Crime

How America's Mass Shooters Now Use Weapons of War

America is in a fog of grief, anxiety, and risingpartisan rancor as the nation comes to grips with the deadliest mass shooting in its history. But when it comes to the most basic question of how the massacre took place in Orlando early Sunday morning, the picture couldn't be clearer: America's mass shooters increasingly are using weapons of war.

What the data shows is stark: There have been nine mass shootings in the United States over the past year alone. (The one-year anniversary of the slaughter at Charleston's Mother Emanuel church is this Friday.) In at least eight of these attacks the killers used guns that they obtained legally. (Authorities have yet to disclose the source of the firearms in one case.) And two-thirds of these mass shooters, including the Orlando attacker, wielded AR-15s, AK-47s or the equivalent—semi-automatic rifles that were designed to be used in military battle.

This continues a long-running pattern. According to our database of mass shootings in America going back to 1982, most of the perpetrators got their guns legally—in at least 65 out of 81 cases, including Orlando. This now includes six of the seven deadliest attacks carried out since 2012, as the accompanying graphic shows. (The graphic is from a new investigation into America's gun industry thatMother Jones will publish online soon.)