Mass shootings in the USA

[JamesWales]

Obviously this has been discussed before, but after three in three days in California, I was struck by the statistic in this article (about the second one) which shows that mass killings of four or more people are more or less double in 2020, 2021 and 2022 than they were in the numerous years before that?

Everyone will agree that these are all absolute tragedies and I'm sure the overwhelming majority will agree that US gun laws make this stuff more likely than other countries, but what is happening? Why are they becoming far more frequent than even 5 years ago?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64382598

[Doucas]

Re: Mass shootings in the USA

Obviously this has been discussed before, but after three in three days in California, I was struck by the statistic in this article (about the second one) which shows that mass killings of four or more people are more or less double in 2020, 2021 and 2022 than they were in the numerous years before that?

Everyone will agree that these are all absolute tragedies and I'm sure the overwhelming majority will agree that US gun laws make this stuff more likely than other countries, but what is happening? Why are they becoming far more frequent than even 5 years ago?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64382598

The worse inequality is generally speaking crime will increase and it feels like america leads the Western world in this.

Being able to buy a gun with a leaf of bread is beyond insane but on the other hand I think life for men especially is getting harder as we see in suicide rates.

Basically, in a society where mental health getting worse, where people don't feel cared about and have stupidly easy access to guns, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what will happen.

'The boy who feels no warmth from the village will burn it down to feel its heat'

[JamesWales]

Re: Mass shootings in the USA

The worse inequality is generally speaking crime will increase and it feels like america leads the Western world in this.

Being able to buy a gun with a leaf of bread is beyond insane but on the other hand I think life for men especially is getting harder as we see in suicide rates.

Basically, in a society where mental health getting worse, where people don't feel cared about and have stupidly easy access to guns, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what will happen.

'The boy who feels no warmth from the village will burn it down to feel its heat'

Largely agree with this although I don't feel like the horrific mass shootings are as related to inequality as much as general crime which undoubtedly shows a link.

Mental health and the breakdown of social structures is a key issue here imo. Covid seems to have exacerbated things. Everything was thrown up in the air and not everything has landed in the same place.

I like your quote on the warmth in the he village

[az city]

Re: Mass shootings in the USA

Obviously this has been discussed before, but after three in three days in California, I was struck by the statistic in this article (about the second one) which shows that mass killings of four or more people are more or less double in 2020, 2021 and 2022 than they were in the numerous years before that?

Everyone will agree that these are all absolute tragedies and I'm sure the overwhelming majority will agree that US gun laws make this stuff more likely than other countries, but what is happening? Why are they becoming far more frequent than even 5 years ago?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64382598

Jimbo, I used to offer up gun ownership comparators for the US and Canada in my graduate statistics classes. The students were all amazed. Surprisingly, Canadians have a lot of guns too but they have a much lower propensity to engage mass shootings. I used to ask my audience to speculate why this was the case. I suspect if you really want to look at this you'd need to take a long look at the criminology/psychology/sociology work in the area. I don't think the reason for so many mass shootings in the US is gun access 'though I am certainly in favour of severely restricting this.

[Dorcus]

Re: Mass shootings in the USA

Jimbo, I used to offer up gun ownership comparators for the US and Canada in my graduate statistics classes. The students were all amazed. Surprisingly, Canadians have a lot of guns too but they have a much lower propensity to engage mass shootings. I used to ask my audience to speculate why this was the case. I suspect if you really want to look at this you'd need to take a long look at the criminology/psychology/sociology work in the area. I don't think the reason for so many mass shootings in the US is gun access 'though I am certainly in favour of severely restricting this.

That might read more accurately as "I don't think the SOLE reason". Yes I think there's an awful lot more going on in the US psyche to predispose the country to large numbers of homicides. The fact a majority of it's citizens think it a God given right to bear and use arms is a core issue. I think much needs to be done to disentangle the history of the origins of the US from modern day life and contextualise the past.

[JamesWales]

Re: Mass shootings in the USA

Jimbo, I used to offer up gun ownership comparators for the US and Canada in my graduate statistics classes. The students were all amazed. Surprisingly, Canadians have a lot of guns too but they have a much lower propensity to engage mass shootings. I used to ask my audience to speculate why this was the case. I suspect if you really want to look at this you'd need to take a long look at the criminology/psychology/sociology work in the area. I don't think the reason for so many mass shootings in the US is gun access 'though I am certainly in favour of severely restricting this.

Yes I agree with you here. It goes without saying that the general access to guns makes the likelihood of such events more likely. That's a given really, but within that we see very contrasting data within states which doesn't necessarily accord with gun ownership rates, and nor does it answer the question of why things appear to be getting worse.

I think the answers are probably socialgical in nature

[+ the native hipster]

Re: Mass shootings in the USA

where is the usa in the list of countries with the most gun related deaths as a percentage ?

[az city]

Re: Mass shootings in the USA

where is the usa in the list of countries with the most gun related deaths as a percentage ?

You need to drill into the question a little.

Here's a useful starter:

https://usafacts.org/data/topics/security-safety/crime-and-justice/firearms/firearm-deaths/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ND-statsData&msclkid=35ac0d53953e159fa92a6e80a9d639ef

Last time I looked more gun-related deaths were suicides than homicides.

And percentage of what? Population, deaths, homicides, suicides?

[Doucas]

Re: Mass shootings in the USA

You need to drill into the question a little.

Last time I looked more gun-related deaths were suicides than homicides.

Oh, that's ok then.

[Dorcus]

Re: Mass shootings in the USA

where is the usa in the list of countries with the most gun related deaths as a percentage ?

Where is the UK in the list?

[JamesWales]

Re: Mass shootings in the USA

Where is the UK in the list?

Barely registers at all. There are countries in south and central America with far higher gun homicide rates than the US too, and where gun ownership is effectively illegal. So whilst undoubtedly it's a factor esp in mass killings like this, it's not as simple as just blaming guns. Other things happening too

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate