US 2019 SADNESS : 'MASS KILLINGS MAST'

US mass killings hit new high in 2019, most were shootings.

The first one occurred 19 days into the new year when a man used an ex to kill four family members including his infant daughter. Five months later, 12 people were killed in a workplace shooting in Virginia. Twenty-two more died at a Walmart in EI Paso in August.

A database compiled by the news agency, USA Today and Northeastern University shows that there were more mass killings in 2019 than any year dating back to the least in 1970s, punctuated by a chilling succession of deadly rampages during the summer.

In all, there were 41 mass killings, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator. Of those, 33 were mass shootings. More than 210 people were killed.

Most of the mass killings barely became national news, failing to resonate among the general public because they didn't spill into public places like massacres in EI Paso and Odessa, Texas, Dayton, Ohio; Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Jersey City, New Jersey.

The majority of the killings involved people who knew each other family disputes, drug or gang violence or people with beefs that directed their anger at co-workers or relatives.

In many cases, what sett off the perpetrator remains a mystery

Among other trends in 2019 : The 41 mass killings were the most in a single year since AP/USA Today and Northeastern database began tracking such events back to 2006, but other research going back to the 1970s shows no other year with as many mass slayings. The second-most killings in a year prior to 2019 was 38 in 2006.

The 211 people killed in this year's cases is still eclipsed by the 224 victims in 2017, when the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history took place in Las Vegas.

California, with some of the most strict gun laws in the country, had the most, with eight such mass slayings.

But nearly half of the US states experienced a mass slaying, from big cities like New York, to tiny towns like Elkmont, Alabama, with a population of just under 475 people.

Firearms were the weapons in all but eight of mass killings. Other weapons included knives, axes and at least twice when the perpetrator set a mobile home on fire, killing those inside.

None mass shootings occurred in a public place. Other mass killings occurred in homes, in the workplace or at a bar.

James Densley, a criminologist and professor at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota, said the AP/USA Today/Northeastern database confirms and mirrors what his own research into exclusively mass shootings has shown. [AP]