scholarly journals Critical Care Specific Medical Materials Preparedness in the Emergency Department for Mass Shooting Disasters

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (s1) ◽  
pp. s113-s113
Author(s):  
Stephen Morris
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Department ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Injury Patterns ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
Medical Materials ◽  
Event Based ◽  
Materials Planning

Introduction:There has been a dramatic increase in the number of mass shootings (loosely defined as an incident with four or more indiscriminate victims) in the United States (1). Additionally, the use of high-caliber, military-style weapons, has become more common in civilian shootings. These trends should influence how emergency departments prepare for disasters, including an inventory of what critical care medical materials (supplies) are readily available in the event of a disaster.Aim:To demonstrate the need for the adoption of medical materials planning for disasters to account for new injury patterns from mass shootings.Methods:A review of injury patterns from recent mass shootings was conducted using available literature (2). The average number of victims presenting to the emergency department in these events was reviewed. Estimation of critical care specific medical materials in the emergency department required for the management of an “average” number of victims with the typical injury pattern of these events was conducted.Results:Some critical care specific medical materials: intubation equipment, chest tubes, and central venous catheters may be in short supply during a mass shooting event.Discussion:Emergency physicians must anticipate and prepare for new disaster trends such as mass shootings and high caliber weapons injuries. This includes having specialty medical supplies readily available in sufficient amount. Normal stocking of critical care specific medical materials may be inadequate in a mass shooting event based on the available literature.

Are the Deadliest Mass Shootings Preventable? An Assessment of Leakage, Information Reported to Law Enforcement, and Firearms Acquisition Prior to Attacks in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Lankford ◽  
Krista Grace Adkins ◽  
Eric Madfis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Federal Bureau ◽  
Specific Interest ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
The Public ◽  
Active Shooters ◽  
Mass Shooting

This study examined the 15 deadliest public mass shootings in the United States from March 1998 to February 2018 to assess (a) leakage of violent thoughts/intent, (b) leakage of specific interest in mass killing, (c) concerning behaviors reported to law enforcement, (d) concerning interest in homicide reported to law enforcement, and (e) firearms acquisition. We then compared our findings on the deadliest public mass shooters with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) findings on active shooters in general. Overall, the results suggest that most incidents were indeed preventable based on information known about offenders in advance, and that the deadliest mass shooters exhibited more warning signs and were more often reported to law enforcement than other active shooters. Future prevention efforts should aim to educate, encourage, and pressure the public to report warning signs to law enforcement, educate and train law enforcement so that they can more effectively investigate potential threats, and limit firearms access for people who have admitted having homicidal or suicidal thoughts or being interested in committing a mass shooting. These relatively straightforward steps could significantly reduce the prevalence of future attacks.

scholarly journals Fighting National Amnesia: Profiling Public Attention to Mass Shootings in The United States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miles Chandler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Decay Length ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Search Volume ◽  
Mass Shooting

This study aims to identify factors that shape public perception and emotional response to mass shootings in the United States. I suggest that patterns of media coverage inform public consciousness and collective emotion. Newsworthiness and gatekeeping theories assert that school or prejudicial shootings and those with more victims are reported on at higher rates. Literature on racial and immigrant bias in media demonstrates that non-white shooters also generate more discourse. The directed construction of shootings and the affective public responses they generate align well with the concept of a “moral panic.” Using all valid cases from the Mother Jones Mass Shootings:1982-2019 dataset which align temporally with Google Trends data, I analyze the volume and decay rate of search topics “mass shooting,” “gun control,” and “open carry,” following US mass shootings from 2004-2019. Shootings with more victims predict a higher volume of searches for “mass shooting,” and shorter search periods for “gun control” and “open carry.” Shootings with educational and religious targets had no significant effects on search patterns. Workplace shootings result in longer search periods for “mass shooting,” and shorter periods for “gun control.” Non-white shooters generate shorter search decay for “open carry.” The results support theories of media gatekeeping, suggesting events with more casualties generate more intense public attention. The consistent negative correlation between search volume and decay length suggests that sensational responses to shootings are not sustainable over long periods of time and prohibit pragmatically addressing mass shootings.

“What We Need Is Bullet Control”

2020 ◽  
pp. 432-446
Author(s):  
Selina E. M. Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Public Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Background Checks ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
Policy Proposals

Following high-profile mass shootings in the United States, there are policy debates about gun regulation; yet, for the most part, these stall. This chapter suggests that an alternative way to frame this issue would be through “bullet control,” centering on the ammunition used. In order to inflict the greatest degree of damage possible, mass shooters tend to carry large quantities of bullets and large-capacity magazines with them. Harm-inducing bullets, such as hollow-points which penetrate certain parts of the body, have been used in previous mass shootings. Policy proposals could center on these areas to reduce harm in a mass shooting. Another regulation could focus on mandating background checks for ammunition. Interviews were conducted with six participants with knowledge of gun policies and/or gun violence prevention advocacy. Findings from interviews indicate support for these policy proposals. Discussed are ways to increase public support for these proposals via framing strategies. Also deliberated is whether the current political climate is conducive to pass legislation.

An Exploration of Female Mass Shooters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Silva ◽  
Margaret Schmuhl
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mass Murder ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
And Gender

This research note provides an exploratory examination of female mass shooters in the United States between 1979 and 2019. Specifically, this work provides descriptive statistics of perpetrator, motivation, and incident characteristics. Findings indicate female mass shooters more closely align with male mass shooters than general female homicide and mass murder offenders. The most valuable findings indicate female mass shooters are not motivated by relationship disputes, they often target the workplace, and they are more likely to work in dyads, especially when engaging in ideologically motivated attacks. A discussion of findings provides insight for mass shooting and gender scholars, as well as practitioners seeking to understand female involvement in mass shootings.

Defining Mass Shootings

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Shootings ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Post Offices ◽  
National Characteristics ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
History Of

This chapter interrogates public understandings of mass shootings. First of all, gun violence statistics for the United States are compared with those in other developed countries. The varying definitions and trends of mass shooting are shown to be problematic in trying to gain an accurate understanding of the phenomenon. Discussed is the history of mass shootings in the United States from “going postal” attacks occurring in post offices and workplace massacres through to school shootings and mass shootings in public places. Possible reasons why the United States has the highest number of mass shootings are deliberated. Hofstede's often-quoted cultural model is used to discuss two national characteristics: high levels of individualism and low power distance between social groups. Other factors highlighted relate to Harding, Fox, and Mehta's model about influencers of school shootings, as well as notions of extreme masculinity which are often expressed via misogynistic behavior.

scholarly journals Comparing Emergency Department Gunshot Wound Data with Mass Casualty Shooting Reports

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Emergency Department ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance ◽  
Gunshot Wound ◽  
Gunshot Wounds ◽  
Mass Casualty ◽  
Gun Violence ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
Zip Code

ObjectiveTo determine whether mass casualty shooting events are capturedvia syndromic surveillance data.IntroductionShootings with multiple victims are a concern for public safetyand public health. The precise impact of such events and the trendsassociated with them is dependent on which events are counted. Somereports only consider events with multiple deaths, typically four ormore, while other reports also include events with multiple victimsand at least one death.1Underreporting is also a concern. Somecommonly cited databases for these events are based on media reportsof shootings which may or may not capture the complete set of eventsthat meet whatever criteria are being considered.Many gunshot wounds are treated in the emergency departmentsetting. Emergency department registrations routinely collected forsyndromic surveillance will capture all of those visits. Analysis ofthat data may be useful as a supplement to mass shooting databases byidentifying unreported events. In addition, clusters of gunshot woundincidents which are not the result of a single shooting event but stillrepresent significant public safety and public health concerns mayalso be identified.MethodsEmergency department registration data was collected fromhospitals via the EpiCenter syndromic surveillance system. Gunshot-related visits were identified based on chief complaint contentsusing EpiCenter’s regular expression-based classification system.The gunshot wound classifier attempts to exclude patients with pre-existing wounds and shooting incidents involving weapon classes thatare lesser concerns for public safety, such as nail guns and toy guns.Gunshot-related visits were clustered by day of registration andseparately by facility, by patient home zip code, and by patienthome county. The largest clusters of each type were compared viamanual search against media reports of shootings and against the GunViolence Archive mass shooting database.ResultsA total of 23,132 gunshot-related visits were identified from 635healthcare facilities from 2013 to 2015. From these, the five largestclusters by facility, by zip code, and by county were identified. Theclusters included 112 gunshot wounds in total, ranging in size from4 to 12 with a median of 7.Of the 5 facility clusters, 5 had a corresponding media story and 2were located in the shooting database. Of the 5 zip code clusters, 1 hada corresponding media story and none were located in the shootingdatabase. Of the 5 county clusters, 4 had a corresponding media storyand 1 was located in the shooting database.ConclusionsMultiple gunshot wound patients being treated on the same daywere not necessarily all shot during the same incident or by the sameshooter. The information available in a syndromic surveillance feeddoes not allow for direct identification of the shooter or shooters.Given that limitation, a complete correspondence between clustersidentified in syndromic surveillance data and mass shootings was notexpected. The strong correlation between clusters and media coverageindicates that the news is a reasonable source for shooting data. Thesmaller overlap with the mass shooting database is likely due to themore stringent criteria required for an incident to qualify as a massshooting.It is still notable that the majority of gunshot clusters were notassociated with any particular mass shooting incident. This serves asa reminder that mass shootings represent only a small portion of thetotal gun violence in the United States. Healthcare data representsa significant additional data source for understanding the completeimpact of gun violence on public health and safety.Weekly time series of gunshot-related emergency department visits

Experimental Writing On Recent Mass Shootings

2021 ◽  
pp. 194084472110495
Author(s):  
Kurt Borchard
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
News Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
Experimental Writing ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Media Attention ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
Compare And Contrast

In 2017 the author published a poem about a mass shooting in Orlando where forty-nine people died. Two shootings in March 2021 in Atlanta and Boulder, where eighteen people total were killed, have since garnered national news media attention. But mass shootings are more common than nationally reported. A Wikipedia page, titled “List of Mass Shootings in the United States 2021,” states that there were over one-hundred shootings involving four or more victims in the first three months of this year. The author here uses a compare and contrast list, recent headlines and quotes from news sources, and speculative scenarios to consider again this highly familiar and durable trope in American news.

Mother Knows Best

2020 ◽  
pp. 41-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Arthur Crews ◽  
Garrison Allen Crews
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Data Base ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Movie Theater ◽  
Rampage Shootings ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
Violent Events

In the aftermath of the movie theater mass shooting in July of 2012 in Aurora, Colorado, Mother Jones magazine created one of the first open-source databases documenting mass shootings in the United States. They focused on documenting rampage shootings in public places which resulted in four or more victims killed by the attacker(s). Their initial database consisted of incidents between 1982 and 2012, then an additional 54 cases were added to this data base of incidents which occurred between 2013 and August 2019. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the incidents gathered in this complete database from 1982 to 2019. Special attention is given to overall trends and characteristics of types of offenders, events, and weapons used in such violent events.

scholarly journals Mass shootings in Australia and the United States, 1981-2013

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederic Lemieux ◽  
Samantha Bricknell ◽  
Tim Prenzler
Keyword(s):  
Time Series Data ◽  
Gunshot Wounds ◽  
The United States ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
Definition Of

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the incidence and main characteristics of mass shooting events in Australia and the USA in the period 1981-2013. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a conservative definition of mass shootings derived from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, covering four or more fatalities not including the offender. Australian cases were accessed from the Australian Institute of Criminology’s National Homicide Monitoring Programme (NHMP) database and several secondary sources. The US data were collected from the Mother Jones database, a report prepared for Mayors Against Illegal Guns and a New York Police Department report. The time series data were related to changes in firearms regulations in the two jurisdictions. Findings – For Australia, the study identified 13 mass shooting events and 104 fatalities from gunshot wounds. For the USA, there were 73 events and 576 victims. Of note is the fact that all cases in Australia pre-dated the implementation of the restrictive 1996 National Firearms Agreement. In the USA, a small decline was evident during the 1994-2004 Federal Assault Weapon Ban. Incidents and fatalities increased after 2004. Research limitations/implications – Of necessity, the paper adopts a conservative FBI-based definition of mass shootings that limits the number of cases captured. The absence of an official government US database also most likely limits the number of cases identified. Practical implications – The findings lend support to policy considerations regarding regulating access to firearms. Originality/value – The paper is unique in comparing mass shootings in these two jurisdictions over three decades in association with changes in firearms regulation.

scholarly journals The role of domestic violence in fatal mass shootings in the United States, 2014–2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa B. Geller ◽  
Marisa Booty ◽  
Cassandra K. Crifasi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Family Member ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
History Of

Abstract Background Fatal mass shootings, defined as four or more people killed by gunfire, excluding the perpetrator, account for a small percentage of firearm homicide fatalities. Research has not extensively focused on the role of domestic violence (DV) in mass shootings in the United States. This study explores the role of DV in mass shootings in the United States. Methods Using 2014–2019 mass shooting data from the Gun Violence Archive, we indexed our data by year and mass shooting and collected the number of deaths and injuries. We reviewed news articles for each mass shooting to determine if it was 1) DV-related (i.e., at least one victim of a mass shooting was a dating partner or family member of the perpetrator); 2) history of DV (i.e., the perpetrator had a history of DV but the mass shooting was not directed toward partners or family members); or 3) non-DV-related (i.e., the victims were not partners or family members, nor was there mention of the perpetrator having a history of DV). We conducted descriptive analyses to summarize the percent of mass shootings that were DV-related, history of DV, or non-DV-related, and analyzed how many perpetrators died during the incidents. We conducted one-way ANOVA to examine whether there were differences in the average number of injuries or fatalities or the case fatality rates (CFR) between the three categories. One outlier and 17 cases with unknown perpetrators were excluded from our main analysis. Results We found that 59.1% of mass shootings between 2014 and 2019 were DV-related and in 68.2% of mass shootings, the perpetrator either killed at least one partner or family member or had a history of DV. We found significant differences in the average number of injuries and fatalities between DV and history of DV shootings and a higher average case fatality rate associated with DV-related mass shootings (83.7%) than non-DV-related (63.1%) or history of DV mass shootings (53.8%). Fifty-five perpetrators died during the shootings; 39 (70.9%) died by firearm suicide, 15 (27.3%) were killed by police, and 1 (1.8%) died from an intentional overdose. Conclusions Most mass shootings are related to DV. DV-related shootings had higher CFR than those unrelated to DV. Given these findings, restricting access to guns by perpetrators of DV may affect the occurrence of mass shootings and associated casualties.

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