Mass shootings - some statistics

imp said:
Given the extremely high number of firearms being continuously purchased here, as I pointed out in another thread, 900,000 background checks in a single week, obviously many more "new gun owners" are being enabled, as well as more guns purchased by seasoned owners, MANY more guns entering the mix continuously.

Yet, the stats show number of firearms deaths per capita as CONSTANT at 10 per 100,000 population for the PAST 12 or more years.

Who can therefore PROVE that more guns = more deaths? imp
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Congratulations.
Your society had finally reached peak massacre rate and is unlikely to show further increase.
It is also unlikely to show any decrease either.

You seem to have reached a state of unhappy equilibrium.
 
Warrigal said:
Congratulations.
Your society had finally reached peak massacre rate and is unlikely to show further increase.
It is also unlikely to show any decrease either.

You seem to have reached a state of unhappy equilibrium.
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Warri, your analysis is untypically childish. The facts present themselves, you dispute them with a counter-claim proving your personal stance. imp
 

Allow me to apologise.

What I should have said is, "How can you possibly be satisfied with a death rate that is as high as it is and which shows no sign of improving over time?"

That is my personal stance - too many people are dying violently and no-one is trying to reduce the numbers. The people who are dying are for the most part people like you and me - civilians old and young and a lot of them are children. They are mothers, fathers, friends, relatives and all of them are someone's children.
 
Is it realistic to think the government can control the behavior of people bent on needless violence or destruction? How far should the government go? Is it a good idea to take away the freedom to own a firearm if you obtain it through legal means? Is it a good idea to ban drugs that were in the system of a shooter?

I personally don't own a gun or want one in my house but I have no right to tell another American he can't. The old adage that guns don't kill people...people kill people is just a fact. I have strong personal opinions about guns for my own reasons..but in the end people who want a gun for heinous reasons will find one to buy on the black market or steal one.

California has the strongest gun laws in the nation...yet we just had another shooting in San Bernadino. There was some talk on giving better equipment to local law enforcement to help them deal with this sort of well organized attack. Police are there to protect public safety and that concerns every citizen.
 
Falcon said:
But the police can't be every place at any one time.

The only solution is to eliminate the goofy people.
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It's true they can't be everywhere at once...but it's also true they are the ones who deal with it after it occurs and should have appropriate equipment to do so. How do you decide who is "goofy" until the deed is done? Just sayin'....
 
Falcon said:
But the police can't be every place at any one time.

The only solution is to eliminate the goofy people.
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Perhaps the truest statement I've heard, with regard to the police preventing murders, etc., is....."Remember..When Danger is only Seconds away, the Police are Only Minutes Away".
 
Karen99 said:
I personally don't own a gun or want one in my house but I have no right to tell another American he can't. The old adage that guns don't kill people...people kill people is just a fact. I have strong personal opinions about guns for my own reasons..but in the end people who want a gun for heinous reasons will find one to buy on the black market or steal one.

California has the strongest gun laws in the nation...yet we just had another shooting in San Bernadino. There was some talk on giving better equipment to local law enforcement to help them deal with this sort of well organized attack. Police are there to protect public safety and that concerns every citizen.
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Very true, I agree Karen.

Don M. said:
Perhaps the truest statement I've heard, with regard to the police preventing murders, etc., is....."Remember..When Danger is only Seconds away, the Police are Only Minutes Away".
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Exactly!
 
Warrigal said:
In 2015, so far there have been more mass shootings in the US than there have been days of the year. A mass shooting is one where four or more people are shot.

"There have been a total of 352 mass shootings in the country so far. This includes at least one mass shooting for 208 days in 2015, and 81 days of two or more mass shootings.

This means there have been more mass shootings than days in the year."
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I question the accuracy of that statement, after reading articles such as this one.


The Washington Post reported yesterday that there have been 355 mass shootings so far in 2015. Other mainstream media outlets such as The New York Times have also reported that mass shootings have surged to the extent that they occur at an average pace of around once per day.

While definitions of mass shootings vary based on who is calculating the statistics, the source that these articles are relying on to come to such a shocking number calculates the stat in a vastly different manner than the ways law enforcement agencies have traditionally evaluated them.

The source of the stats is an unofficial, crowd-sourced compilation of news articles of shootings by members of the anti-gun Reddit sub-forum GunsAreCool which is also mirrored on the Mass Shooting Tracker website.

Mass Shooting Tracker’s definition of a mass shooting as any gun violence event in which 4 people including the shooter are injured would include gang shootouts, robberies and drug deals gone wrong, suicide-by-cop incidents in which bystanders were inadvertently injured by police, and other incidents that deviate drastically from the Columbine and Sandy Hook type events that most Americans think of when talking about a mass shooting.

Mass Shooting Tracker included in its list of 2013 mass shootings a relatively harmless incident involving no serious injuries in which two boys aged 11 and 12 allegedly shot four people with BB guns.

 
SeaBreeze said:
I don't know what makes me cringe more. Hearing of another senseless mass shooting, or listening to the anti-gun people, including the President, jump on each opportunity to promote their agenda.
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AMEN! To read the "opinions" or listen to some people, one would think that the people in the U.S. are running around crouched over and having to dodge a constant rain of bullets streaming overhead. While it's true that the U.S. has a higher death rate from firearms than most European nations....AND even Australia, Canada, and Scotland...we rank somewhere around the 95th most dangerous nation when compared to the over 250 nations on the planet. Then, when one looks at the overall reasons for these gun deaths, a far different picture emerges than that espoused by the Hard Core Anti-Gunners. Here is a good article derived from data collected by the CDC....

http://www.naturalnews.com/039650_CDC_gun_deaths_race.html

If we could somehow eliminate the daily shootings attributed to the drug and street gangs in our inner cities, we would quickly jump into the top half dozen safest nations in the world.

Those who beat the "Ban Guns" drum would be well advised to review a little History. One of the most successful Gun Bans occurred in Germany in the 1930's. And, as a result, over 6 million defenseless Jews were led to slaughter.
 
Don M. said:
If we could somehow eliminate the daily shootings attributed to the drug and street gangs in our inner cities, we would quickly jump into the top half dozen safest nations in the world.
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Very true, the government doesn't seem very interested in addressing the serious issue of street criminals and gang shootings, many of which are done with illegal guns bought in the streets or acquired by trading for illegal drugs. Many of the homicides occur in the streets of large cities, where jobs are scare and as a result crime is rampant. Get the guns from these street criminals, and stop that crime which is so disgracefully ignored by the main stream media.
 
SeaBreeze said:
I question the accuracy of that statement, after reading articles such as this one.

Mass Shooting Tracker included in its list of 2013 mass shootings a relatively harmless incident involving no serious injuries in which two boys aged 11 and 12 allegedly shot four people with BB guns.
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Actually, SeaBreeze, I don't think that this is a relatively harmless incident. For two boys aged 11 and 12 to wound four people with BB guns is very problematic. To wound one could be classed as unfortunate but four looks like a deliberate act. If they had had access to something more deadly then a BB gun then it could easily have been four fatalities.

If guns don't kill people but people do, then we are looking at two would be killers.It is only a matter of time before the calibre of their weapons matches their ambitions.
 
Warrigal said:
Actually, SeaBreeze, I don't think that this is a relatively harmless incident. For two boys aged 11 and 12 to wound four people with BB guns is very problematic. To wound one could be classed as unfortunate but four looks like a deliberate act. If they had had access to something more deadly then a BB gun then it could easily have been four fatalities.

If guns don't kill people but people do, then we are looking at two would be killers.It is only a matter of time before the calibre of their weapons matches their ambitions.
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Well, I take it that you would include two boys shooting people with BB guns, where there were no serious injuries, should be included in statistics for mass shootings? I supposed you agree then with this boy's 2 day suspension from school for biting his pop tart pastry into a shape that vaguely resembled a gun. I stand by my conclusion that the numbers of mass shootings in the US according to your report are incorrect and artificially inflated. Sorry, with all due respect, I have to be realistic and can't go along with this fear nonsense spread by the media.

 
QS and Warri....I happen to be a gun owner but I am convinced we are entirely too consumed by the "gun culture" in the US. Gun fanatics will jump through hoops to convince us that guns are a everyday necessity and their "right" per the "Constitution" and the well regulated militia clause. I will never understand how the Supreme Court could call what we have now as anything resembling a well regulated militia. I would hope impartial heads might prevail in the business of finding a sensible solution to this runaway train of gun population. PS Logic says that the National Guard is what the Constitution intended when it was written.
 
We do have well regulated militias as well. Each state has a National Guard unit or something similar such as Reserves if not one of the actual US Military Bases.

Add to that the ability of all willing to become an owner, we do have a substantial amount of arms available if need be to divert any efforts by insiders or outsiders to try to take over the US.
 
Okay the nutty thing is that you apply for a job. The postal service right down to your local dollar store. You have a background check, a credit check...do you know how many jobs exclude you for default student loans? Maybe if you had a decent job, you might be happy to pay them back eh wot? Oh and of course a urine drug test. And your employment and addresses for ten years and personal references and...

Now really...it's harder to apply for the average piddling job than to buy a firearm? Doesn't make sense to me.
 

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