The shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., was the 355th mass shooting in the U.S. this year, or a little more than one per day. And it was wasn't even the only mass shooting on Wednesday.
The shootings in San Bernardino have raised a familiar question, one that a linguist and a political scientist say keeps coming up because the line can be tough to draw.
The local sheriff, speaking at an afternoon news conference, also said that authorities had recovered yet another gun from the shooter's residence, bringing to 14 the number of weapons linked to him.
Officials say the shooter died in a gunfight with police at Umpqua Community College on Thursday. President Obama expressed his frustration that such mass shootings have become "routine."
Police are still searching for a suspect in the attack, described as a young white man. Charleston police chief Gregory Mullen says the shooting will be investigated as a hate crime.
The church that was the scene of Wednesday's mass shooting has survived a string of challenges, from racism to an earthquake. Emanuel took its current name at the end of the Civil War.
Pastors, parishioners, a coach, a librarian, a graduate: Authorities identify the nine people who were shot and killed during a Bible study at a Charleston, S.C., church on Wednesday night.
The shooter, Don Spirit, 51, had done time in prison on firearms violations in connection with the shooting death of his 8-year-old son during a 2001 hunting accident.
In the weeks before the attack, James Holmes took photos of the Colorado movie theater where 12 people were killed and dozens more wounded in last summer's mass shooting, prosecutors revealed Wednesday at a court hearing in Colorado.