MI Among Nation's Leaders In Mass Shooting Frequency: Study

Michigan is among the nation's leaders when it comes to the frequency of mass shootings, according to a new study.

The Wolverine State registered 25 mass shootings per 100,000 residents in 2025, placing it No. 9 on the list that was compiled by data from the Gun Violence Severity Index.

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The study, conducted by a Las Vegas-based law firm, took three per-100,000-resident metrics across all 50 states: total gun violence incidents from the Gun Violence Archive and The Trace (2025 year-to-date), firearm deaths from CDC mortality records (2024), and mass shooting incidents, weighted at 35, 35, and 30 percent respectively into a composite score out of 100.

According to Ladah Injury and Car Accident Lawyer Las Vegas, two of the top 10 mass-shooting states sit in the Midwest — Illinois and Michigan — confirming that the region's concentration problem extends beyond a single state.

The top 10 states for mass shooting incidents per 100,000, including Michigan, are:

1. Illinois — mass shooting incidents per 100,000 (57), composite score out of 100 (74.17)

2. Texas — mass shooting incidents per 100,000 (50), composite score out of 100 (78.69)

3. California — mass shooting incidents per 100,000 (49), composite score out of 100 (67.09)

4. Pennsylvania — mass shooting incidents per 100,000 (34), composite score out of 100 (52.65)

5. Florida — mass shooting incidents per 100,000 (31), composite score out of 100 (53.11)

5. New York — mass shooting incidents per 100,000 (31), composite score out of 100 (37.11)

7. Georgia — mass shooting incidents per 100,000 (29), composite score out of 100 (60.22)

8. Louisiana — mass shooting incidents per 100,000 (28), composite score out of 100 (59.56)

9. Michigan — mass shooting incidents per 100,000 (25), composite score out of 100 (40.12)

10. North Carolina — mass shooting incidents per 100,000 (21), composite score out of 100 (53.66)

There were 14 mass shootings in Michigan in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group who defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.

Overall, the gun death rate in Michigan has jumped 25 percent from 2014 to 2023, according to CDC data.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has signed several gun reform packages into law, universal background checks, setting safe storage requirements and "red-flag checks."

The "red flag laws" allow certain people, such as family members, law enforcement and health providers to ask a court to temporarily take guns away from people they believe can injure themselves or other people.

In March, Whitmer joined a crowd of anti-gun-violence advocates in Lansing to push for additional gun reform measures.

"In our country, nearly 47,000 people lose their lives to gun violence every single year, and guns are the number one killer of children and teens," Whitmer said. "In Michigan, we know this pain too well. We see it in our stores, in our schools, in our parades and our places of worship."