A mass shooting a day? "Press Distorts with Inflated 'Mass Shooting' Statistics."

[Decoy of Fenris]

Rather than lean on figures compiled by official federal law enforcement sources, the "shooting tracker" is comprised entirely of news clippings collected from around the Internet by Reddit users.

It "aggregates news stories about shooting incidents — of any kind — in which four or more people are reported to have been either injured or killed," Follman reported.

By including persons who were injured by firearms, the Reddit group inflates the number of "mass shootings" in 2015 to more than 350. In contrast, Mother Jones' own in-depth investigation of the issue turned up just a handful of examples for 2015.

"[T]here have been four 'mass shootings' this year, including the one in San Bernardino, and at least 73 such attacks since 1982," Follman wrote.

Much more here.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/press-distorts-with-inflated-mass-shooting-statistics/article/2577626


The author seems to play partisan politics routinely so I'm dubious to use him as a source, but I did a little background check of my own into the claims made in the article, and they hold water. -Any- newspaper clipping citing any four people injured by "shooting" does in fact count as a mass shooting. That includes but is not limited to; Home invasions, bank robberies, domestic violence, gang violence, shrapnel from a negligent discharge, and adults being shot by a child's pellet gun. In short, the media seems to be lying (Go figure.)

A (slightly) more reliable source can be found here:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map

MotherJones, using the FBI's metric for "Mass Shooting", comes up with only 73-75 instances of a mass shooting in America since 1982, approximately two a year over a thirty three year span.


While (to me) there seems little to discuss, I'm interested to hear your thoughts or if any of you have seen data similar to this elsewhere. Anyways, thanks for your time in reading, guys. o7

[Kalidurga]

1. Thank you

But, I can see the logic of including the mass shooting of family members. In fact it makes more sense to include those shootings than to exclude them based on the shooters relationship to the victims.

[Decoy of Fenris]

2. I won't disagree with you on the larger scale, but I wouldn't exactly call them "mass shootings."

There's a fine and subtle distinction between a mass shooter, who sets out with the intent to hurt or kill as many people as possible, and someone who wants to just execute a specific group of people. Granted, in terms of end result they're fairly similar, but motive in shootings is definitely something we shouldn't disregard casually.

[krispos42]

8. whichever definition you use, you have to be consistent.

Otherwise it's a case of being pretty dishonest.

The FBI had a certain definition which, regardless of completeness, was at least consistent year to year.

[Kalidurga]

9. I agree

I just don't think it's a big difference between violence on a family member and violence on strangers or people in the work place. I would like those kinds of shootings in the category of mass shootings, but they can sub categorize them between family, work place, and strangers. They can put in gang mass shootings as well. It might even be good to do this as we could get a better idea of what kinds of violence we are dealing with here.

It might be a little scary though if it turns out you are more likely to be killed by a family member than a foreign or domestic terrorist.

[Gman]

3. There have been several with at least 4-6

In the last year alone. If you're trying to analyze, you look at the trend, not the average. When Bill Gares walks into a room, on average, everyone's a millionaire. That stat means nothing.

[Decoy of Fenris]

5. Several, yes, but far from 350. The point of this post was to address intellectual dishonesty.

You're right about the overall trend for the purposes of analysis, though. Trending data, while not exactly an accurate predictor, is always a purposeful data set to keep in consideration.

[virginia mountainman]

4. This is what they are calling a "mass shooting"

http://www.app.com/article/20130506/NJNEWS14/305060048/11-12-year-old-boys-Ocean-Twp-charged-shooting-pellets-four-others

A pair of township boys are accused of shooting four others with a pellet gun, police said.

Nobody was seriously hurt by the 11- and 12-year-old boys who shot the pellet gun at them on April 25

It says a lot about your cause when you that a "mass shooting"

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

6. It is unfortunate that the FBI has...

...chosen to use the term "mass" in connection with murders. The term, when use conventionally, means a great deal or an overwhelming number. For example, 'A fire started in the nightclub and there was a mass exodus shortly after the smoke appeared.'

The FBI has no "mass shooting" qualification or terminology to refer a shooting incident where multiple people are targeted and/or wounded. An event where 4 or more people are shot and killed would be described as a mass murder by the FBI.

The media has often developed an affinity for dangerous or ominous sounding terms.

I suppose it sells newspapers.

[krispos42]

7. When this came about over the summer, I told my friend...

... They must be redefining the definition of "mass shooting". The only way to know if the new numbers are better or worse is to go back and apply the new method to the preceding couple of decades.

We're getting a new number, by itself and without context, and we're supposed to freak out about it.

This Reddit thing sounds like SecMo's Google dumps vastly amplified.

[Eleanors38]

10. MSM is drawn to shell game data like some to Limburger cheese: Stinkier the better.

[Eleanors38]

11. This sounds appropriate in GD, given the history of postings.

[Decoy of Fenris]

12. Feel free to crosspost it there if you'd like.

Put bluntly, my baby girl has been a handful for the past few days and looks to be continuing into today. I have neither the time nor inclination to deal with more than one irrationally screeching child at a time.

So feel free to take a crack at it yourself, if you wish.

[Eleanors38]

13. HA! Good luck. As a fellow bachelor said "someone's gotta do it."