The numbers are not abstractions; they are families. According to the crowd-sourced Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been 357 U.S. mass shootings so far in 2025 (at the time of writing this article) and 6,889 since January 1, 2013—with one day since the most recent incident as of this writing. The tracker defines a mass shooting as a single outburst of violence in which four or more people are shot (injured or killed)—a definition that is broader than “mass murder” and helps capture the lived trauma communities endure even when fatalities are fewer.
Other reputable monitors use similar but not identical definitions. Gun Violence Archive tallies incidents with four or more people shot, excluding the shooter, and distinguishes these events from “mass murder.” Federal law and many FBI analyses, by contrast, focus on mass killings defined as three or more people killed in one incident, which is a narrower category. The Congressional Research Service has warned that these differing definitions materially change counts and policy debates, yet all point to the same reality: communities are suffering, and the Body of Christ suffers with them.
Recent headlines illustrate the human cost: multiple victims in Tampa (Sept. 11), Oakland (Sept. 10), San Francisco (Sept. 9), Santa Ana (Sept. 9—including a 13-year-old killed), and Memphis (Sept. 7—including children as young as three among the wounded). Behind each city name is a parish, a school, a kitchen table now missing someone’s laughter.
What the Church Teaches
The Church’s voice is clear and continuous. The U.S. bishops have long called gun violence a “culture of death” that demands conversion and concrete action, most recently lamenting the “pandemic of gun violence” and urging prayer, penance, and policy steps that protect the common good. Pope and bishops alike call us to defend life from its conception to its natural end—and to build social conditions where peace can take root.
This is not a partisan stance; it is Catholic moral realism. The Fifth Commandment forbids harm to human life, and Catholic social teaching binds us to pursue the common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity in public policy. Prudential judgments will differ, but indifference is not an option.
Parents Are Afraid—And Children Are Watching
American parents’ fear is persistent and elevated: 41 percent of K-12 parents told Gallup in August that they fear for their oldest child’s physical safety at school, well above the long-term average since 1998. Our children practice lockdown drills; they study under the shadow of “what if?” Fear corrodes trust, learning, and hope. A Catholic society must give its young more than drills; it must give them a future.
What Must Change
- Convert hearts. Parishes can lead with holy hours, rosaries for peace, Masses of reparation, and pastoral care for victims and first responders. Prayer is not an “extra”; it is the Church’s first work and the soul of any lasting change.
- Build a culture that notices the storm before it breaks. Research across public mass shootings shows many perpetrators were in crisis and “leaked” plans beforehand. Catholic schools, youth ministries, and families can strengthen mentoring, mental-health referrals, conflict mediation, and threat-reporting norms—the human safety nets that catch a soul before it falls.
- Advance prudent safety policies in solidarity with the vulnerable. The bishops have repeatedly supported reasonable steps (within constitutional bounds) to reduce the likelihood and lethality of shootings. Catholics of good will will debate specifics, but there is broad room for agreement around safe storage, closing enforcement gaps, improving background systems, risk-based interventions that include due process, and resources for school safety that emphasize prevention and trained, accountable guardianship—not fear-soaked fortresses.
- Stand with victims—then keep standing. Long after cameras leave, survivors face funerals, rehab, court dates, counseling bills, and spiritual wounds. Parish ministries can organize meal trains, counseling sponsorships, scholarship funds, and memorial scholarships, and accompany families for the long road.
Hope That Does Not Disappoint
Our Lord calls us to be peacemakers who bind wounds and transform structures that breed violence. The tally boards will continue to refresh until our culture does. As Catholics, we refuse despair. We take up the Rosary, the works of mercy, the hard work of community safety, and the public witness to the sanctity of every human life, born and unborn, neighbor and stranger.
Holy Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us.
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
St. Joseph, Protector of Holy Church, guard our families.
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