Talk:Lists of mass shootings in the United States

Merge proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

Consensus to split instead. -- Beland (talk) 02:17, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

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I propose merging List of mass shootings in the United States (1900–1999) into List of mass shootings in the United States. The templates Template:Mass shootings in the United States in the 1980s and before and Template:Mass shootings in the United States in the 1990s already provide easy access to articles from this time period. The smaller list is WP:REDUNDANT as all incidents listed at there would meet the criteria of the larger article. Missing incidents that are on the 1900–1999 list, but not on the this list can be added on without violating the criteria of this list. Raskuly (talk) 20:41, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose - List of mass shootings in the United States is over 300 kB. --Jax 0677 (talk) 01:23, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  If you oppose this, when most of the incidents in the List of mass shootings in the United States (1900–1999) page are already here, then would you be in favor of splitting this page into List of mass shootings in the United States (2000–present) or something similar? Raskuly (talk) 01:54, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  @Raskuly:, now that I have had time to think about it, I am absolutely OK with going one step further, and making the page into a collector article with zero listings of actual shootings. I have proposed splitting recent years by month instead of by year, but was rejected. List of lists of lists has several examples of compilations of articles without narrating significantly. --Jax 0677 (talk) 22:24, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  Months seem excessive given that while gun violence in the United States is widespread, notable mass shootings are not usually that frequent that there is one every month, and categories such as Category:2026 mass shootings in the United States and so on already collect incidents by year. Raskuly (talk) 23:11, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  Sadly, there are several non-notable mass shootings every month. The articles for the years are well over 100 kB, which is why, unlike "List of mass shootings in the United States", they can be split by month. --Jax 0677 (talk) 23:37, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  So are you referring to pages like List of mass shootings in the United States in 2026 being split into months? The previous year is currently ~279K bytes and I don't really think that size is bad at all. As of writing, that article is the 2,386th largest article by byte size and this one is the 1,343rd largest by byte size. Raskuly (talk) 23:45, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  Yes, pages like "List of mass shootings in the United States in 2026" should be split into months. "List of mass shootings in the United States in 2026" maybe should be converted into a list without detailed descriptions, since the descriptions are already in the articles for the years. On slow internet connections, long articles are difficult to edit and render. As time goes on, the size of "List of mass shootings in the United States" is only going to grow. --Jax 0677 (talk) 23:57, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  I do not think the format of the yearly lists need to be radically changed. I prefer the basic descriptions of the incidents being preserved. However, I would be in favor of a split of this article. Since I'm no longer on board with merging these two articles, I'll remove the merge proposal template unless you think it would be appropriate to wait a week to see if more editors get involved in the conversation since as of now it has only been the two of us. Raskuly (talk) 00:51, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

  What are you suggesting for a split of this article? One article for the 20th century and one article for the 21st century? --Jax 0677 (talk) 01:08, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

  Given the number of incidents since the start of the 21st century it might be appropriate to split it up by decades post-2000. Raskuly (talk) 01:23, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

  I am down for that, as a step in the right direction. --Jax 0677 (talk) 01:26, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Splitting proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

Rough consensus to split by the main list by 21st century decade for now, and keep short descriptions. No prejudice against considering splitting year articles up by month in the future, but that was a bit out of scope for this discussion. -- Beland (talk) 02:19, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

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I propose that article be split into List of mass shootings in the United States in the 2000s, List of mass shootings in the United States in the 2010s, and List of mass shootings in the 2020s, with the criteria of this list (notability) being carried over to those split articles. There is already a List of mass shootings in the United States (1900–1999) page, but given the sheer number of incidents since the start of the 21st century, this more frequent subdivision may be warranted. Alternatively, this page could be renamed List of mass shootings in the United States (2000–present) and any further splitting could be revisited in the future if the article size gets too large. Raskuly (talk) 01:41, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

Aren't these redundant to the by-year articles? What are we aiming for? PARAKANYAA (talk) 07:24, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

The by-year articles list every mass shooting that occurred in those years, whereas this article only lists the shootings that have Wikipedia articles. I support splitting off the recent decades to reduce the length of this article. TheAmazingRaspberry (talk) 14:07, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

I concur with TheAmazingRaspberry. I am also willing to split the by year articles into by-month articles. We may be able to create a disambiguation page with all of the decade articles. --Jax 0677 (talk) 14:43, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

Ah, ok. Yeah splitting by decade would be reasonable then. PARAKANYAA (talk) 03:24, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

How might this article be handled if it is split up? Will it become a repository for the other lists and the map maintained with ALL notable incidents? Raskuly (talk) 12:44, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

That sounds like a plan to me. --Jax 0677 (talk) 22:50, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

Yes, what TheAmazingRaspberry wrote in response to your question. Raskuly (talk) 14:41, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

Agreed, it can help organize the list of mass shootings. Rager7 (talk) 05:52, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Why don't we just remove the descriptions about the events, and simply list the events if they have Wikipedia articles? Would that then mean we don't need to split anymore? Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 14:26, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

I think the pages benefit from some context as to what happened in each incident, but probably not if they just had location, casualty total, and supporting citation(s). Raskuly (talk) 15:40, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

I would agree with you if there wasn't a link to full details of the event. Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 16:00, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

I understand, but I do still think it improves the overall quality of the pages to have some context. Without that, I think the page wouldn't be much different than a larger navigational box which are found in most of the articles. Looking at WP:SAL, I don't see anything which necessarily discourages this approach, but I may be mistaken. Raskuly (talk) 16:22, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

We generally want a concise list. Giving additional information is great if the page isn't of great magnitude. I can't think of a list that is split into other lists should be so inclusive if it forces a split.

Lists of wars involving the United States is particularly bad for this, it splits into six articles when it could be completed in one article. Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 16:55, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

What you want is something like this? A lot of the elements are removed because the first time I added it, it broke.

Date	Location	Dead	Injured	Total	Incident
March 1, 2026	Austin, Texas	4	15	19	2026 Austin bar shooting

Raskuly (talk) 17:56, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

I do think that would solve a problem of having lots more lists, when the information is already self contained in those articles Lee Vilenski ^{(talk • contribs)} 21:54, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

@PARAKANYAA, TheAmazingRaspberry, Jax 0677, and Rager7: What do you all think of this? Please note that the table wouldn't look so... bland. Raskuly (talk) 22:14, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

If we get under 100 kB, that is perfectly OK. If not, we split by decade. Also, shouldn't one of the articles actually be named List of mass shootings in the United States in the 2020s? --Jax 0677 (talk) 22:03, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

Also, shouldn't one of the articles actually be named List of mass shootings in the United States in the 2020s? Yes, error in the original comment. Raskuly (talk) 22:05, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

@Raskuly, if that helps organize each mass shooting, then sure. Rager7 (talk) 22:07, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

Wasn't consulted on this at all, but I think that getting rid of the description doesn't help the reader. Not everyone wants to go through every article to see what specifically happened in the shooting. Databases like Mother Jones, the Washington Post, and the Gun Violence Archive also have short descriptions for incidents. I don't see how getting rid of the descriptions helps the reader at all. Lettlre (talk) 15:45, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

Sorry, I just pinged everyone who had participated in the discussion previously. I'm still leaning against it, because I believe there's benefit to the short description and that in this instance I believe it outweighs the general rule of wanting a concise list, but I'm just one editor and I wanted to consult others. Still, descriptions should all be sourced and not unnecessarily long. Raskuly (talk) 16:46, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

I agree with you, sorry if you thought I was offended because you didn't contact me. I understand it, as I'm not the biggest contributor to this page. Lettlre (talk) 16:59, 21 March 2026 (UTC)

References

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Difference between "List of mass shootings in the United States in the 2000s" and "List of mass shootings in the United States (2000–2009)"

@Raskuly:, I just split List of mass shootings in the United States by decade for the 21st century. What exactly is the difference between List of mass shootings in the United States in the 2000s and List of mass shootings in the United States (2000–2009)? Do we actually need to keep both? --Jax 0677 (talk) 19:40, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure why you made List of mass shootings in the United States in the 2000s when List of mass shootings in the United States (2000–2009) was an adequate page. If you wanted a different name for it, you could've been bold and moved it yourself or requested a move. Now one has to go, and I'd be in favor of keeping the older article. Raskuly (talk) 19:59, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

@Raskuly:, I split this page into the 3 new articles that you recommended, and I just redirected "List of mass shootings in the United States in the 2000s" to "List of mass shootings in the United States (2000–2009)". --Jax 0677 (talk) 20:03, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

Okay, you redirected it a minute after I posted my reply. Raskuly (talk) 20:19, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

Should this article not be named Lists of mass shootings in the United States, since there is more than one list? --Jax 0677 (talk) 13:06, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

That's a good point. I'm in favor of that. Raskuly (talk) 14:02, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

After the split

Hey folks. Here's what the article looks like after the split by decade. It's now somewhat difficult to find the four split-off lists. It may seem obvious to the editors who have been discussing the split, because the links to the lists are in the same places that the lists were before, but for a new reader coming to this article, they would be rather hard to spot. So, I'm going to be bold and move the lists to be near the beginning of the article, where they'll be much more obvious. Other editors might have different ideas about all this, but please have an open mind when looking at this change, which I'll make shortly. — Mudwater ^(Talk) 12:37, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

Okay, here it is. Yes, this is much better, I think. Other editors are encouraged to give their opinions here. — Mudwater ^(Talk) 12:43, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

Definition of a mass shooting for wiki

There are now over 40 articles listing mass shootings in various countries. In basically all of them except for the 2025, 2026, and general list articles for mass shootings in the US, the definition is 4+ shot (including incidents with 3 victims and the perpetrator), while in those specific articles, the defintion is 4+ victims being shot (not including the perpetrators). I am curious if we should establish a universal definition for a mass shooting, whether it be 4+ shot or incidents where at least four victims were shot. @Raskuly, @Jax 0677, @PARAKANYAA, @TheAmazingRaspberry, what do you think? Lettlre (talk) 00:00, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Well, we use a different one for South Africa because in that country the police have their own, slightly lower, definition. I would oppose that being changed. But I do think it should be consistent between the American ones. PARAKANYAA (talk) 00:13, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

We can't establish a universal definition of a mass shooting as there is no definition of a mass shooting (in terms of how many casualties). Raskuly (talk) 00:52, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Should there at least be a consistency between the articles? Lettlre (talk) 02:58, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Between the US ones, yes. I wanted to fix up the 2024 and older articles, which would require also manually checking to make sure there weren't any missing incidents or wrong locations (which is common on older lists) while also removing the incidents that don't have 4+ gunshot victims. I started a sandbox to do that a long time ago, and I haven't gotten around to continuing that process because I find it incredibly depressing to do so. Raskuly (talk) 04:37, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Not sure. BTW, should this article not be named Lists of mass shootings in the United States, since there is more than one list? --Jax 0677 (talk) 12:39, 7 April 2026 (UTC)