Gun Violence....what is the problem?

While the logic appears to be sound, that mass coverage of mass killings simply makes them more acceptable, and more desirable to some, the rate appears questionable. Exactly what is being classified as a mass shooting, to allow the claim that there is one being carried out every twelve and one half days in the united states? What is the definition being used to determine which incidents are mass shootings and which are not?

 

Well, the thing is, since first person shooters became popular in the 1990s, the murder rate in this country has gone down. It's a little over half of what it was in 1993. I don't think that they do much to harm otherwise normal minds. I do agree that FPS games may be problematic and cause problems with kids who aren't otherwise normal. IIRC, the Columbine kids, the Sandy Hook shooter, and the Parkland shooter, all loved FPS games.

 

You don't know Florida law about boating. The only requirement in terms of age is that they can't pilot a PWC (jet ski, etc.) until age 14. No one under 30 (born in 198 can operate a boat of over 10 HP without taking an 8 hour Boater Safety course. My boys spent a lot of time in the water in kayaks in the Gulf and in bays. Nobody said a thing about it.

 

I thought the criteria was more than 4 dead in a single shooting incident.

 

That is the criteria set forth by the FBI, not the news medias and independent reporters who are trying to sell a political narrative at the expense of the truth.

 

Mother Jones uses it as well, and they are a liberal media outlet.

 

Is CNN an affiliate of Mother Jones?

 

Mother Jones recently changed it from 4 dead to 3 dead, not including the shooter, as the FBI had just changed their definition to the same. Australia uses five dead.

 

At least 3 people killed or at least 3 people injured or at least 3 people shot at. The shooting must happen in a public place and not be gang related and not be the byproduct of another crime.

"Ultimately, our aim with this research is to reduce and prevent mass shooting crimes. If rampage shooters share a common profile and/or a common motivation, both those who actually succeed with their plans and those whose plans are thwarted, then we need to include all attempted shooting incidents and any number of fatalities or wounded victims in our profiling analysis. The only dataset that provides that comprehensive information is the Active Shooter dataset maintained by ALERRT in partnership with the FBI. We will refer exclusively to this dataset and recommend that other researchers do the same when discussing mass shooters of the rampage type."
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2016/08/media-contagion-effect.pdf

http://www.activeshooterdata.org/active-shooter.html

 

I think most of the "problem" is that anti 2A folks view the killing of a rapist in the successful Defensive Gun Use by a woman to be contributing to the Gun Violence instances.

 

Thus the qualifying standard of what constitutes a mass killing continues to get lower and lower. Eventually it will be any two individuals who are shot in a single incident will meet the set minimum for an incident being classified as a mass shooting. Thus serving to cheapen the meaningfulness of the term, and ultimately render it irrelevant.