Maryland police officers patrol the area after multiple people were shot at at The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., Thursday, June 28, 2018.
 AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
  • The number of mass shootings in the US this year reached 154 on Thursday.
  • Five people were killed and several were "gravely injured" in a shooting at the Capital Gazette's newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, police said.
  • There have been nearly as many US mass shootings as days in 2018.

Five people were killed and several others were "gravely injured" in a shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland, authorities said Thursday.
The incident marked the 154th mass shooting in 2018, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings in the US. To put this into perspective, we are 177 days into the year, which means the US has had nearly as many mass shootings as days in 2018.
Americans are more likely to die from gun violence than many leading causes of death combined, with some 11,000 people in the US killed in firearm assaults each year.
There is no broadly accepted definition of a mass shooting. Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as a single incident in which four or more people, not including the shooter, are "shot and/or killed" at "the same general time and location."
The government also doesn't have an official definition. In 2013, a report from the Congressional Research Service, known as Congress's think tank, described mass shootings as those in which shooters "select victims somewhat indiscriminately" and kill four or more people — a higher bar than Gun Violence Archive's, as it doesn't take injuries into account.
In 2013, a federal mandate lowered that threshold to three deaths.
Data from Gun Violence Archive also shows that more than 7,000 people have died from gun-related violence so far this year and more than 13,300 others were injured.
Here's a complete list of the mass shootings— as defined by Gun Violence Archive — that have occurred in the US so far in 2018.
You can view a report of any incident by visiting the list at gunviolencearchive.org.