We are now averaging more than one mass shooting per day in 2015
For those keeping track, that's an average of more than one shooting per day.
These numbers are according to the Mass Shooting Tracker created by the anti-gun subreddit Guns Are Cool.
Wednesday morning's stunning on-air fatal shooting in Roanoke, Virginia of a television reporter and a photographer wasn't even the first shooting of the day. Roughly three hours earlier at 3:15 a.m., four people were shot during a home invasion in Minneapolis.
It is important to note that the Mass Shooting Tracker defines a mass shooting as a shooting spree in which four or more people are shot. The folks at Guns Are Cool notes that this differs from the FBI definition in which an event only qualifies as a mass shooting if four or more people are killed.
"The most obscene incidents of gun violence usually do not make the mainstream news at all," Guns Are Cool writes on the reddit page for the Mass Shooting Tracker. "Why? Because their definition is incorrect. The mainstream news meaning of "mass shooting" should more accurately be described as "mass murder.'"
Earlier today, democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called for action after the shooting in Virginia.
"There's so much evidence that if guns were not so readily available, if there were universal background checks ... that maybe we could prevent this kind of carnage," she added
Hours after the shooting took place, Clinton also issued this tweet: