Maggie Koerth-Baker wrote a story at fivethrityeight.com (a site that loves statistics) warning that mass shootings are a bad way to understand gun violence.
In it she makes a few interesting points about gun violence being many problems, not one.
1. Mass shootings are rare. Of the more than 33,000 gun death each year, two-thirds are suicides.
2. Most gun murder victims are men, ages 15-34, and 66% are black. In mass shootings, 50% are women.
She says mass shootings are up, homicide rates are down, and suicide rates are climbing.
Given this information, she suggests gun control be accomplished through a variety of policies aimed more directly at those impacted by the gun violence, rather than one law in reaction to a mass shooting event.
“Policies that reduce the number of homicides among young black men — such as programs that build trust between community members, police and at-risk youth and offer people a way out of crime — probably won’t have the same effect on suicides among elderly white men. Background checks and laws aimed at preventing a young white man with a history of domestic violence from obtaining a gun and using it in a mass shooting might not prevent a similar shooting by an older white male with no criminal record.”
Worth a read…
