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California’s Mass Public Shooting rate is much higher than Texas’ or the rest of the United States

John Lott - Crime Prevention Research Center | Published on 3/18/2023
After the California Supreme Court declared the state’s assault weapon ban unconstitutional in 1998, a new law was enacted in 2000. Picking just a few years from 2019 to 2021 to evaluate the law seems arbitrary. Whether one picks the years from 2000 on, 2010 on, or 2020 on, the per capita rate of mass public shootings in California is always greater than the rate for the rest of the country (Excel file is available here). The rate has also been consistently lower in Texas, which gun control groups give an “F” grade for its gun control laws. From 2010 on, California’s per capita rate of mass public shootings was 43% higher than the rate in Texas and 29% higher than in the rest of the United States. Since 2020, the rate in California is 276% higher than in Texas and 100% higher than in the rest of the U.S..