Shootings in Palm Bay: How many mass shootings have happened in Florida so far in 2024?

C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida
·5 min read

A 24-year-old man in Palm Bay shot and killed a retired Catholic priest, the priest's sister, and his own grandfather Sunday, Palm Bay police said. In the ensuing chase and exchange of gunfire, two police officers received minor injuries and police killed the suspected gunman, Brandon Kapas.

That makes the third mass shooting in Florida in January this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), and the second in Palm Bay. Just over a week previously sheriff's investigators say a man shot and killed his mother, grandfather and sister and wounded his nephew and one other person.

On the same day, a group of people targeted another group exited a Best Buy in Plantation and opened fire, the Plantation Police Department said, injuring two of the group and two bystanders. One of the group later died at the hospital.

As horrific as these shootings are, 2024 is getting off to a less-fatal start than 2023 did. There were seven mass shootings in Florida in January alone last year, according to GVA data, and 29 in the entire year. So far there have been 32 mass shootings nationwide, compared to 53 by the same time in 2023.

In fact, 2023 showed an overall 8-10% decrease in deaths and injuries from gun violence compared to 2022, the GVA said, with some cities seeing 20+% decreases.

How many mass shootings in 2024 happened in Florida?

How many mass shootings happened in Florida in 2023?

Florida mass shootings were down slightly, with 30 reported in 2023 compared to 31 each year in both 2022 and 2021 and 35 in 2020. During the year, 134 people were injured and 38 were killed.

By the end of February, Florida was accounting for nearly 12% of all mass shootings in the country. But a surge around the U.S. — especially in Texas, which also has the most lenient gun laws in the nation — brought Florida's average down to 4.57% of all mass shootings in the U.S. by year's end.

How many people have died so far from gun violence in the U.S. in 2024?

According to GVA data, 3,232 people have died and 2,047 people have been injured from gun violence in the U.S. as of Jan. 30. Of those, 32 were from mass shootings and four from mass murders. 23 children and 98 teens were killed and 40 children and 200 teens were injured in the first 30 days of the year. Three law enforcement officers have been killed and 29 injured, while police have killed 112 people and injured 67 in officer-involved incidents.

There have been 90 people killed in defense, 123 died from unintentional shootings, 1,980 were classified suicides and 54 people died in murder/suicide incidents, the GVA said.

What is considered a mass shooting?

That depends on who you ask. The GVA (and the Congressional Research Service) defines a mass shooting only on the number of people shot in an incident: four or more, not including the shooter.

The FBI does not define "mass shooting" at all. Instead the agency defines "mass killing" or "mass murder" as an incident in which four or more victims are killed by any intentional means, which may include gun violence.

There also may be a distinction made between private and public mass shootings, and mass shootings committed by foreign terrorists are not included no matter where the shooting occurs or how many people are killed.

The GVA numbers may differ from the FBI or CDC as they collect their data from 7,500 law enforcement, government and media sources. The CDC uses death certificates for gun deaths, according to the GVA, and they and the FBI rely on a sampling of courses and then extrapolate the numbers to get estimated totals. Incidents that cannot be verified are not included.

USA TODAY defines a mass shooting as an incident where at least four people are hit with gunfire, even if there are no fatalities. Mass killing refers is an incident in which at least four people are killed.

Which states had the most mass shootings in 2023?

Florida was in the top 10, but not at the top. According to GVA records for 2023, the top states for reported mass shootings are:

  • Texas: 65

  • Illinois: 51

  • California: 50

  • Pennsylvania: 35

  • Ohio: 33

  • North Carolina: 33

  • Lousiana: 31

  • Florida: 30

  • Mississippi, and Georgia: 25 each

How many people died from gun violence in 2023?

According to GVA, 42,926 people have died from gun violence in the United States in 2023. Of those, 18,836 were classified as homicide, murder or defensive gun use (DGU). The other 24,090 were ruled to be suicides.

Gun violence took the lives of 297 children nationwide, with 642 more injured, the GVA said. Adolescents and teenagers ages 12-17 accounted for 1,383 deaths and 3,863 injured. Fifty law enforcement officers have been killed, 368 injured, and police killed 1,442 people and injured 809 more in officer-involved incidents, the GVA said.

Unintentional shootings accounted for 1,569 more deaths, the GVA said, and 1,184 people were killed by someone defending themselves. There were 674 deaths ruled murder-suicides.

How have gun laws changed in Florida over the last year?

As of July 1, 2023, it became legal to carry a concealed weapon in Florida without a license for anyone allowed to legally possess a firearm. Concealed licenses are still an option in Florida, but require mandatory background checks and weapon training.

Currently, Republican-backed bills in the 2024 regular session of the Florida Legislature seek to allow buyers to receive a gun without a law enforcement check of disqualifying conditions, require law enforcement to return firearms confiscated during an arrest, and lower the minimum age for buying rifles and long guns to 18, repealing part of a law enacted after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida mass shootings 2024: Incidents down so far from previous year