Bloody 4th And Cherry Picking Data

[Charlie T Waite]

As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, we’ve reported in the past the “uptick” in “mass shootings”. Any excuse in the book that can be grabbed, the anti freedom caucus will. Take for example the most recent holiday weekend. The news site Insider took the liberty to report statistics from the Gun Violence Archive and talk about how many “mass shootings” occurred over Independence Day weekend. Naturally, the pandemic coming to an end is pegged as one of the causal factors for the increase in violence.

Before even diving into the Insider piece, we need to explore the flawed approach of the Gun Violence Archive. Recently Lee Williams, one of my colleagues at AmmoLand News, The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project, and Armed American News completely eviscerated the data that the Gun Violence Archive puts forward. Williams’s keen eye caught onto an interesting detail that everyone needs to pay attention to.

According to a recently released report from the FBI, there were far fewer mass shootings over the past four years than were reported by the Gun Violence Archive, a private nonprofit that provides the data cited most often by the mainstream media.

…

According to their new report titled: “Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2020,” the FBI defines active shootings as:

• Shootings in public places
• Shootings occurring at more than one location
• Shootings where the shooter’s actions were not the result of another criminal act
• Shootings resulting in a mass killing
• Shootings indicating apparent spontaneity by the shooter
• Shootings where the shooter appeared to methodically search for potential victims
• Shootings that appeared focused on injury to people, not buildings or objects

Shootings were excluded from the FBI’s list if they were the result of:

• Self-defense
• Gang violence
• Drug violence
• Contained residential or domestic disputes
• Controlled barricade/hostage situations
• Crossfire as a byproduct of another ongoing criminal act
• An action that appeared not to have put other people in peril

By comparison, the Gun Violence Archive, (www.gunviolencearchive.org) or GVA, excludes nothing, even if the shooting is gang or drug-related – the two main causes of most violence in the country today. According to their website, the “GVA uses a purely statistical threshold to define mass shooting based ONLY on the numeric value of 4 or more shot or killed, not including the shooter.”

Taking a look at Williams’s solid comparison, we learn that the Gun Violence Archive is sort of padding the numbers. Do take a chance to read his article in full, as it paints a good picture of how the group is manipulating the data probably for use by the main stream media. Don’t think that the media is having a bias towards looking at their data as gospel? Read on in that Insider piece mentioned earlier:

The return of mass shootings in America was felt over the Fourth of July weekend, as cities from Chicago to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Fort Worth, Texas, were gripped by gun violence.

The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks shootings nationwide, recorded 375 shootings, including 18 mass shootings, in the US from Friday to Monday evening.

The spike was a dark reminder that as normal life resumes in the country, so too does gun violence.

The frequency of so-called mass shootings, which involve numerous injuries or fatalities, had briefly subsided in the 15 months since the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic and offices, schools, and movie theaters closed their doors. Experts warn that the return of frequent mass shootings is imminent, so long as weapons designed to kill people quickly and in large numbers are widely available.

To be clear, gun violence was up last year through the pandemic, even though there were fewer mass shootings.

Note the not so subtle messaging such as “Experts warn that the return of frequent mass shootings is imminent, so long as weapons designed to kill people quickly and in large numbers are widely available.” How’s that for remaining unbiased? Insider then goes on to list the shootings. What can we learn about them all? Perhaps we could cherry pick a little on our own as well. After looking into these “mass shooting” events  we may think differently (commentary below is based off news items from web searches):

July 3 Lancaster, PA 50 block of W Orange St –“The shooting occurred shortly after bar closing and there was a disturbance before the shots were fired.” Was there drinking involved?

July 3 Chadbourn, NC Broadway Rd – “Three people were killed and one person was injured in an eastern North Carolina shooting at a “large party” early Saturday morning, police say.” This is going to get old, but was drinking involved?

July 3 Swainsboro, GA 229 S Main St – “…911 received a call to Bird’s Sports Bar & Lounge located at 229 S. Main St. in Swainsboro. The caller advised there were gunshots and several people were injured.” Was there drinking involved?

July 3 Hammond, IN 5900 block of Wallace Rd – “The gunfire marked the second time since 2019 the Hammond Day festival at the nearby Martin Luther King Park ended in a shooting,” A large festival, eh? Drinking? Drugs?

July 3 Chicago, IL 1000 block of W 89th St – “…the group was standing outside in the 1000 block of West 89th Street when someone in a vehicle drove by and began shooting, Chicago police said.” A drive-by shooting in Chicago? Really!

July 4 Thermal, CA Jackson St and Airport Blvd – “Officials said there were four victims, two of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries.” Not enough information to comment on this shooting.

July 4 Omaha, NE 2311 N 24th St –“Shooting: Jesse’s Place, 2311 N 24th St. Officers reported finding a male shot in the area after hearing several shots fired.” Jesse’s Place is a bar.

July 4 Danville, IL 12 S College St – “On 07/04/21 around 2:02 am Danville Police responded to the area of the Shovel Head Saloon at 12 S. College St for a report of shots fired in the area.” A shooting outside of a Saloon.

July 4 Fort Worth, TX 3400 block of Horne St – “It was unclear why the group was at the car wash, and whether the gathering was a July Fourth celebration. The neighborhood had hosted the first ComoFest, a celebration with live music and family-friendly activities, a few hours before the shooting,” Linked to the festival? Drinking? Drugs? Gangland?

July 4 Rantoul, IL 400 block of S Maplewood Dr – “Multiple witnesses reported an SUV drove by the residence, and a subject within the SUV shot the victims.” Another drive-by shooting.

July 4 North Las Vegas, NV 1200 block of W Helen Ave – “Two men are dead and at least seven people were wounded in multiple shootings across North Las Vegas on Sunday night, according to police.” Not enough information to comment on this shooting.

July 4 Dallas, TX 3700 Dixon Ave – “According to police, there was a big crowd gathered at a park near the Larry Johnson Recreation Center where some people were shooting off fireworks.” A big crowd gathered…

July 4 Dallas, TX 8200 block of Towns St – “The shootings happened where a group was celebrating in Hamilton Park according to police.” The manner in which the group was celebrating was not noted. Were they maybe drinking?

July 4 Chicago, IL 39 N Menard Ave – “About 10:45 p.m., two men and a woman were standing in an alley in the first block of North Menard Avenue when a 33-year-old man began shooting at them, Chicago police said.” A back alley shooting in Chicago?

July 5 Santa Rosa, CA 1500 block of Beachwood Dr – “Believed to be gang-related, the drive-by shooting occurred just after midnight during what police described as an “unofficial block party” where illegal fireworks were being set off.” This speaks for itself.

July 5 Cincinnati, OH 166 W Mehring Way – “Wright and Watson were involved in an ongoing disagreement that spilled over into gunfire Sunday night.” Is this really related to the holiday weekend given their history?

July 5 Toledo, OH Lawrence Ave and Wall St – “A shooting during a large block party left multiple people injured – including an 11-year-old who was shot and a 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed – early Monday morning in central Toledo.” Another party that went awry?

July 5 Chicago, IL 6108 S Wabash Ave – “The Washington Park shooting happened around 1:05 a.m. in the 6100 block of South Wabash when a car drove by a group of people and someone inside began firing, according to Chicago police.” Drive-by shootings and Chicago just go hand in hand, don’t they?

Looking at each of these “mass shooting” events closer shows more of the story. But, doing so does not give us all the details either. These are reports that just rolled out over the last few days. Several of the shootings listed probably had excessive drinking involved. Perhaps drug use? There were many drive-by shootings. How many of them were gangland related? Out of all the the shootings listed, there were only two that we can’t draw any information out of to form an opinion based on conjecture. This illustrates another issue with the Gun Violence Archive. They admit they’re not worried about the “facts” with these shootings, just that they happened. When we don’t care about casual factors and root causes in violence of any type, it’s really impossible to bring remedies to the table. In my opinion, their statistical analysis exists only to feed to the media and be exploited to show how “dangerous” the country is. Their “statistics” on the bloody Independence Day weekend reached out far and wide.

CNN had no issue jumping on the bandwagon of noting these numbers either:

At least 233 people were killed and 618 people were injured by gun violence in more than 500 shootings across the country during the Fourth of July weekend, a 26% drop from last year’s holiday weekend, according to the latest data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive.

According to data released Tuesday morning, which looks at shootings from 5 p.m. Friday through Monday, there were 314 fatal shootings with 751 injuries during the same period last year, the GVA said.

The significant drop in shootings and shooting victims comes as major cities nationwide confront a surge in violent crime.

Kudos! to CNN for mentioning the decrease in “mass shootings” in comparison to last year. I don’t know what is going on that they’d concede to such a thing, I always fancied main stream media is to never admit something like this. We’re supposed to believe we’re in a constant state of peril and increase in violent crime. Then again, last year at the same time, people were getting a little more freedom from the pandemic, and able to “celebrate” with others. Perhaps CNN is getting in touch with facts more these days? More like they’re seeing what their ratings are doing.

If you do a web search about the weekend and plug in Gun Violence Archive’s reporting on the 4th of July weekend, you’ll find over five dozen articles all saying the same thing. Someone really wants the messaging of Gun Violence Archive’s statists to be the reigning champion when it comes to reporting on “mass shootings”. This all comes rather suspect in light of an announcement from Governor Cuomo proclaiming a so-called “gun violence state of emergency.”

In no manner am I suggesting that we should be dismissive of these shootings, however, I think it’s mighty important to look at the real data, after it’s been actually complied and analyzed. Unfortunately it’s clear that the Gun Violence Archive’s numbers are going to prevail over the FBI’s and this is just another battle we’re going to have to deal with when it comes to defending our freedoms. Remember this the next time someone want’s to school you on the number of “mass shootings” in the United States.