What is the definition of a mass shooting? (1 Viewer)

[Saint_Ward]

The federal data available on active shooter incidents, mass killings and domestic terrorism - USAFacts

The mass shootings on Aug. 3 in El Paso, Texas and Aug. 4 in Dayton, Ohio, and the shooting the previous week in Gilroy, California, brought to the national forefront several issues including domestic terrorism, gun violence and hate crimes.

usafacts.org

betadata/fbi_active_shooter at master · USAFacts/betadata

This repository contains the data we have acquired as part of various works in progress and doesn't have a permanent home yet within our central databases - USAFacts/betadata

github.com

I am playing with the data from 2000-2018 that's on this site. I think these are only ones reported to the FBI. Not all. Or it is only "active shooters", not all mass shootings. Not sure how they split that hair.

They have 281 incidents listed, but only 271 where someone was shot (injured or killed).

If I use 10 casualties (injured and killed combined), there would be 48 incidents.

If I use 20 casualties, there are 13 incidents.

Those 13 incidents (which are all from 2007 to 2018) had 1036 casualties, 269 being murders. Every shooter in this group was a male. Handguns were the most commonly used weapon, followed by a rifle. 3 incidents using a rifle, also had handguns. Six out of the top 8 body counts, used a rifle (or multiple rifles). Almost half were in a school.

 

[Charlie Brizzown]

I’ve read a few different ones and they all differ. I was wondering how to classify this?

One dead, five wounded in Mid-City shooting Friday night

The NOPD says five of the six people shot late Friday night in Mid-City were juveniles ages 15-17 and include one teenager who died from his wounds at the scene.It happened about 10:30 p.m. at the intersection of City Park Avenue and Canal Boulevard.

wwl.radio.com

I say choose the one with the criteria you like best then apply that criteria to this incident. Or come up with your own definition.

 

[mjcouvi]

Wikipedia is as good a source as any

A "mass shooting" is an incident involving multiple victims of firearm violence. There is no widely accepted definition of the term "mass shooting" but the FBI defines a "mass murder" as "four or more murdered during an event with no "cooling-off period" between the murders."

Different media outlets and research groups use different definitions for the term "mass shooting" For example , Crime violence research group "Gun Violence Archive" defines a "mass shooting" as " FOUR or more shot (injured or killed) in a single event [incident], at the same general time and location, not including the shooter,” differentiating between mass shooting and mass murder and not counting shooters as victims.

 

[Saint_Ward]

No one wants to talk about the data I posted?

 

[Charlie Brizzown]

No one wants to talk about the data I posted?

I think the definition of mass shooting is complex. But for statistical purposes, someone has to come up with criteria to define so they can do their studies. Personally, it’s more complex than just setting a number of hurt or killed, you have to look at each incident individually and judge. But like I said, that doesn’t work well in gathering statistical data.

 

[tomwaits]

No one wants to talk about the data I posted?

Your coming across as a bit needy.

 

[Saint_Ward]

Your coming across as a bit needy.

I spent some time on it. I thought @Krodwhodat had a specific question he wanted to nail down.

 

[Charlie Brizzown]

I spent some time on it. I thought @Krodwhodat had a specific question he wanted to nail down.

I think he was just looking for guidance on how to categorize this incident.

 

[Krodwhodat]

I spent some time on it. I thought @Krodwhodat had a specific question he wanted to nail down.

Sorry Ward, i am DC this week putting out fires in my company. i will check it out tonight

 

[Poppy]

The media will call it a mass shooting only if an AR-15/AK-47 type weapon is used in killing more than 1 person. The shooting of 6-10 people with a handgun in a major city does not count.

 

[Big_L]

I spent some time on it. I thought @Krodwhodat had a specific question he wanted to nail down.

From my experience, an active shooter is a current/on going event. When responding, we proceed direct to threat and terminate the threat. A mass shooting is an event has concluded and may or may not have injuries and or casualties. Mass murder would be 4 or more people dead at one overall event. Hope that helps.

 

[Zack Lee]

The United States’ Congressional Research Service acknowledges that there is not a broadly accepted definition and defines a “public mass shooting”[1] as an event where someone selects four or more people and kills them in an indiscriminate manner, echoing the FBI’s definition of the term "mass murder." But adding the indiscriminate factor.[2

I think this is the only useful definition, one that helps us determine what type of animal (classification term) we are dealing with. If you are just crunching numbers somewhere or trying to see what kind of murders you face most, it makes no sense to have revenge or gang related right along side psychopath (the other kind) murders. And they are two very different kinds of crimes. One you are usually trying to solve a crime and the other you usually have the culprit and the only thing you can do is learn and try to prevent future ones.