DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado has the fifth-highest number of mass shootings of any state between 1982 and the present, according to a widely-used definition of the term.
There is little agreement nationally about what a “mass shooting” is. Broader definitions increase the number of events quickly.
Data Desk settled on a common definition of a mass shooting that means four or more fatalities in a public area largely unrelated to crime.
Between 1982 and the present, Colorado had the fifth-highest number of such mass shootings, according to public and media reports.
Colorado has bent towards these lethal mass shootings.
Another database, the Gun Violence Archive, groups mass shootings with all incidents involving four or more injuries, rather than fatalities. In that definition, Colorado had the 21st highest number of mass shootings from 2014 to 2019.