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billh58

(6,635 posts)
Thu Jun 15, 2017, 11:56 AM Jun 2017

Even under the narrowest definition, there's been at least 1 mass shooting every month this year

If you go with the narrowest definition ...

The government has never defined "mass shooting" as a standalone category. Let's go with the most commonly accepted definition, from the Congressional Research Service: a shooting in which a gunman ...

•kills four or more people
•indiscriminately
•in a public place

That definition rules out the Congressional baseball practice shooting or the incident at the UPS facility this week because neither gunman killed four people. In last week's Orlando shooting spree, the gunman killed five people -- but that attack doesn't count either because police say he targeted his victims.

Using that narrow definition, from January 1 to June 14, we have seen 8 deadly mass shootings.

That's an average of 1.3 mass shootings a month.

===============================================================

If you go with the raw numbers ...

What if you didn't rule out motive and just considered the casualty count? According to the non-profit Gun Violence Archive, which compiles data from shooting incidents, a "mass shooting" is any incident where four or more people are wounded or killed (including the killer).

By that definition, from January 1 to June 14, we have seen 154 mass shootings.

That's averages to 6.7 mass shootings a week.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/15/health/mass-shootings-in-2017-trnd/index.html

The NRA/ILA/ALEC/GOA right-wing gun lobby answer? More guns of course. And they should be silenced because all of that gunfire is dangerous to their little ears.

The Liberal, Democratic answer? Sensible gun regulation aimed at keeping guns with the capacity to kill many people quickly out of the hands of sociopaths. Thorough background checks for ALL gun sales and transfers, with no exceptions for Uncle Bob or cousin Billy.

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