There have been 2 highly public US mass shootings in less than a week, a trend previously unseen during the pandemic

• The US has had two highly public mass shootings within a week of each other.
• The most recent large-scale shooting had occurred a year ago, before the pandemic took hold.
• Experts said the focus on the pandemic left little talk on mass shootings to inspire gunmen.

Less than a week before authorities say 10 people were killed by a gunman at a Colorado supermarket, eight people were fatally shot at three Atlanta-area spas.

On Monday, an injured suspect was taken into custody in connection to the shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.

Last Tuesday, a 21-year-old man was accused of killing four people at Young's Asian Massage in Acworth, Georgia, before heading to Gold Spa and the Aromatherapy Spa in Atlanta, where another four people were killed.

Six of the eight victims in the Georgia attacks were women of Asian descent.

Before those shootings, the US hadn't seen a highly public mass shooting since March 2020, when a man killed four people at a gas station in Missouri, experts at The Violence Project, which tracks mass shootings, told the Associated Press in December.

Experts note that shootings like the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which left 17 people dead in Parkland, Florida, or the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, which killed at least 50 people and injured 200 more, have been less common during the coronavirus pandemic.

But while such shootings significantly decreased, the Gun Violence Archive found that lesser-known mass shootings actually significantly increased.

In 2020, the archive recorded 611 mass shootings, which it defines as any attack in which at least four people are shot by one person. In most of those instances, the perpetrator is thought to have known the victims.

The criminologist James Alan Fox told the AP he was hopeful that the lull of mass public shootings during lockdowns would help slow down a cycle in which high-profile shootings actually inspire others to act out.

Fox also told the AP that mass shootings were often carried out by people who feel victimized and that the widespread suffering of the pandemic might have made those people feel less isolated relative to others.

The AP reported analysis by experts that the more we talk about mass killings, the more likely it is for a gunman to become interested in perpetrating one.

Jillian Peterson, an associate professor of criminal justice at Hamline University, told The New York Times that the focus on the pandemic most likely meant less talk of mass shootings that might inspire gunmen.

"There had been a hope that maybe we broke the cycle and maybe we won't return," Peterson told The Times after the Georgia attacks. "Now that it's back, a number of scholars are really concerned."