US has seen more than 500 mass shootings this year – marking the third year in a row the country has hit the somber milestone before October

Data shows that the United States has experienced more than 500 mass shootings this year. This is the third year in a row that the country has reached the grim milestone before October.

A Saturday night shooting in Denver that left five people injured meant the toll exceeded 500, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The increase in gun violence is part of a chilling trend: Five years ago, the country had never seen more than 500 shootings in a year, according to the research group.

The deadliest shooting this year was the attack on Monterey Park, CA in January, in which gunman Huu Can Tran, 72, killed 11 people and injured nine in a predominantly Asian area on the eve of the Lunar New Year.

Gun violence at a Sweet 16 birthday party in Dadeville, AL, also shocked the nation, with four young people brutally murdered and 32 injured – the most victims of any shooting so far in 2023.

Children hold hands as they leave Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, after the deadliest school shooting of 2023

Gun Violence Archive, the independent organization that collects the data, defines a mass shooting as a shooting in which four or more people were shot or killed, not including the shooter.

Last month, a gunman opened fire at a historic biker bar in Trabuco Canyon in Orange County, California, killing three people and wounding six before being shot by police.

In another incident, eight people were killed in a January 4 shooting in Cedar City, Utah, in which Michael Haight killed his wife, their five children and his mother-in-law before turning the gun on himself.

School shootings are also on the rise, if the trend continues as expected this year, with as many as 236 incidents recorded by another research team, the K-12 School Shooting database.

The deadliest school shooting this year left six dead and six injured by transgender gunman Audrey Hale, who opened fire on March 27.

Three nine-year-old students and three adults were among those killed in the attack on The Covenant Christian school in Nashville.

The latest shootings this weekend saw the number of shootings rise to 502.

The 500 mark was exceeded late Saturday evening in Denver

Then, around 1 a.m. Sunday, a shooting in El Paso, Texas, killed a 19-year-old man and injured five others.

Five people were seriously injured in a shooting Sunday evening in Dorchester, Massachusetts, including a child who suffered life-threatening injuries, Boston police said.

The Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio near the site of a fatal shooting on Saturday

The incident happened Wednesday evening around 7:30 PM at Cook’s Corner, a bar in Trabuco Canyon, California.

The FBI defines a mass shooting as “one or more individuals actively involved in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area” — a different metric than most organizations that consider the number of victims as such.

According to the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey, there are about 120 guns for every 100 Americans.

No other country has more civilian guns than people: About 44 percent of American adults live in a household with a firearm.

About a third personally own one, according to a November 2020 Gallup poll. A third of American adults believe there would be less crime if more people owned guns.

Fears of gun violence have overshadowed other concerns, according to data from earlier this year

A girl runs away as other customers leave with their hands up after police responded to a gunman who shot and killed eight people and injured at least seven others at the Allen Premium Outlets mall north of Dallas, Texas

However, multiple studies show that when people have easy access to firearms, gun-related deaths, including suicide, homicide, and unintentional injuries, are more common.

Mass shootings also lead to a demand for more guns, with many Americans feeling they are “safer” if they personally own a gun.

Gun violence is eight times higher than in Canada, which has the seventh highest gun ownership rate in the world.