In 2017, there were 346 instances that were considered mass shootings. These incidents resulted in numerous injuries and deaths as a result of widespread gun violence. As of November 28, the online Gun Violence Archive has reported 323 major firearm incidents in 2018. At the rate the country is moving, which is .025x faster than in 2017, it is predicted the United States will match, if not surpass, 346 shootings this year.
The largest and most fatal shooting in 2018 was on February 14 in Parkland, Florida at Majority Stoneman Douglas High School, and the second most fatal was on November 8 at a pub in Thousand Oaks, California.
However, the most fatal and record breaking mass shooting of all time occurred just last year at a concert in Las Vegas. With 851 injuries and 59 deaths, that is the minimumnumber of lives that were changed forever after just one mass shooting, and that is not counting the friends and families of the victims and other attendees. In the past two years, there have been almost 700 mass shootings— and counting.
As these heartbreaking news stories come to light, many news outlets and media sources refer to these events as mass shootings. In colloquial terms, the definition of “mass” relates to the majority of something, and the definition of “shooting” relates to the physical use of a firearm. If you put the two together, it simply means the excess use of a firearm. However, the exact meaning and criteria for a mass shooting is a gray area, and there are varying strategies used by different outlets to determine what is or is not a mass shooting.
Many different resources report many different things. According to the RAND Corporation, “…there is no official standard for the casualty threshold that distinguishes a mass shooting from other violent crimes involving a firearm” (Smart, Associate Economist, RAND Corporation). They report that people often use the criteria that fits a mass murder— which is that the incidents consists of four deaths not counting the shooter— to define a mass shooting.
The Stanford Libraries, which is the group that founded and reports information regarding the The Stanford Mass Shootings of America data project, has different standards, however. “The definition of mass shooting used for the Stanford database is 3 or more shooting victims (not necessarily fatalities), not including the shooter.” (Mass Shootings in America, Stanford Libraries).
In addition, according to Gun Violence Archive, they are viewed as something different. “GVA uses a purely statistical threshold to define mass shooting based ONLY on the numeric value of 4 or more shot or killed.” (Gun Violence Archive, 2018). Due to these three vastly different understandings, mass shooting statistics could be misleading.
Clearly, there is nothing set in stone about what exactly a mass shooting is. “Depending on which data source is referenced, there were 7, 65, 332, or 371 mass shootings in the United States in 2015.” (Smart, Associate Economist, RAND Corporation). Due to the unknown definition, it has the majority of Americans questioning the validity of the recorded statistics.
At Western New England University, it is no doubt that students also have an uncertain understanding of what is considered a mass shooting. When asked to define the phrase, senior Pharmaceutical Business major Michael Tran says it is “more than five deaths… I think?” Sophomore Business major Kyra Palumbo states that “it is when at least four people are killed.” Both of these students gave two different definitions, showing that even educated college students are unaware of what a mass shooting really is, and misinformation may create false anxieties in their minds.
Despite the vague meaning and interpretation of the phrase, it is one that is now common among our society. The great number of shootings throughout the country in the last few years creates anxieties for everyone of all ages, from children and teenagers in school to adults at their workplace. They hear about these scenarios on the radio, watch live coverage on the news, and read it first-hand on social media websites. However, before accepting and spreading information, it is important for consumers to educate themselves what that specific source considers a mass shooting. Always beware of misinformation.
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