're smaller than Europe as a whole.

[Kang Colby]

22. There have been approximately 73 mass shootings in the U.S. since 1982.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/opinion/how-many-mass-shootings-are-there-really.html


I realize folks like to claim that there have been 300+ this year alone, but that's a crock being pushed by gun control special interest groups.

[Recursion]

26. I was curious if anybody was going to point out the Mother Jones numbers (nt)

[VanillaRhapsody]

27. How about 18,000 a year....

Can EU match that?

[Kang Colby]

35. What's 18000 per year?

In the U.S. each year, approximately 10,000 people are murdered using a firearm. Now, I'm not making light of injuries or death, I think those numbers should be lower. But it's well known that gun control special interest groups inflate negative statistics about private firearm ownership to help bolster support for their political crusade.

[VanillaRhapsody]

44. Gun deaths....a year.....can EU compete with that?

We are the champions. ..yeah...

[Recursion]

53. US has about 30,000 gun deaths a year; 10,000 homicides and 20,000 suicides

It fluctuates a little up and down but it's held pretty constant at that level for a while after a dramatic drop in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

[VanillaRhapsody]

54. Okay...I stand corrected.....

We are STILL the champions.....by a longer shot.....

[Recursion]

55. Oh God no. We're slightly below the world median in murders, slightly above it in gun deaths

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

We're significantly lower than most of Latin America, Russia, and South Africa, just among the developed nations. In murders by any means we're well below most of eastern Europe, too.

[VanillaRhapsody]

58. Bullshit....

[Recursion]

59. Well, no: facts you don't like aren't automatically "bullshit"

Nearly all of Latin America has much higher murder rates than us (IIRC Costa Rica and Paraguay are the exceptions; Chile is close to us). South Africa has an appallingly high murder rate, and a much higher gun death rate than we have. Same with Russia. Eastern Europe has much, much higher murder rates than us, though gun deaths are less frequent. These data are all pretty easy to check. And then obviously the developing world is a whole nother story.

[VanillaRhapsody]

61. We are talking gun deaths

Not just murder....don't let facts get in the way of your narrative...

[Recursion]

62. So was I, except for Eastern Europe

South Africa, Russia, and much of the Caribbean and Latin America have higher gun death rates than us. I brought up eastern Europe as an example of an area with lower gun deaths but higher murders than us.

[VanillaRhapsody]

63. Bullshit...

Now you are tslking per capita...hogwash. .

[Recursion]

64. Yes, that's what "rate" means.

It's what everybody agrees is the relevant question. India has more firearms deaths than Jamaica, but obviously Jamaica has the much bigger firearms death problem because it's the rate that's important.

[CBGLuthier]

29. Because all the people killed in their homes and other crimes are not as dead as those killed in

shopping malls and workplaces. Uh huh, yeah, I see the crucial difference right there.

[951-Riverside]

32. ...about that

When we began compiling our database in 2012, we used that criteria of four or more killed in public attacks, but excluded mass murders that stemmed from robbery, gang violence or domestic abuse in private homes

'cause apparently to Mark Follman Blacks, Hispanics, families (especially women) don't count as mass shooting victims for some strange reason.

[Recursion]

38. My list excludes those same things, incidentally

To the extent I even have a "methodology" here (namely, using search engines to scrape news stories), that excludes those because those never make the papers any more than they do in the US.

[951-Riverside]

39. Go ahead and post the full list. I'm waiting.

[Recursion]

42. Nobody has it; I'd bet money that Europe's rate is lower than ours

I'm not sure why you're trying to "convince" me of something I already know.

[Kang Colby]

47. No, that's not why they excluded those.

He works for Mother Jones, a noted "safe space" for the gun control agenda. Mass shootings like what happend in Charleston, Virginia Tech, Navy Yard, and in too many other cases have different causes or motivations than gang rivals shooting it out in the street or people committing acts of violence against people they know. It's important to differentiate these acts to properly study them and come up with solutions. They are fundamentally different problems.

Gun control special interest groups are trying to paint the picture that random spree killings with firearms occur more than once per day in the United States by connotation...and that simply isn't true.

[951-Riverside]

56. "He works for Mother Jones" ...and?

Mass shootings like what happend in Charleston, Virginia Tech, Navy Yard, and in too many other cases have different causes or motivations than gang rivals shooting it out in the street or people committing acts of violence against people they know

No, I get it. According to him black or Hispanic victims in lower income neighborhoods and victims of domestic violence don't count as actual victims. Only college students, the middle to upper class, military personnel count and when you exclude a large portion of the population then pick and shoot who are actual victims you get a silly number like 73 mass shootings in 33 years.

[Kang Colby]

65. No, he did not say they don't count.

He's talking about properly classifying violent deaths. Those deaths are certainly counted as murders by firearm. They count as victims of domestic violence or gang brutality. They are no less upsetting or tragic. But we should not classify everything as a "mass shooting" without being able to differentiate to a degree for the purposes of proper public policy analysis. Some drunk hillbilly shooting at a few of his drunken buddies following a BBQ brawl is caused by different underlying factors than a Sandy Hook or Planned Parenthood.

I think one of the issues we are talking about here is with the term mass shooting. I agree that multivictim shootings are fairly described as mass shootings if you use a more precise descriptor for "rampage killings" when talking about what folks commonly refer to as a mass shooting in the United States. I think an international taxonomy for this already exists.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers

[CBGLuthier]

25. So, in Australia, where guns are banned, there has been ONE incident in the last 15 years.

Seems to me that BANNING guns works just fine. I would take the trade off that every once in a while some determined asshole can get a gun, over all the american asshole has to do to enable his slaughter is go to his neighborhood merchant of death store.

[Recursion]

28. Three, and guns are not banned in Australia

So, both of your premises are false. But gun bans can be effective in some circumstances; the (practical) ban on automatic weapons in the US has worked very well.

[VanillaRhapsody]

48. ....

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/05/world/australia/australia-gun-ban-shooting.html?referer=https://www.google.com/

[Recursion]

49. Great article! Read it. Guns are not banned.

There's a waiting period and a registry (though like Canada they're considering getting rid of it) and licensing. All great ideas.

[VanillaRhapsody]

50. But they sure as shit are more regulated. ..

Much better regulations ...we need to adopt them...

[Recursion]

51. We definitely do.

I think in particular Australia's gun laws are pretty good, and show that a country with a significant rural population can adopt effective regulation of semi-automatics while still meeting the needs of people living far from urban centers.

[VanillaRhapsody]

52. But lets not stop there....lets move toward Japan Regulations

And really save lives....

[Recursion]

67. Your comment makes me think you don't remotely see what I'm trying to do

I'm trying to point out that our rate of random mass spree shootings isn't particularly higher than Europe's. Our rate of "regular" murders and suicides with firearms is much, much higher than Europe's. We should stop letting the random mass spree shootings be what drives our conversation on gun policy. Note that this list doesn't include (except for the one in Canada which was huge) domestic violence-based shootings of multiple people, nor shootings of multiple people related to some other crime (eg, a drug dealer shooting informants or something). These numbers are non-zero in European countries, but significantly lower than in the US. And in neither case do they generally get much media or policy attention.

[Logical]

68. Ok, sorry, reacted before reading all of it. My bad!!! Will delete! Nt