2017 deemed deadliest year for mass shootings in modern US history

Updated

As a new year inches closer, Americans reflect on the devastating events that made 2017 the deadliest year of mass shootings in modern U.S. history.

According to Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that continuously tracks gun-related death and injury reports based on official records, there have been 345 mass shootings in America in 2017 alone.

And even more daunting -- two of the five deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history occurred in the span of just 35 days.

Las Vegas massacre: October 1, 2017

On October 1, 2017, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on 22,000 people at a country music festival from his hotel suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel on the Las Vegas strip. The attack, which left 58 people dead and more than 500 injured, marked the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The death toll surpassed the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre, which took the lives of 49 people in June of 2016.

RELATED: The most devastating images from the Las Vegas shooting

Texas church shooting: November 5, 2017

Just one month after the tragic attack in Las Vegas, 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley killed at least 26 churchgoers and injured 20 others at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the state's history.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport: January 6, 2017

Five people were killed and eight others were injured when 26-year-old Esteban Santiago opened fire at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida. He flew from Alaska to Florida with a gun in a checked bag, which he used to carry out the massacre in the baggage claim area of Terminal 2.

RELATED: The deadliest mass shootings in the US since 1900

Lincoln Country shooting spree, Mississippi: May 28, 2017

35-year-old Willie Corey Godbolt went on a shooting spree overnight in rural Lincoln County Mississippi, killing a sheriff's deputy and seven other people in three separate locations.

Unsettling revelations

Americans are more likely to die from gun violence than many leading causes of death combined, with around 11,000 people in the U.S. killed in gun attacks each year.

The Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot in one incident (not including the shooter), reports more than 14,000 people killed and over 29,000 injured in 2017.

These horrid acts of terror spanned the entire country -- occurring in cities, rural communities and suburbs in almost every state.

Here's a complete list of 2017's mass shootings in the U.S., compiled by Gun Violence Archive.

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