A Guide to Mass Shootings in America

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Weapons: Of the 142 guns possessed by the killers, more than three quarters were obtained legally. The arsenal included dozens of assault weapons and semiautomatic handguns. (See charts below.) Just as Jeffrey Weise used a .40-caliber Glock to slaughter students in Red Lake, Minnesota, in 2005, so too did James Holmes, along with an AR-15 assault rifle, when blasting away at his victims in a darkened movie theater. In Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza wielded two handguns and a .223 Bushmaster semiautomatic assault rifle as he massacred 20 school children and six adults.

The killers: Half of the cases involved school or workplace shootings (12 and 19, respectively); the other 31 cases took place in locations including shopping malls, restaurants, government buildings, and military bases. Forty four of the killers were white males. Only one of them was a woman. (See Goleta, Calif., in 2006.) The average age of the killers was 35, though the youngest among them was a mere 11 years old. (See Jonesboro, Ark., in 1998.) A majority were mentally ill—and displayed signs of it before setting out to kill. Explore the map for further details—we do not consider it to be all-inclusive, but based on the criteria we used to identify mass murders, we believe that we've produced the most comprehensive rundown available on this particular type of traumatic violence. (Mass murders represent only a sliver of America's overall gun violence.) For a timeline listing all the cases on the map, including photos of the killers, jump to page 2.)

Hover over the dots or use the search box in the top-left corner of the map to go to a specific location. (You'll need to zoom in to see the Fort Hood shooting, located close to another Texas massacre in 1991, and to see other proximate incidents in Denver, Seattle, and elsewhere.)

interactive map

We used the following criteria to identify cases of mass murder:

• The killings were carried out by a lone shooter. (Except in the case of the Columbine massacre and the Westside Middle School killings, both of which involved two shooters.)
• The shootings happened during a single incident and in a public place. (Public, except in the case of a party in Crandon, Wisconsin, and another in Seattle.) Crimes primarily related to armed robbery or gang activity are not included.
• The shooter took the lives of at least four people. An FBI crime classification reportidentifies an individual as a mass murderer—as opposed to a spree killer or a serial killer—if he kills four or more people in a single incident (not including himself), and typically in a single location.
• If the shooter died or was hurt from injuries sustained during the incident, he is included in the total victim count. (But we have excluded cases in which there were three fatalities and the shooter also died, per the previous criterion.)
• We included six so-called "spree killings"—prominent cases that fit closely with our above criteria for mass murder, but in which the killings occurred in multiple locations over a short period of time.

For more on how we determined the criteria, see our mass shootings explainer. Also: more on the crucial mental illness factor, and on the recent barrage of state laws rolling back gun restrictions across the US.

Here are two charts detailing the killers' weapons:

We've updated and expanded this story with additional research multiple times since initial publication on July 20, thanks in part to some valuable feedback from MoJo readers. (Thanks also to Professor James Alan Fox of Northeastern University.) For more about the mass shooting at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., click here, and for the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, click here. (Return to intro.)

http://www.motherjon...s-shootings-map

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Bushmaster .223 rifle (AR-15). A civilian version of the U.S. military's M-16.

...............

Capable of holding a 30-round magazine, it was the weapon of choice of the D.C. sniper, John Allen Muhammad, who was executed in Virginia for his reign of terror in 2002 in which he killed 10 victims at random along with his young accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo.

Because the Connecticut shooter, Adam Lanza, killed so many people in such a short time, firearms experts wondered whether he used high-capacity magazines _ the kind favored by James Holmes at his movie theater shooting spree in Aurora, Colo., last July, which killed 12 and wounded 57.

Six states, including California and New York, either ban or limit the use of high-capacity magazines.

Most models of the Glock and Sig Sauer have a normal magazine capacity of up to 15 rounds, according to the manufacturer's Web sites. With larger magazines, the capacity can rise above 30 rounds.

Both guns are lightweight, made of synthetic polymers to ease the recoil that is emblematic of larger handguns such as the vintage Colt .45 automatic, which was the standard military sidearm for most of the 20th Century until the Pentagon replaced it with the sleeker, lighter Beretta in the 1980s.

Tom Diaz, a senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center, which advocates for gun control, said shooters of such weapons don't need high-capacity magazines to inflict incredible damage.

''Whether Glock or Sig Sauer, it's the number of rounds and ease of reloading that makes them so lethal,'' he said. ''If you can reload and you have 4-5 magazines, you've got firepower to unload a hundred rounds.''

Read more: http://www.ctpost.co...p#ixzz2FRhKzda9

Edited December 18, 2012 by Lincolns mullet

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Weapons: Of the 142 guns possessed by the killers, more than three quarters were obtained legally. The arsenal included dozens of assault weapons and semiautomatic handguns. (See charts below.) Just as Jeffrey Weise used a .40-caliber Glock to slaughter students in Red Lake, Minnesota, in 2005, so too did James Holmes, along with an AR-15 assault rifle, when blasting away at his victims in a darkened movie theater. In Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza wielded two handguns and a .223 Bushmaster semiautomatic assault rifle as he massacred 20 school children and six adults.

The killers: Half of the cases involved school or workplace shootings (12 and 19, respectively); the other 31 cases took place in locations including shopping malls, restaurants, government buildings, and military bases. Forty four of the killers were white males. Only one of them was a woman. (See Goleta, Calif., in 2006.) The average age of the killers was 35, though the youngest among them was a mere 11 years old. (See Jonesboro, Ark., in 1998.) A majority were mentally ill—and displayed signs of it before setting out to kill. Explore the map for further details—we do not consider it to be all-inclusive, but based on the criteria we used to identify mass murders, we believe that we've produced the most comprehensive rundown available on this particular type of traumatic violence. (Mass murders represent only a sliver of America's overall gun violence.) For a timeline listing all the cases on the map, including photos of the killers, jump to page 2.)

Hover over the dots or use the search box in the top-left corner of the map to go to a specific location. (You'll need to zoom in to see the Fort Hood shooting, located close to another Texas massacre in 1991, and to see other proximate incidents in Denver, Seattle, and elsewhere.)

interactive map

We used the following criteria to identify cases of mass murder:

• The killings were carried out by a lone shooter. (Except in the case of the Columbine massacre and the Westside Middle School killings, both of which involved two shooters.)
• The shootings happened during a single incident and in a public place. (Public, except in the case of a party in Crandon, Wisconsin, and another in Seattle.) Crimes primarily related to armed robbery or gang activity are not included.
• The shooter took the lives of at least four people. An FBI crime classification reportidentifies an individual as a mass murderer—as opposed to a spree killer or a serial killer—if he kills four or more people in a single incident (not including himself), and typically in a single location.
• If the shooter died or was hurt from injuries sustained during the incident, he is included in the total victim count. (But we have excluded cases in which there were three fatalities and the shooter also died, per the previous criterion.)
• We included six so-called "spree killings"—prominent cases that fit closely with our above criteria for mass murder, but in which the killings occurred in multiple locations over a short period of time.

For more on how we determined the criteria, see our mass shootings explainer. Also: more on the crucial mental illness factor, and on the recent barrage of state laws rolling back gun restrictions across the US.

Here are two charts detailing the killers' weapons:

We've updated and expanded this story with additional research multiple times since initial publication on July 20, thanks in part to some valuable feedback from MoJo readers. (Thanks also to Professor James Alan Fox of Northeastern University.) For more about the mass shooting at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., click here, and for the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, click here. (Return to intro.)

http://www.motherjon...s-shootings-map

I'm lame...sorry I just posted this in that other thread not realizing you found it first.

[Harsh_77 718]

Comon numbers and reports from Mother Jones.... they are no different than FOX one is one extreme and other is on other extreme.

What is the difference?

[Karee 4,190]

Weapons: Of the 142 guns possessed by the killers, more than three quarters were obtained legally. The arsenal included dozens of assault weapons and semiautomatic handguns. (See charts below.) Just as Jeffrey Weise used a .40-caliber Glock to slaughter students in Red Lake, Minnesota, in 2005, so too did James Holmes, along with an AR-15 assault rifle, when blasting away at his victims in a darkened movie theater. In Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza wielded two handguns and a .223 Bushmaster semiautomatic assault rifle as he massacred 20 school children and six adults.

The killers: Half of the cases involved school or workplace shootings (12 and 19, respectively); the other 31 cases took place in locations including shopping malls, restaurants, government buildings, and military bases. Forty four of the killers were white males. Only one of them was a woman. (See Goleta, Calif., in 2006.) The average age of the killers was 35, though the youngest among them was a mere 11 years old. (See Jonesboro, Ark., in 1998.) A majority were mentally ill—and displayed signs of it before setting out to kill. Explore the map for further details—we do not consider it to be all-inclusive, but based on the criteria we used to identify mass murders, we believe that we've produced the most comprehensive rundown available on this particular type of traumatic violence. (Mass murders represent only a sliver of America's overall gun violence.) For a timeline listing all the cases on the map, including photos of the killers, jump to page 2.)

Hover over the dots or use the search box in the top-left corner of the map to go to a specific location. (You'll need to zoom in to see the Fort Hood shooting, located close to another Texas massacre in 1991, and to see other proximate incidents in Denver, Seattle, and elsewhere.)

interactive map

We used the following criteria to identify cases of mass murder:

• The killings were carried out by a lone shooter. (Except in the case of the Columbine massacre and the Westside Middle School killings, both of which involved two shooters.)
• The shootings happened during a single incident and in a public place. (Public, except in the case of a party in Crandon, Wisconsin, and another in Seattle.) Crimes primarily related to armed robbery or gang activity are not included.
• The shooter took the lives of at least four people. An FBI crime classification reportidentifies an individual as a mass murderer—as opposed to a spree killer or a serial killer—if he kills four or more people in a single incident (not including himself), and typically in a single location.
• If the shooter died or was hurt from injuries sustained during the incident, he is included in the total victim count. (But we have excluded cases in which there were three fatalities and the shooter also died, per the previous criterion.)
• We included six so-called "spree killings"—prominent cases that fit closely with our above criteria for mass murder, but in which the killings occurred in multiple locations over a short period of time.

For more on how we determined the criteria, see our mass shootings explainer. Also: more on the crucial mental illness factor, and on the recent barrage of state laws rolling back gun restrictions across the US.

Here are two charts detailing the killers' weapons:

We've updated and expanded this story with additional research multiple times since initial publication on July 20, thanks in part to some valuable feedback from MoJo readers. (Thanks also to Professor James Alan Fox of Northeastern University.) For more about the mass shooting at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., click here, and for the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, click here. (Return to intro.)

http://www.motherjon...s-shootings-map

Not that I'm necessarily disagreeing with anything in this piece, but it's hard to take this as an objective story when the first paragraph begins with words like slaughter, blasting away, and massacred. I get it, they killed people. The rest of the article is actually interesting.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Are the numbers or stats posted incorrect? If so, which ones?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Doesn't anyone know what hypertext links are?

Here is a hypertext link: gun stats

You click on the link and it takes you to the source. Mother Jones always cites their sources and while the publication is politically left, they have a stellar record. Feel free to check out their sources though.

Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,^[3] 2008,^[4] and 2010.^[5] In addition, Mother Jones also won the Online News Association Award for Online Topical Reporting in 2010^[6] and the Utne Reader Independent Press Award for General Excellence in 2011.^[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Jones_(magazine)

[slim 1,525]

Can anyone explain to me why this is a "problem?" I keep hearing about this national problem we have and yet, the vast majority of the nation has never encountered this sort of thing. Why are we treating this like a big deal?

If you really want to save the lives of children, why don't you work on better restraint devices for vehicles?

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Can anyone explain to me why this is a "problem?" I keep hearing about this national problem we have and yet, the vast majority of the nation has never encountered this sort of thing. Why are we treating this like a big deal?

If you really want to save the lives of children, why don't you work on better restraint devices for vehicles?

I can't even understand why these shooting even make the news. What's the big deal?

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Can anyone explain to me why this is a "problem?" I keep hearing about this national problem we have and yet, the vast majority of the nation has never encountered this sort of thing. Why are we treating this like a big deal?

If you really want to save the lives of children, why don't you work on better restraint devices for vehicles?

Wow.

Just ... wow.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

First off that will get you ban right there. Second slim probably knows as much about gun rights as anyone on this board. Third you are new to this country. You want to protect your kids then protect them. Fourth...start at the root of the problem but don't jump on the bandwagon because you failed to look into it.

Asking why people care if 20 children get killed while going to school has nothing to do with knowing about gun rights or being new to any country.

[scotinmass 588]

First off that will get you ban right there. Second slim probably knows as much about gun rights as anyone on this board. Third you are new to this country. You want to protect your kids then protect them. Fourth...start at the root of the problem but don't jump on the bandwagon because you failed to look into it.

I don't care if I get banned for that. If someone asks me why anyone would care that 20 six and seven year olds get slaughtered by some maniac with too many guns I'm gonna get upset. Anyone who is a parent would. Most people who aren't parents would. If this country is full of people who think that 6 year olds dying is a justifiable price to pay for them being able to have as many guns as they want then maybe it's time I went home!

[Penny Lane 8,159]

I don't care if I get banned for that. If someone asks me why anyone would care that 20 six and seven year olds get slaughtered by some maniac with too many guns I'm gonna get upset. Anyone who is a parent would. Most people who aren't parents would. If this country is full of people who think that 6 year olds dying is a justifiable price to pay for them being able to have as many guns as they want then maybe it's time I went home!

There are some people who don't care about anything other than themselves. The bad news is that they tend to be the vocal ones. Especially here. The good news is that, as you can see, they are the minority. So take comfort in that and don't let them get you worked up. You're a better person.

[PMartin37 161]

Not that I'm necessarily disagreeing with anything in this piece, but it's hard to take this as an objective story when the first paragraph begins with words like slaughter, blasting away, and massacred. I get it, they killed people. The rest of the article is actually interesting.

I'm sure if you spoke with any of the victims' families or survivors, they might explain the attacks along those lines. But I'm sure they would be exaggerating and just seeking attention from the press.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Asking why people care if 20 children get killed while going to school has nothing to do with knowing about gun rights or being new to any country.

Why do they care? Thousands of people including children die from automobile accidents every year but I don't see anyone freaking out about that one. Where's the outcry? Better yet why isn't places like Chicago and Washington DC mentioned in these threads. Guns are all but banned in those cities yet they have the highest murder rate year in and year out. Over 500 people died in Chicago last year from gunshots yet why arnt we talking about that? I mean guns are banned there so that shouldn't happen right? Detroit just loosened up it's gun laws a few years ago and the crime rate there has dropped. And like Slim pointed out there were no weapons ban prior to 1994 so why are all these killings happening post '94?

People need not just act like they have a brain, they need to use said brain. Just about everyone has internet these days so there's no excuse for not learning about this stuff. Only sheep don't want to learn. They are followers and not much more.