The spate of shooting attacks in communities such as Highland Park, Ill.; Uvalde, Tex.; and Buffalo has riveted attention on America's staggering number of public mass killings. But the rising number of gun deaths in the United States extends beyond such high-profile episodes, emerging nearly every day inside homes, outside bars and on the streets of many cities. The surge in gun violence comes as firearm purchases rose to record levels in 2020 and 2021, with more than 43 million guns estimated to have been purchased during that period. At the same time, the rate of gun deaths in those years hit the highest level since 1995, with more than 45,000 fatalities each year. Guns are used in most suicides and are almost entirely responsible for an overall rise in homicides across the country from 2018 to 2021. Data shows that gun sales increase in the wake of violence, political events and uncertainty. Large spikes occurred after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting; amid coronavirus shutdowns, racial justice protests and the presidential election in 2020; and after the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol. Mass killings, particularly those in which a gunman opens fire in a crowded public space, tend to draw much more attention than daily violence. Defining a mass shooting as four or more people killed ... such cases account for fewer than 1 percent of all people killed by firearms. They are very rare. About 60 percent of the gun deaths in the United States each year are suicides.