I deplore the way President Trump inflames racial antagonism, and I think it would be a good idea to restrict the sale of rapid-firing rifles that use large ammunition clips and magazines. But I don’t think either of these things is a root cause of the mass shootings that plague the U.S.A.
The root cause of mass shootings is deeper than any particular ideology, whether that be white nationalism, Islamic jihadism or something else. The fact that it is not just due to white nationalism is shown by the racial diversity of the shooters.
And no, we don’t need a renewed “war on terror,” this one aimed at white nationalists. [Added 8/9/2019]
LINKS
The War on White Supremacist Terror by C.J. Hopkins for The Consent Factory. [Added 8/9/2019] Good article.
Mass shootings aren’t growing more common—and evidence contradicts common stereotypes about the killers by Charles J. Ferguson for The Conversation.
Five things to know about mass shootings in America by Frederic Lemieux for The Conversation.
Why Do We Have Mass Killers? by Rod Dreher for The American Conservative [Added 8/9/2019]
A handy list of black mass murderers who were taken alive (for people who think that being taken alive for mass murder is a ‘white privilege’) by Will Shetterly for it’s all one thing. [Added 8/11/2019]
I added the text, changed the headline and added links the morning after I posted the chart.
Tags: Mass Shootings
Phil Ebersole's Blog 
August 9, 2019 at 8:57 am |
The source of the data is “Mother Jones.” You can find the source via the second link. There is a chart there which “suggests they’ve (mass shootings) happened at a fairly steady rate over the past decade or so.” I was surprised by this.
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August 11, 2019 at 11:36 am |
Criminologist Frederick Lemieux (the third link) writes:
“A recent study published by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center shows that the frequency of mass shooting is increasing over time. The researchers measured the increase by calculating the time between the occurrence of mass shootings. According to the research, the days separating mass shooting occurrence went from on average 200 days during the period of 1983 to 2011 to 64 days since 2011.”
This conflicts with the Mother Jones data. This statement from the Harvard research may explain it:
“Most shootings of four or more people are usually in homes and other private settings, and are related to family violence. These do not seem to have been increasing. But mass public shootings have become more common. These shootings, in more public places and often of strangers, have been increasing over the past five years.”
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August 11, 2019 at 1:20 pm |
Comparative data on mass shootings are hard to compare for two main reasons:
1. Definitions of mass shootings differ. Mother Jones’ definition, for example, is a shooting that is not gang-related, occurs in a public place and results in three or more deaths, not counting the perpetrator.
2. The totals are different depending on whether you count number of deaths or number of incidents or average number of days between incidents.
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