mass shooting

[mas shoot-ing]

noun

1. a single incident involving the shooting with one or more firearms of a number of people, but more than two and typically a large number, especially when the victims are random.

   There's news of a mass shooting at the stadium, with two fatalities and 25 injured.

Word History and Origins

Origin of mass shooting¹

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

Two days before a shooter armed with an AR-15-style rifle killed an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, and injured 21 others in a mass shooting at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis, Manuel and Patricia Oliver embarked on a six-day drive from Florida to Los Angeles to take meetings in advance of the West Coast premiere of Manuel’s one-man show, “Guac.”

From Los Angeles Times

The group’s website champions “nonviolent creative confrontation to expose the disastrous effects of the mass shooting pandemic.”

From Los Angeles Times

The image of the yellow police tape on the Onion’s front page today is the color of every parent’s worst nightmare: that their child’s school became the target of yet another mass shooting.

From Los Angeles Times

This year the territory had already recorded 24 killings up to mid-August, heightened by the first mass shooting in its history in July, which left four dead and nine injured.

From BBC

Premier Misick dubbed July's mass shooting in a local bar a "gangland-type slaying", and appealed to Haitian community leaders to help "keep these islands safe".

From BBC