There Have Been More Mass Shootings Than Days This Year

Following the shooting in San Bernardino, California yesterday, several mainstream media sites have claimed that it constitutes the 355th mass shooting this year.

No, it doesn’t.

The figure was unquestioningly repeated by The New York Times, the Washington Post,Boston Globe, CBS News, MSNBC, and Newsday, despite the fact that it is inaccurate and does not in any way dovetail with FBI statistics.

Television newscasts also repeatedly cited the figure without checking the facts.

The origin of the figure is even more ridiculous, given that it was culled from a claim by a group of anti-Second Amendment “activists” on the news sharing website Reddit.

The group, named “Guns Are Cool,” (an attempted ironic name) runs a “subreddit” page which it describes as “the world’s only crowd sourced mass shooting tracker, as featured on the Huffington Post, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Young Turks, the FX Network’s ‘Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell’ and more!”

The trouble is, that it’s figures are totally out of whack with official stats.

According to the FBI, only 21 of the 355 shootings identified by the anti-gunners can actually be categorized as mass murder with a firearm.

It is still too many, but it isn’t any where close to 355.

Continue . . . http://www.prisonplanet.com/no-there-have-not-been-355-mass-shootings-this-year.html

 

The FBI describes mass murders as an event where four or more people are killed.
This group describes a mass shooting as an event where four or more people are shot.

According to that definition--four or more people being shot--there have been 355 mass shootings so far this year. (Note: not mass murders.)

Poncho needs help reading.

 

These statistics are being manipulated to fit a narrative. Not everyone would consider a gunman to be a “victim” of a mass shooting because he/she are the ones actually pulling the trigger. The definition of “mass” is even up for debate. Dictionary.com defines “mass” as “pertaining to, involving, or affecting a large number of people,” but even that’s a little deceptive. Some people consider a large number of people to be eight, while others consider it to be over a dozen. The FBI’s own study on mass shootings from 2014 is just as broad (emphasis mine).

A total of 1,043 casualties occurred during the incidents included in this study (486 killed, 557 wounded). If a shooter died as a result of the incident, that individual was not included in the casualty totals. In addition, a small number of those identified as wounded were not injured by gunfire but rather suffered injuries incidental to the event, such as being hit by flying objects/shattered glass or falling while running. For the purposes of this study, the FBI did not seek to isolate the exact number of individuals that fell into this category, when research did not allow for that type of injury to be easily discerned.

The median number of individuals killed in each incident was 2, and the median number of individuals wounded in each incident was 2.

The FBI found that 64 incidents (40.0%) would have been categorized as falling within the new federal definition of “mass killing,” which is defined as “three or more killings in a single incident.”

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/12/03/about-those-more-mass-shootings-than-days-narrative-for-2015/

Putting Gun Death Statistics in Perspective
Gangs Remain Key Unaddressed Problem in Gun Debate

< snip >

Gang/Drug Violence Driving Force of Gun Deaths?


According to the FBI, almost four in ten homicides are classified as "unknown" while arguments are, predictably, the top cause of known homicides. It is unclear what percentage of gun deaths are gang-related nationally and even from one city to the next. So while Detroit logs some 350 homicides annually, there is no hard statistic to grasp the exact percentage that is gang-related or involving gang-members.


In New Orleans, between 35-55% of homicides are classified as gang-related. In Chicago, an estimated 80% of homicides are gang-related. And in Baltimore, the police commissioner states that 80% of homicides are drug-related. (But again, most of this depends on methods of keeping records, and, often, personal opinions.)

When comparing cities plagued by gun violence and looking at "the most dangerous" cities in the United States, the most commonly cited cause of violence is gangs.

http://usconservatives.about.com/od...tting-Gun-Death-Statistics-In-Perspective.htm

We believe that drug prohibition is the true cause of much of the social and personal damage that has historically been attributed to drug use. It is prohibition that makes these drugs so valuable – while giving criminals a monopoly over their supply. Driven by the huge profits from this monopoly, criminal gangs bribe and kill each other, law enforcers, and children. Their trade is unregulated and they are, therefore, beyond our control.

http://www.leap.cc/about/why-legalize-drugs/

Reality Check: Is There A Link Between Mass Shootings and Anti-Depressants?

 

So by that definition, wouldn't most engagements in war qualify as mass shootings?

 

http://www.breitbart.com/big-journa...mber-4/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

 

Maybe there just aren't enough days in the year?

 

I have mentioned this before: There is a far greater group of mass killers than gun wielders that the public needs to be made aware of in this nation.

400,000 people are killed each year by medical malpractice.

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/deaths-by-medical-mistakes-hit-records

Think about that when you are admitted to a hospital.

HankD