After Mass Shootings, Search Interest Follows a Familiar Cycle

— -- Another mass shooting, another flurry of internet search activity.

After these acts of violence usually comes a surge in Google searches from people hungry for information. Then a familiar spike in searches for terms such as "gun control," "guns per capita," "gun violence statistics" and "NRA Twitter" (presumably by people interested in what the National Rifle Association has to say) after each act of violence.

Then it all tapers off, only to follow a similar pattern again after the next mass shooting.

Search data provided to ABC News by Google Trends showed how seven shootings in the past year followed a familiar cycle, with interest spiking in the first few hours after each tragedy before tapering off about half a day to a full day later.

Search interest in "shooting" dropped fastest for the recent Orlando massacre; Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 2015; and San Bernardino, California, in December 2015, according to Google.

After every shooting, searches for "gun control" also rose but steadily tapered off in the following days, once again repeating a pattern after every shooting. Google also reported correlations in search interest between "shooting" and "guns per capita" and "gun violence statistics."

The most searched shooting, in terms of spikes, since 2007 was Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, followed by the Aurora, Colorado, theater shooting in July 2012 and the massacre at Pulse in Orlando.