Washington Post Publishes Graphic Mass-Shooting Images

Earlier this year, the Washington Post published a story detailing the devastating effects that bullets from an AR-15 have on the human body. On Thursday, the Post went further—in fact, "further than any mainstream news organization has ever gone before in showing the brutality and devastation" of mass shootings, writes Tom Jones at Poynter. The newspaper published photos and videos from the scenes of 11 mass shootings in the US from 2012 to 2023, coupled with first-person accounts of survivors and first responders in a report called "Terror on Repeat." You can see the report here, but be warned that the images, many obtained from law enforcement agencies, are graphic.

The only photo to show bodies is from the 2017 shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas, but those bodies are seen from a distance. Other victims in other shootings are shown in sealed body bags. One particularly jarring video includes the cries of young students from Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, as the shooting there unfolded. "We realize this story will be disturbing to readers, but we believe that publishing these images gives the public a new vantage point into the pattern of AR-15 mass killings in the United States," writes Post editor Sally Buzbee in a note to readers. (More mass shootings stories.)