mass shooting

Noun

mass shooting (countable and uncountable, plural mass shootings)

1. (US, crime) The shooting of multiple people over a short period of time, particularly when there are many victims and in which the victims are targeted indiscriminately.
   • Police on Monday said they have arrested one man who is a suspect in Sunday’s mass shooting in Sacramento that killed six people and wounded 12 others.2022 April 4, Susannah Cullinane, Holly Yan, Stella Chan and Cheri Mossburg, “All 6 victims killed in the Sacramento mass shooting are identified as police arrest a suspect”, in CNN
   • There is no consensus on what constitutes a mass shooting; different groups define it differently, depending on circumstances including the number of victims, whether the victims are killed or wounded, and whether the shooting occurs in a public place. The Gun Violence Archive[…] defines a mass...2023 March 28, Daniel Victor, “U.S. Mass Shootings in 2023: A Partial List”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 28 Mar 2023

   Synonyms:

   shooting spree