U.S. President Donald Trump (R) attends an event at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Oct. 2, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday called a mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert that has killed more than 50 an "act of pure evil," adding that he will visit the city on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
DEADLIEST SHOOTING
Sunday's death toll has surpassed that of the last major U.S. shooting, which occurred last year when 49 people were killed by a gunman who was inspired by the Islamic State group.
Mass shootings have become more and more common in the United States, especially in the last decade, when the three deadliest shootings in U.S. history took place.
In 2007, a student at Virginia Tech killed 32 people; in 2012 a deranged gunman entered the Sandy Hook elementary school and murdered 28 people, including many children; last year a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Now, the Vegas shooting has dwarfed all three of these incidents in terms of the death toll.
There are various opinions on why so many mass killings have taken place in recent years. Those range from lax firearms laws to the breakdown of families to less participation in mosques, churches, temples and synagogues. Experts also name stresses caused by an increasingly widening the wealth gap and increasing difficulties making ends meet, as well as the closure of many of the nation's mental institutions.
"Our society's access to guns and high-capacity, high-power weaponry is one issue, but also our failings in mental healthcare, the background check process, and a growing copycat factor have to also be considered," Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of Congress and the Presidency, told Xinhua.
Darrell West, a senior fellow at U.S. leading think tank the Brookings Institution, said "it is easy to get guns in the United States, so whenever someone is angry or crazy, they use firearms to express their discontent. Guns allow them to strike out at whoever is making them angry."
Some killers are also seeking media exposure, in a bizarre attempt to tell the world they believe society has wronged them, some experts said.
"Massacres attract media attention, which gives the deranged individual a few moments of fame," West said.
