Maine shootings are 10th mass killing in a public setting this year, a US record, according to Northeastern expert

Law enforcement officers standing next to yellow caution tape strung between two light posts under the Schemengee's Bar and Grille sign.
Law enforcement gather outside Schemengee’s Bar and Grille, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023, in Lewiston, Maine. Residents have been ordered to shelter in place as police continue to search for the suspect of Wednesday’s mass shooting at the bar. AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

The shootings in Maine that have killed at least 18 people are a sign of the lethality of the weapons that are easily available, says James Alan Fox, a Northeastern professor who has been studying mass killings and serial murders for more than 40 years.

The victims were killed in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night at a bowling alley and a bar several miles apart. Images from the bowling alley show a man carrying a high-powered, assault-style rifle. The body of the man accused of the shootings was found Friday evening.

Fox says the Lewiston case is the 10th mass killing in a public setting this year, which he cites as a U.S. record.

Headshot of James Alan Fox wearing a grey suit and blue shirt.
James Alan Fox, the Lipman Family professor of criminology, law, and public policy in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

There have been 568 mass killings in the U.S. since 2006 that have claimed 2,962 lives, according to the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killings Database, the longest-running and most extensive data source on the subject, which is maintained by Fox.

A mass killing is defined as an event that results in four or more deaths.

“Let’s understand that these events still are rare in a population of more than 330 million people,” says Fox, the Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy at Northeastern. “What has changed is the severity of these crimes.”

The tragedy in Maine threatens to become the 10th event in U.S. history in which 20 or more people were killed. In addition to the 18 killed in Lewiston, 13 were injured.

“Seven of those mega-killings have occurred in the past decade, dating back to Sandy Hook in December 2012,” Fox says, referring to the murders of 20 first grade students and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School by a 20-year-old man with a semi-automatic rifle.

“And that speaks to the lethality of weapons like the AR-15 and the ability to attach large-capacity magazines to it,” Fox says.

In response to the Maine shootings, President Joe Biden again called for a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.

Fox has long supported legislation that limits the size of the magazine for the AR-15 and other assault-style rifles. The standard capacity magazine for the AR-15 is 30 rounds. Fox says evidence shows that reducing the rounds of ammunition would result in fewer victims. 

In a sign of American polarization, Fox notes that some states are limiting access to weapons while others are increasing access.

  

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