page_title: History of the United States (2008–present)
section_title: Crime and violence
hierarchical_section_title: History of the United States (2008–present) / Crime and violence
caption_attribution_description: English: The Las Vegas Sign on The Strip, as seen on October 9, 2017, covered in flowers in the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas Strip shooting.
context_page_description: The history of the United States from 2008 to the present began with the collapse of the housing bubble, which led to the Great Recession, and helped the Democrats win the presidency in 2008 with the election of Barack Obama, the country's first African-American president. The government issued large loans and enacted economic stimulus packages that aimed to improve the economy. Obama's domestic initiatives also included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which by means of large reforms to the American healthcare system, created a National Health Insurance program. President Obama eventually withdrew combat troops from Iraq, and shifted the country's efforts in the War on Terror to Afghanistan, where a troop surge was initiated in 2009. In 2010, due to continued public discontent with the economic situation, unemployment, and federal spending, Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives and reduced the Democratic majority in the Senate. In 2011, Obama announced that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces during a covert operation in Pakistan while the Iraq War was declared formally over the same year.
context_section_description: Continuing the increase in high-profile mass school shootings seen in the late 1990s and 2000s, additional school shootings rocked the country in the 2010s, the deadliest of which were the Oikos University shooting (2012), the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (2012), the Isla Vista killings (2014), the Umpqua Community College shooting (2015), the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (2018), and the Santa Fe High School shooting (2018). These shootings, particularly the Sandy Hook and Stoneman Douglas shootings, heightened the debate over gun politics, and continued the public dialogue about improving mental health care and school safety.
  In November 2009, U.S. Army major Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 fellow soldiers and injured 30 in the Fort Hood shooting in Killeen, Texas. While the act was called terrorism by some due to Hasan's Muslim heritage, the attack was ruled out by the FBI to have been perpetrated by a terrorist organization.
  On January 8, 2011, U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was the target of an assassination attempt, when a gunman went on a shooting spree, critically injuring Giffords, killing federal judge John Roll and five other people, and wounding 14 others.
  In July 2012, a man shot 70 people (up to that time, the highest number of victims of any mass shooting in American history) at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 58 others.
  On June 12, 2016, a mass shooting in a Florida gay nightclub killed 50 people, including the man responsible for it. It surpassed 2007's Virginia Tech shooting as the deadliest mass shooting in American history, and was also classified as a terrorist attack and a hate crime against the LGBT community.
  On October 1, 2017, the Orlando nightclub shooting was surpassed by the 2017 Las Vegas shooting as the deadliest mass shooting in American history when a gunman fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay onto a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, killing 58 and injuring 869, before killing himself. This shooting led to an increased dialogue and debate over gun control, particularly the use of bump stocks which allowed the shooter to fire his semi-automatic rifle at a rate similar to a fully automatic weapon. Concerns about public event safety and hotel security also became a focus of public dialogue in the wake of this event. In addition, the investigation was the focus of intense scrutiny, particularly as the official reports and timelines changed several times throughout the investigation. This also led to a number of conspiracy theories.
caption: The Las Vegas sign adorned with flowers a week after the deadliest mass shooting in American history took place on the Las Vegas strip.
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