Some Stats

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44126.pdf

 

Quote

With data provided by criminologist Grant Duwe, CRS also compiled a 44-year (1970-2013) dataset of firearms-related mass murders that could arguably be characterized as “mass public shootings.” These data show that there were on average: • one (1.1) incident per year during the 1970s (5.5 victims murdered, 2.0 wounded per incident), • nearly three (2.7) incidents per year during the 1980s (6.1 victims murdered, 5.3 wounded per incident), • four (4.0) incidents per year during the 1990s (5.6 victims murdered, 5.5 wounded per incident), • four (4.1) incidents per year during the 2000s (6.4 victims murdered, 4.0 wounded per incident), and • four (4.5) incidents per year from 2010 through 2013 (7.4 victims murdered, 6.3 wounded per incident). These decade-long averages suggest that the prevalence, if not the deadliness, of “mass public shootings” increased in the 1970s and 1980s, and continued to increase, but not as steeply, during the 1990s, 2000s, and first four years of the 2010s. Mass shootings are arguably one of the worst manifestations of gun violence. As discussed in this report, statute, media outlets, gun control and rights advocates, law enforcement agencies, and Mass Murder with Firearms: Incidents and Victims, 1999-2013 Congressional Research Service researchers often adopt different definitions of “mass killing,” “mass murder,” and “mass shooting,” contributing to a welter of claims and counter-claims about the prevalence and deadliness of mass shootings. With improved data, policymakers would arguably have additional vantage points from which to assess the legislative proposals that are inevitably made in the wake of these tragedies.