WATCH: White House grapples with several mass shootings early in the year

A year ago, the U.S. marked its first deadly gun rampage of the year on Jan. 23. By the same date this year, there have been six mass killings that have claimed 39 lives, leaving communities nationwide reeling from the onslaught of violence.

Watch the briefing in the player above.

Eleven people were killed as they welcomed the Lunar New Year at a dance hall popular with older Asian Americans. Seven Chinese and Latino farmworkers were killed amid the serene beauty of California’s Half Moon Bay. A 17-year-old mother and her baby were shot dead in an attack that killed six people across five generations of her family.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reacting to the second mass shooting in California in as many days, told reporters victims’ families say “they are starting Luna New Year broken.”

“President Biden, like most Americans, believes that this is an urgent issue, that too many of our neighbors, colleagues, kids are losing their lives to gun violence,” Jean-Pierre said.

READ MORE: California mourns after 3rd mass shooting in 8 days

The grim news from Half Moon Bay came as Californians try to process the weekend carnage at the ballroom dance club in Monterey Park, a bustling Asian American community at the eastern edge of Los Angeles.

Americans in recent years have learned to endure mass shootings in churches and grocery stores, concerts, office parks and inside the homes of friends and neighbors. The violence can stem from hatred toward other communities, grievances within a group, secrets within families and bitterness among colleagues. But it often ends when a man with a grudge grabs a gun.

Sometimes, it’s not even clear a grudge sparked the outburst.

“There was no apparent conflict between the parties. The male just walked in and started shooting,” Yakima Police Chief Matt Murray said after three people were shot dead at a Circle K convenience store in Washington state early Tuesday, adding to the nation’s grief.

A database of mass killings maintained by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows 2023 off to a particularly deadly start. The bloodshed began on Jan. 4, when a Utah man, investigated but never charged over a 2020 child abuse complaint, shot and killed his wife, her mother and their five children before killing himself.