A makeshift memorial outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two adults were fatally shot May 24.Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty
Twenty-one shot dead inUvalde, Texas. Ten inBuffalo, N.Y.Four inTulsa, Okla.Three inPhiladelphia. Two inChattanooga, Tenn.Three inSaginaw, Mich.Two in Mesa, Ariz.
The phrase “mass shooting” has once again entered Americans' everyday conversation. But organizations that track the horrific count of such events take differing views on how to define them.
The advocacy nonprofitEverytown for Gun Safetydefines a mass shooting “as any incident in which four or more people are shot and killed, excluding the shooter.”
“By this definition,” according to the organization, “the United States experiences an average of 19 mass shootings every year, ranging from 15 in 2010 and in 2014 to a high of 24 in both 2011 and 2013. However, there exists no consensus on the definition of a mass shooting. Counts under other definitions range from a dozen per year to nearly one mass shooting every day depending on factors such as casualty thresholds or whether the mass shooting was in public or not.”
“By any count, the number of mass shootings that plague this country is far too high, and the counts are just a small fraction of the lives left forever changed after the tragedy of a mass shooting.”
TheGun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that maintains an online tally of shootings, defines the term to mean a shooting in which at least four people are shot — but not necessarily killed — not including the shooter. According to the archive, there have been more than 240 such shootings in 2022.
“Mass shootings are, for the most part an American phenomenon,” says the archive on its website. “While they are generally grouped together as one type of incident there are several with the foundation definition being that they have a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.”
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The F.B.I. does not define mass shootings — but maintains a classification for"serial murder,“defined as as an incident where four or more people are killed, which may include gun violence.
“Every day, law enforcement officers across America are called to respond to murders,” former F.B.I. director Robert Mueller wrote in a 2005 report. “Each homicide case is tragic, but there are few cases more heartrending and more difficult to understand than serial murder.”
Sarah Burd-Sharps, senior director of research at Everytown For Gun Safety, toldUSA TODAY: “No matter how you define it, whether it’s an average of 20 a year with four plus killed or an average of practically one a day with four plus shots, either one is far too high.”
source: people.com
