Mass Killings Past, Present, and Future

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Sheri Jenkins Keenan ◽  
Jeffrey P. Rush
Keyword(s):  
Gun Control ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Second Amendment ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
Mass Killings ◽  
Double Digit ◽  
Health Experts

Mass shootings have been of interest and concern to a variety of experts including psychologists, sociologists, criminologists, public health experts, and policy makers. Journalists have tracked mass shooting events for a long time. Recently, mass shootings in public places have dominated the national dialogue about gun violence, gun control, and Second Amendment protections due to several mass pubic shootings in recent years that resulted in double-digit victim counts. Regardless of the why, it seems clear that the ability to identify and predict this behavior as early as possible is important, for the killer as well as the community.

Exploring the Phenomenon of Mass Murder in Public Places

2020 ◽  
pp. 122-155
Author(s):  
Selina E. M. Kerr ◽  
Mary Ann Markey
Keyword(s):  
Threat Assessment ◽  
Emergency Situation ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Mass Murder ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Music Festival ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
The Individual

In 2017, fifty-eight individuals attending an outdoor music festival in Las Vegas were shot and killed, whilst hundreds more were injured. In this chapter, the authors explore the phenomenon of mass shootings taking place in entertainment venues or places of worship. These types of venues bring unique challenges in preventing and responding to mass shooting incidents. These authors recommend initiating a threat assessment system or model to assess changes in an individual's behaviors over time. It is of particular importance to evaluate whether the individual has been preparing for an attack. The six case studies reviewed engaged in active preparations beforehand by procuring weapons, writing manifestos and scoping out potential venues to attack. In terms of how to effectively respond to mass shootings in public locations, it is recommended that an emergency management plan with a range of scenarios is devised beforehand. Careful consideration should be given to ways to deal with individuals with special needs and how to communicate with patrons during an emergency situation.

Public interest in gun control in the USA

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. i16-i17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D Niforatos ◽  
Alexander R Zheutlin ◽  
Richard M Pescatore
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Google Trends ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Inflection Points ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Mass Shooting

To characterise public interest in gun control in the USA using internet search queries, we undertook a cross-sectional study of the relative popularity Google Trends searchers for ‘Gun Control’, ‘Second Amendment’, ‘National Rifle Association’ and ‘Mass Shooting’ from May 2015 to December 2018. 740 weeks of data were queried. Graphed data revealed nine major inflection points. Seven of the nine (78%) major inflection points were associated with mass shootings, while two of the nine (22%) were related to political events by either the president of the USA or a presidential candidate. Our exploration of Google Trends shows the frequency of national searches related to gun control peaks with mass shootings over a 1–2-week period and then stabilises to nominal relative popularity thereafter suggesting a need to engage the public on gun control during ‘trough’ periods in order to sustain national interest and dialogue.

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.

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 Bots fired: examining social bot evidence in online mass shooting conversations

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Schuchard ◽  
Andrew Crooks ◽  
Anthony Stefanidis ◽  
Arie Croitoru
Keyword(s):  
Extreme Events ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Las Vegas ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
School Shooting ◽  
Centrality Measures ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
The Media

AbstractMass shootings, like other extreme events, have long garnered public curiosity and, in turn, significant media coverage. The media framing, or topic focus, of mass shooting events typically evolves over time from details of the actual shooting to discussions of potential policy changes (e.g., gun control, mental health). Such media coverage has been historically provided through traditional media sources such as print, television, and radio, but the advent of online social networks (OSNs) has introduced a new platform for accessing, producing, and distributing information about such extreme events. The ease and convenience of OSN usage for information within society’s larger growing reliance upon digital technologies introduces potential unforeseen risks. Social bots, or automated software agents, are one such risk, as they can serve to amplify or distort potential narratives associated with extreme events such as mass shootings. In this paper, we seek to determine the prevalence and relative importance of social bots participating in OSN conversations following mass shooting events using an ensemble of quantitative techniques. Specifically, we examine a corpus of more than 46 million tweets produced by 11.7 million unique Twitter accounts within OSN conversations discussing four major mass shooting events: the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooting, the 2017 Sutherland Springs church chooting, the 2018 Parkland School Shooting and the 2018 Santa Fe school shooting. This study’s results show that social bots participate in and contribute to online mass shooting conversations in a manner that is distinguishable from human contributions. Furthermore, while social bots accounted for fewer than 1% of total corpus user contributors, social network analysis centrality measures identified many bots with significant prominence in the conversation networks, densely occupying many of the highest eigenvector and out-degree centrality measure rankings, to include 82% of the top-100 eigenvector values of the Las Vegas retweet network.

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.

Adolescent mass shootings: developmental considerations in light of the Sandy Hook shooting

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy R. Rice ◽  
Leon Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Normative Development ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
Special Subset ◽  
Mass Killings ◽  
Sandy Hook

Abstract Adolescent mass shootings are a special subset of mass killings, which continue despite significant preventative public health efforts. It is often held that these individuals have few salient warning signs that could have been identified. This piece proposes that mass shootings committed by adolescent and post-adolescent young males must be understood from a developmental perspective. The hypothesis proposed in this paper is that such killings occur as the result of the adolescent’s frustrated effort to progress along normative development. The goal of normative separation from maternal figures by the boy is presented as a potential risk factor when this goal is thwarted. Childhood case material from the perpetrator of a recent adolescent mass shooting, the Sandy Hook shooting, is discussed as an illustration of this hypothesis. Implications for public health measures and for individualized treatment are presented and developed.

scholarly journals Describing a “mass shooting”: the role of databases in understanding burden

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa Booty ◽  
Jayne O’Dwyer ◽  
Daniel Webster ◽  
Alex McCourt ◽  
Cassandra Crifasi
Keyword(s):  
Gun Violence ◽  
Active Shooter ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
Federal Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Nonfatal Injuries ◽  
Different Sources

Abstract Background The mass shooting phenomenon has gained much attention lately as this form of gun violence appears to increase in frequency. Although many organizations collect information on mass shootings (fatal and nonfatal injuries), no federal definition of this phrase exists. The purpose of this study was to highlight the different statistics that result among databases that define and track “mass shootings.” Establishing definitive guidelines for a mass shooting definition could improve research credibility when presenting evidence to policy makers. Methods We obtained data for mass shootings that occurred in 2017 from four sources: Gun Violence Archive, Mother Jones Investigation, Everytown for Gun Safety, and FBI’s Supplemental Homicide Report. We also examined FBI’s Active Shooter Report to compare the mass shootings datasets with active shooter situations, which have been federally defined. First, we examined the overlap among databases. Then, we applied the strictest fatal mass shooting definition to the mass shooting datasets to determine whether the differences in databases could be contributing to differences in fatalities and injuries recorded. Results Gun Violence Archive recorded the most mass shooting incidents at 346 incidents in 2017, while Mother Jones only recorded 11 cases. Only 2 events were found in all four mass shooting datasets. When the strictest definition – four or more individuals fatally shot – was applied to all datasets, the number of mass shootings in 2017 ranged from 24 (Gun Violence Archive) to 5 (Mother Jones), but incidents collected still varied. Conclusions There is much variety in statistics obtained from the different sources that have collected mass shooting information, with little overlap among databases. Researchers should advocate for a standard definition that considers both fatalities and nonfatalities to most appropriately convey the burden of mass shootings on gun violence.

scholarly journals Support for same-sex marriage after the Pulse nightclub shooting: Evidence from a quasi-experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Hispanic Americans ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
And Gender

Multiple studies find that exposure to news about mass shootings does little to increase public support for gun control. But are mass shootings able to shape public support for other policy preferences? In this paper, I conduct an empirical test of the effect of quasi-random exposure to news about the Pulse nightclub shooting – a mass shooting that occurred at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, FL in June 2016 - on public support for same-sex marriage. Leveraging data from Wave 55 of The American Panel Survey (TAPS), I find that quasi-random exposure to news about the shooting increased public support for same sex-marriage by 10 points. Subgroup analyses indicate that the largest increases in support for same-sex marriage were among moderates, liberals and White Americans, while minimal increases in support were detected among conservatives and Hispanic Americans. The findings indicate that mass shootings may shape public support for policies that are related to victim characteristics such as sexual and gender identity, even if they do not shape broader support for gun control.

scholarly journals Mass Shooting

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gun Violence ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Mass Shootings ◽  
Mass Shooting

Is There a Relationship between Gun Violence and Access to Mental Health Services? Mass shootings have been in the headlines on many occasions over the last ten years. Each time, we hear public outcry for gun control or increased access to mental health care as proposed remedies. It is not surprising to see the two terms linked as people grapple with gun violence in the United States. Despite many promises to act on restricting access to guns or increasing access to mental health care, politicians have done little to set policy on the issue. American gun owners fear restrictions of guns would be a violation of their rights. Health insurance companies have delayed implementation of parity for mental health treatment. It is time to look at the issues more rationally to develop common senseapproaches to these problems.

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