THERE it is in blood-red. The map that shows in graphic detail the reality of America’s gun problem.

Another day, another mass shooting in the US. The year 2017 is 309 days old. In that time there have been 307 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which describes a mass shooting as four or more individuals being shot or killed in the same general time and location.

Dig deeper into the statistics, and the figures just get worse.

There have been more than 13,000 gun deaths in America this year, with the country on track to have an increased number of gun deaths for the fourth straight year.

And so far this year more than 600 American children, aged under 11, have been shot or killed. That compares to a total of 673 children in 2016.

Two mass shootings in just over a month have taken the lives of at least 85 people in the US.

It’s just over a month since the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, when a gunman in Las Vegas rained fire from a hotel room into an outdoor concert, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more.

On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 58 others at a gay nightclub in Orlando that was hosting a Latin night on June 12, 2016. Mateen was killed by police. At the time, the Pulse shooting was the deadliest terror attack in the US since 9/11.

The three mass shootings in the past 18 months have been among the US’s bloodiest.

The Texas shooting — now the state’s worst — has seen the usual pro and anti-guns response.

President Donald Trump, who is travelling in Asia, said “our hearts are broken”.

“This act of evil occurred as the victims and their families were in their place of worship,” he said in Tokyo.

“We pull together, we join hands, we lock arms and through the tears and through the sadness, we stand strong.”

The president promised his administration’s “full support” to the investigation. As with so many other shootings before this one, Democrats pounced on the occasion to renew calls for gun control, a hot-button issue in a country that holds the right to bear arms as almost sacred.

In denouncing the “act of hatred”, Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama said: “May God also grant all of us the wisdom to ask what concrete steps we can take to reduce the violence and weaponry in our midst.”

Meanwhile,

Senator Chris Murphy, who represents Connecticut — the location of the Sandy Hook shooting — issued a powerful statement saying “none of this is inevitable” and that “no other country endures this pace of mass carnage”.

Deadliest mass shootings in modern US history —>



Las Vegas, Oct 2017: 58 dead

Orlando, June 2016: 49 dead

Virginia Tech, Apr 2007: 32 dead

Sandy Hook, Dec 2012: 27 dead

Texas church, Nov 2017: 26 dead — Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) November 6, 2017

Author Stephen King asked “How many more have to die before we enact sane gun control laws?”

AMERICA’S DEADLIEST MASS SHOOTINGS

LAS VEGAS October 2, 2017: At least 59 dead, 527 injured after a gunman fired at a concert from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas.

ORLANDO June 12, 2016: A gunman fatally shoots 49 people at gay nightclub Pulse before he is shot dead by police.

VIRGINIA TECH April 16, 2007: Gunman slaughters 32 people and kills himself at Virginia Tech, a university in Virginia.

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS November 5, 2017: More than 25 reportedly killed when a shooter opened fire at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs.

SANDY HOOK December 14, 2012: A man shoots dead his mother, then kills 20 children, six adults and himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

SAN BERNARDINO December 2, 2015: A husband and wife kill 14 people at a workplace holiday party in San Bernardino in Southern California. They die in a shootout with police.

COLUMBINE April 20, 1999: Two teenagers rampage through Columbine High School in Colorado, shooting dead 12 students and a teacher and wounding more than 20 others before killing themselves.

BINGHAMTON April 3, 2009: A Vietnamese immigrant opens fire at an immigrant services centre in Binghamton, New York, killing 13 people and wounding four. He then kills himself.

FORT HOOD November 5, 2009: An army major and psychiatrist opens fire at Fort Hood, a US Army base in Texas, killing 13 people. He is sentenced to death.

WASHINGTON DC September 16, 2013: A former Navy reservist working as a government contractor kills 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. He is shot dead by police.

COLORADO July 20, 2012: A masked gunman kills 12 people and wounds 70 when he opens fire at a midnight premiere of Batman film The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Denver. He receives a life sentence.

WASHINGTON DC October 2002: Two men ambush 13 people, killing 10 of them, in sniper-style shootings that terrorise the Washington area for three weeks. One sniper was executed and the other was sentenced to life in prison.

OREGON October 1, 2015: A man opens fire on the Umpqua Community College campus in southwest Oregon, killing nine people before he is shot dead by police.

CHARLESTON June 17, 2015: A white supremacist kills nine black churchgoers at a historic, predominantly black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

WACO May 17, 2015: Rival motorcycle gangs kill nine at a restaurant in Waco, Texas. More than 170 people are arrested.

WISCONSIN August 5, 2012: A white supremacist kills six worshippers in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. The gunman kills himself.

TUCSON January 8, 2011: Then-US representative Gabrielle Giffords is the target of an assassination attempt by a gunman in Tucson, Arizona. Six people are killed and 13, including Giffords, are wounded.

AMISH SCHOOL October 2, 2006: A gunman kills five girls in a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, before killing himself.

— with Reuters