http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data
Obviously, I am not a regular reader of Mother Jones but I must commend it for the logical and complete data that has been compiled. As most of my co-workers know, there are few things that I like more than an Excel spreadsheet. Data in a spreadsheet can reveal a great deal if pressed into a pivot table or sorted by one factor rather than another. There is the opportunity to get subtotals for certain factors and then compare that to subtotals from another factor.
Mother Jones counts 73 mass shootings since 1982, slapping down the Washington Post's claim that San Bernardino was the 355th mass shooting just this year. Of course, one must define the terms. Mother Jones only included those incidents where 4 or more were killed and it wasn't gang or drug-related (i.e. the victims had no reason to expect they were at risk of being killed). In those 73 mass shootings, 595 people were killed and 543 were injured. The state with the most mass shootings is California (12), followed by Florida and Washington (6 each), then Texas (5). When looking at the shooters, 43 of them showed prior signs of mental illness. Those 43 shooters accounted for 63% of the fatalities and 71% of the injured. In fact, the mentally ill had a higher average number killed (8.7 victims per shooting) than those who were not mentally ill (7.1 victims).
Now let's drift into unfair and unreasonable territory. Yes, let's ask what portion of the carnage has happened since Hope and Change entered the White House. It turns out that more than a third (26) of the mass shootings have occurred since President Obama was inaugurated. There were only 15 mass shootings during the George W Bush administration, 18 during Clinton, and 7 each during Reagan and George Bush. Let's consider fatalities per month. Reagan saw 0.7 mass shooting fatalities per month during his two terms. Bush I had 1.3, Clinton 1.2, Bush II 1.3, and Obama 2.7. Wow! The number of fatalities per month has more than doubled under Obama. If there was this sort of rise with a Republican in the White House, it would be front page news and appearing on every newscast.
Now here is where we head into the tinfoil hat stuff. This increase in frequency of mass shootings during the Obama Administration does - from his repeatedly stated perspective - add weight to the gun control message. Some speculated that Fast and Furious was meant to get guns into the hands of bad actors, increase gun crime along the border, and provide an impetus for gun control. The very idea reminds me of The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) in which a US intelligence agency plots an attack on America to increase next year's funding from Congress. That doesn't really happen, right?
Now let's drift into unfair and unreasonable territory. Yes, let's ask what portion of the carnage has happened since Hope and Change entered the White House. It turns out that more than a third (26) of the mass shootings have occurred since President Obama was inaugurated. There were only 15 mass shootings during the George W Bush administration, 18 during Clinton, and 7 each during Reagan and George Bush. Let's consider fatalities per month. Reagan saw 0.7 mass shooting fatalities per month during his two terms. Bush I had 1.3, Clinton 1.2, Bush II 1.3, and Obama 2.7. Wow! The number of fatalities per month has more than doubled under Obama. If there was this sort of rise with a Republican in the White House, it would be front page news and appearing on every newscast.
Now here is where we head into the tinfoil hat stuff. This increase in frequency of mass shootings during the Obama Administration does - from his repeatedly stated perspective - add weight to the gun control message. Some speculated that Fast and Furious was meant to get guns into the hands of bad actors, increase gun crime along the border, and provide an impetus for gun control. The very idea reminds me of The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) in which a US intelligence agency plots an attack on America to increase next year's funding from Congress. That doesn't really happen, right?
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