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On average, police in the United States shoot and kill more than 1,000 people every year, according to an ongoing analysis by The Washington Post.

After Michael Brown, an unarmed Black man, was killed in 2014 by police in Ferguson, Mo., a Post investigation found that data reported to the FBI on fatal police shootings was undercounted by more than half. That gap has widened in recent years. By 2021, only a third of departments' fatal shootings appeared in the FBI database.

This is largely because local police departments are not required to report these incidents to the federal government. Also compounding the problem: an updated FBI system for reporting data and confusion among local law enforcement about reporting responsibilities.

As part of its investigation, The Post began in 2015 to log every person shot and killed by an on-duty police officer in the United States. Since then, reporters have recorded thousands of deaths. In 2022, The Post updated its database to standardize and publish the names of the police agencies involved in each shooting to better measure accountability at the department level.

How 2023 compares with previous calendar years

The number of fatal police shootings has risen slightly in recent years. Police killed the highest number of people on record in 2022.

Black Americans are killed at a much higher rate than White Americans

Although half of the people shot and killed by police are White, Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for roughly 14 percent of the U.S. population and are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans. Hispanic Americans are also killed by police at a disproportionate rate.

Most victims are young

More than half of people shot and killed by police are between 20 and 40 years old.

An overwhelming majority of the victims are male - over 95 percent.

Explore the data

This database contains records of every person shot by an on-duty police officer since Jan. 1, 2015, as well as the agencies involved in each event. It is updated regularly as fatal shootings are reported and as facts emerge about individual cases.

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Police shootings database 2015-2023: Search by race, age, department

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Filter the Washington Post database, which includes police shooting statistics since January 2015, by unarmed police shootings, race and age of victim and more.

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After two mass shootings over the weekend that killed 31 people and wounded dozens more, powerful Republicans, including the president, retorted to a familiar target of blame: video games.

Trump's words echoed those of Texas governor Dan Patrick and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader. In an appearance on " Fox & Friends " on Sunday morning, Patrick implored the federal government to "do something about the video game industry."

"We've watched from studies, shown before, what it does to individuals, and you look at these photos of how it took place, you can see the actions within video games and others," Rep. McCarthy added on a different Fox show.

Armed with little and often unconvincing evidence, politicians have blamed violence on video games for decades. Their rhetoric quickly ramped up in the 1990s, after games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom popularised the genre of violent first-person shooting games.

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Researchers have extensively studied whether there is a causal link between video games and violent behaviour, and while there is not quite a consensus, there is broad agreement that no such link exists.

According to a policy statement from the media psychology division of the American Psychological Association, "Scant evidence has emerged that makes any causal or correlational connection between playing violent video games and actually committing violent activities."

Chris Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University, led the committee that developed the policy statement. In an interview Monday, he said the evidence was clear that violent video games are not a risk factor for serious acts of aggression. Neither are violent movies, nor other forms of media.

"The data on bananas causing suicide is about as conclusive," Mr Ferguson said. "Literally. The numbers work out about the same."

The Supreme Court has also rejected the idea. In 2011, striking down a California law that banned the sale of some violent video games to children, the court savaged the evidence California mustered in support of its law.

"These studies have been rejected by every court to consider them, and with good reason: They do not prove that violent video games cause minors to act aggressively," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the majority opinion.

He added: "They show at best some correlation between exposure to violent entertainment and minuscule real-world effects, such as children's feeling more aggressive or making louder noises in the few minutes after playing a violent game than after playing a nonviolent game."

If video games did indeed cause some mass shootings, one might expect such events to be common in Japan or South Korea. Both countries spend more per capita on video games than the United States, according to Newzoo, and have huge video game communities.

But Japan and South Korea - both of which have very strict laws limiting gun ownership - have among the lowest rates of violent crime in the world, and mass casualty events are quite rare.

Trump's administration studied the issue previously and came to no significant conclusion about connections between mass shootings and violent video games.

The commission's 180-page report devotes a chapter to what it calls "violent entertainment," including video games.

After hearing from a variety of researchers and other experts, the commission recommended that state and local educational agencies have internet safety measures in place and that the enforcers of voluntary ratings systems - such as the Motion Picture Association of America's practice of assigning ratings like PG-13 or R to movies - review and improve their policies.

It made no specific recommendation in regards to video games.

In some cases, the perpetrators of mass shootings are quite clear about their motivations. On Saturday, a 2,300-word manifesto appeared online minutes before the shooting in El Paso, Texas, in which 22 people were killed. The second line of the hate-filled, anti-immigrant manifesto says the attack "is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas."

Law enforcement officials were investigating whether it was written by the shooter. They were interviewing the suspect, Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white man who lived about a 10-hour drive from the Walmart where the shooting took place.

Video games are, however, mentioned in the manifesto. "Don't attack heavily guarded areas to fulfil your super soldier COD fantasy," it advised, referring to the popular Call of Duty franchise of games in which players usually embody the roles of soldiers.

People who commit mass shootings sometimes identify as video gamers, but James Ivory, who studies media and video games at Virginia Tech, advised awareness of the base rate effect. Of course some mass shooters will have played violent video games, he said - video games are ubiquitous in society, especially among men, who are much more likely to commit mass shootings.

"It is very similar to saying the perpetrator wears shoes," Mr Ivory explained. "They do, but so do their peers in the general population."

Researchers have some good data on what causes people to commit violent crime, but much less data on what causes them to commit mass shootings, in large part because they happen relatively infrequently.

Dayton shooting: CCTV captures moment of attack and gunman's death

There is no universally accepted definition for what constitutes a mass shooting. For a long time, the FBI considered it to be a single shooting in which four or more people were killed. By that definition, a handful occur in the United States each year. Using a definition with fewer victims, or including those injured but not killed, a few hundred occur each year.

Either count pales in comparison to the 1 million other violent crimes reported each year.

While cautioning that he was hesitant to imply that most mass shooters fit a specific profile, Mr Ferguson listed some commonalities. They tend to have mental health problems, sometimes undiagnosed, and a history of anti-social behaviour, have often come to the attention of law enforcement or other authorities and are what criminologists call "injustice collectors," he said.

"The problem is, you could take that profile and collect 500,000 people that fit," he said. "There are a lot of angry jerks out there that don't go on to commit mass shootings."

Violent video games are much more likely to be trotted out as an excuse, however, in certain situations. For a forthcoming study, Ivory and his colleagues studied 6,814 news accounts of mass shootings.

They found that in coverage of mass school shootings specifically, video games were more than eight times as likely to be brought up when the shooter was white than when the shooter was black.

"We should think about when we are more comfortable looking for something else to blame," he said, adding, "I haven't heard any senators talk about video games when an immigrant commits a crime."

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Trump rushes to blame video games for mass shootings, but the evidence proves him wrong

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After two mass shootings over the weekend that killed 31 people and wounded dozens more, powerful Republicans, including the president, retorted to a familiar target of blame: video games. Trump's words echoed those of Texas governor Dan Patrick and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader.

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Violent video games: Myths, facts, and unanswered questions

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Exposure to violent visual media leads to increased aggression in short-term scientific studies. Methodologically sound experiments have shown empirical evidence that violent video game contributes to aggressive behavior.

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Gun control is one of the most divisive issues in American politics. With each mass shooting - defined as four or more victims having been killed indiscriminately - antagonism grows between both sides of the gun control argument.

Proponents of stricter gun regulations fear for their safety in a country where there is an average of 88 guns per 100 people, according to the 2011 Small Arms Survey. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence estimates that around 114,994 people are shot each year in the US. This includes murders, assaults, accidents, police intervention, suicide attempts and suicides.

Opponents of regulatory arguments, however, also fear a loss of safety. They argue that restricting the right to bear arms would leave citizens unable to protect themselves in their daily lives or, in a worst-case scenario, from a government turned against the people.

Though regulations vary from state to state, there are a few key conditions for obtaining guns in the US.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimates that there are more than 10,000 shooting ranges in the US
1. Is there a minimum age?
The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), which regulates firearms at the federal level, requires that citizens and legal residents must be at least 18 years of age to purchase shotguns or rifles and ammunition. All other firearms - handguns, for example - can only be sold to people 21 and older.

State or local officials may implement higher age restrictions but are not allowed to lower the federal minimum.

Read more: US gun control: 'Conservatives must say enough is enough'
2. Who's restricted from purchasing or possessing firearms?
Fugitives, people deemed a danger to society and patients involuntarily committed to mental institutions are among those who may not purchase firearms. People with prior felony convictions that include a prison sentence exceeding one year, or misdemeanors carrying sentences of more than two years, are also prohibited from purchasing firearms.

Federal law also blocks the sale of guns to people who have been found guilty of unlawfully possessing or using controlled substances within the past year. This includes marijuana, which, though legalized in many US states, remains illegal under federal law.

Gun shop owners must obtain licenses from the ATF to operate

Other restrictions apply to people who have been issued restraining orders by courts to prevent harassment, stalking or threatening; people who have renounced their citizenship; dishonorably discharged military personnel; unauthorized migrants; and people temporarily visiting the US on nonimmigrant visas, for example as tourists.
3. Does the federal or state government regulate firearms?
The Second Amendment serves as the legal basis for the "right of the people to keep and bear arms."

Read more: German weapons firms find lucrative market in United States

Though state and local governments regulate whether residents may, for example, carry guns in public, laws regulating who may receive or possess guns are set out at the federal level.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a division of the Department of Justice, administers the GCA. The ATF also regulates the standards for issuing licenses to gun vendors.

Shotguns, rifles, machine guns, firearm mufflers and silencers are regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934. The purchase of semi-automatic weapons is legal in most states, as are automatic weapons made before 1986.

Read more: NRA ad sparks uproar with call to 'fight' Trump opponents
4. Who may sell firearms?
Like handgun owners, dealers interested in obtaining a Federal Firearms License (FFL) must be at least 21 years of age. They must have premises for conducting business and must alert a local law enforcement official at the time of submitting their applications to the federal bureau that regulates firearms. Just like gun owners, they must fulfill the same criteria regarding their history of prior convictions and mental state. The license fee costs $200 (€170) for an initial three-year period and $90 for each subsequent three-year-long renewal.

Selling firearms online also falls under these regulations. Although the purchase may be paid for online, the gun itself must be shipped to a registered FFL holder, who then conducts the necessary background check before handing the firearm over to its owner.

Some states have loosened laws so that owners may conceal handguns in public

However, the law is unclear on what constitutes selling guns for profit. Any individual may sell firearms without a license if his or her motive isn't to make profit for livelihood through repeated and regular sales.
5. Is a background check required to purchase a firearm?
Yes. The amendment to the 1968 Gun Control Act - known as the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 - requires holders of FFLs to conduct a background check. Potential firearm purchasers fill out a federal form known as the ATF 4473, which checks for prior convictions and other red flags. FFL holders then use the information provided on the form in the background check.

States may decide whether the background check is carried out solely by the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) or a combination of the NICS and state agency information. Roughly 30 states rely solely on the NICS.

In 2016, Texas introduced a law allowing concealed weapons on university campuses

Estimated to take under 10 minutes by phone or online, the check gives the FFL holder an immediate answer: approve, delay or deny. A delay indicates the need for further research for three business days, after which point FFL holders can act at their own discretion if the research proves inconclusive.

The Brady law, however, does not apply to someone who is obtaining a firearm from an individual without an FFL.
6. Do states require permits to purchase firearms?
Only a dozen of the US's 50 states require purchase permits for handguns. Of those states, only three - California, Connecticut and Hawaii - require permits for the purchase of rifles and shotguns.
Read more: Las Vegas shooter converted guns to automatics with gadget 7. Do states require permits to carry firearms?
California, for example, requires applicants to pass a written test and enroll in a gun safety class to obtain purchase permits. States with this requirement do not recognize the "concealed carry reciprocity" policies of some states, which allow gun owners licensed in one state to bring their weapons to another.

Most states require permits to carry handguns. Concealed carry and open carry vary by state. Some states allow residents to carry handguns without permits.

By contrast, virtually no state requires a permit to carry rifles and shotguns. Massachusetts and New Jersey require people carrying rifles and shotguns to bring along a form of ID or a firearms identification.

8. What is the 'gunshow loophole'?
The role of semiautomatic weapons in mass shootings has raised concerns about the types of arms sold to civilians

The law on selling, receiving and possessing firearms is clear. Yet not every individual providing the gun in a transfer requires an FFL, which in turn means that not every buyer is legally subject to a background check. This potentially enables guns to fall into the hands of users who might otherwise not be allowed to own a firearm.

According to the ATF, anyone can sell a gun without an FFL from their home, online, at a flea market or at a gun show as long as he or she is not conducting the sale as part of regular business activity. One example would be someone who sells a firearm from his or her personal collection. Others who are exempt include those giving guns as gifts. Only individuals whose "principal motive" is to make a profit via sale must obtain an FFL.

Commonly referred to as the "gunshow loophole," this ambiguity also explains how a purchase can occur without a background check - and without breaking the law. A 2017 survey by Harvard and Northeastern universities estimates that roughly one in five transactions occur without a background check.

A gun may also be purchased on behalf of a third party as long as it is a gift and as long as the recipient does not violate federal restrictions on gun ownership to the best of the gift giver's knowledge. The same applies to the general transfer of guns. Children younger than 18 may possess guns that were given to them by parents or guardians as gifts provided that they have written permission.

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8 facts about gun control in the US | DW | 20.01.2020

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The legal basis for firearm possession in the US is enshrined in the Second Amendment of the Constitution. But how are guns regulated? DW looks at who can buy and sell them - and how one loophole undermines gun control.