The Importance Of Mass Shootings

While mass shootings cause a huge unnecessary loss of life, most killings in the United States come from murders and crimes. Guns should be banned to lower crime rates. Because “more than 70% of homicides are committed with a firearm” (Cannon n.p.) and 2.

From this quote, it is clear that, despite worldwide news coverage, mass school shootings or what may be described as rampage shootings, are actually rare events. They only make up a small proportion of the thousands of gun deaths per year in America as a whole.

July 20th, 2012, twelve are killed and fifty-eight are injured at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The man who killed them used a semi-automatic rifle with a one hundred round magazine. An automatic weapon has no use in the United States because all sporting events, and activities with guns can be accomplished without automatic weapons. It is important because it limits the possibilities of events like the shooting at the Sandusky school in Ohio. Some would say they are a good for shooting range activity and most people don’t commit crimes with them, getting rid of automatic weapons would get rid of the crimes committed with them overall. People die because of the actions taken with with assault rifles. Automatic weapons should be banned in the US because they are not needed for self defense, and they have almost no use in recreational activities.

A major concern in the United States is why mass shootings occur and what needs to be done to stop them from happening. Mass shootings have gained a significant amount of attention in 2015. Within the year, a total of 372 mass shootings have occurred in the United States killing 475 people and wounding 1,870. Mass shootings have become a popular trend within the media and have given the impression that it is the new normal. Mass shootings are a dysfunction to society, due to the fact that they create horror and tragedy within the country. Schools, shopping malls, and even movie theatres have all endured the horrific violence. Mass shootings are nothing new, however, they seem to be occurring more often and are becoming more and more violent. The three leading factors to mass shootings are problematic masculinity, mental illness, and gun control.

Has the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill led to the increase of mass shootings experienced in the US? According to Lankford, several reports suggest that up to 60% of offenders of mass shootings in the US since 1970, exhibited symptoms including depression, delusions, and acute paranoia prior to the commission of their crimes. Further statistics have shown that since 1982, there have been at least 71 public mass shooting across the country; with 34 of these mass shooting having occurred since 2006. A recent analysis of the database by researchers at Harvard University corroborated by a recent FBI study concluded that mass shootings have been on the rise. More than half of the cases involve school or workplace shootings, 12 and 20

When we hear the words mass shooting, most of us immediately pause and begin to think the worst. We are filled with sorrow that soon turns to anger as details of the event emerge. A portion of the population immediately begins to call for more gun regulation and the battle is staged again. This scenario plays out in the media and in the legislative halls around the country and seems to occur on a much too frequent basis. Has the frequency of mass shootings actually increased? Or has technology allowed the media to convey stories within minutes of their occurrence giving the appearance of increasing crime? Many people believe the term mass shooting and inner city are almost synonymous

The mass shooting has become a big issue in the United States. After shootings like the one that happened in Newtown, Connecticut all Americans come together to look for ways to actually prevent mass shootings to happened. “Mass shootings are defined as the killing of four or more victims Rates of Mass shootings have risen dramatically in the last few years. Since 2006, there have been more than 200 mass killing in the United States.” (Usatoday.com) Due to the big increase in mass shootings a question is still debatable. Are these mass shootings due to environmental factors or genetics?

A mass shooting is defined as “one that kills or injures 4 or more people.” In 2015 alone there was 372 mass shootings in the U.S in 2015 that killed 475 people and wounded 1,870. The largest mass shooting in America happened in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017. In Las Vegas, the gunman (Stephen Paddock) opened fire on a crowd at a Route 91 Harvest music festival. Stephen Paddock killed 59 people and injured 527. Before this, the largest mass shooting had been in June 12, 2016 when a 29-year-old security guard killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a hate crime/ terriost attack inside a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. More gun control is needed in this country to bring down the death toll in suicides and mass shootings in the U.S

Mass shootings are a huge epidemic in the United States right now. Many people live in fear of another mass shooting. Two important facts to know about mass shootings is what exactly a mass shooting is and how often they occur. CNN’s authors used the Gun Violence Archive to define a mass shooting in his article “A Visual Guide; Mass Shootings in America” as “any incident where four or more people are wounded or killed”(Willingham). The frequency of mass shootings depends on which source you look at; using the definition given by CNN as well statistics, the United States has seen “136 mass shootings in the first 164 days of this year”(Willingham). However, author Sam Harris has a staggeringly different statistic in his blog article “The Riddle of the Gun”. Harris claims that “seventy mass shootings have occurred in the U.S. since 1982, leaving 543 dead” (Harris). Harris’s article is three years older than CNN’s article, yet the facts are staggeringly different by an amount that is nearly impossible to reach in three years. The definitions the two articles used for defining mass shootings are obviously different, but are both capable of informing the reader on the statistics of mass shootings frequency.

According to FBI.gov, an official site of the U.S. government, the FBI standards are three people must be killed by gunfire for it to be considered a mass shooting. The standards used in on shootingtracker.com are that four people have to at least be injured by gunfire, including the shooter, for it to be considered mass. Shootings have been responsible for more than 1,500 injuries and over 380 deaths throughout the entire U.S. this year. “I find it extremely shocking and heartbreaking that something so awful has struck so many of our communities,” says senior Reilly Carson. “The fact that there have been more shootings than days shows that there is something that needs to be changed.”

“Since at least 1950, all but two public mass shootings in America have taken place where general citizens are banned from carrying guns.” Now, envision being in a mall and you hear a horrible scream immediately after you hear a massive CRACK! You look behind you and you see a man running at you with a gun, you grab for your gun but you remember you have just gave your gun to the government. You would be defenseless because of gun control. Gun control should not be reinforced for the reasons that most mass shootings are in gun free zones. most gun related death are suicides, and these laws wouldn’t apply to criminals.

The United States has had over 350 mass shootings in 2015 alone. There is no specific criteria for mass shootings besides that there are multiple victims and it seems to be at random. There have been a number of mass shootings that have made the news worldwide like; the mass shooting at a black church in S.C and the mass shooting in Texas that left over 20 individuals dead or injured. There are several reasons why a mass shooting may occur. The most recent mass shooting happened this month in California and it happened at a home for the mentally ill. On December 2, 2015 Syed Rizwan Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik opened fire on at a holiday party in the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. Fourteen died and 21 were

Mass shootings have become a disturbing issue that seems to be on the rise around the world, and no one can predict when one may occur. The FBI defines mass shootings as the killing of four or more victims. There have been a total of 274 days so far this year with a terrifying amount of 294 mass shootings (Ingraham, 2015). Mass shootings cannot be solved, but they can be prevented. This can be done by enacting policies or programs to take better care of people suffering from mental health issues, enacting better gun control laws, and by not allowing violence in entertainment such as video games.

In the last ten months, since the start of the year 2015, proximally 300 mass shootings have taken place in the United States. This number is about 100 times the amount of mass shootings in Australia since their gun restricting bill was passed in 1996. This raises the discussion whether or not changing the American gun laws would help bring down the total of injuries and fatalities.

The Federal Bureau of investigation defines “mass shooting” as any incident where at least four people were slain or injured with a gun. The data was reviewed for mass shootings in the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports from 2009-2012 and searched the media for further details about these incidents as well as for mass shootings