Alwaght- The US is the home to nearly a third of world's mass shootings as there are more mass shootings in the US than in any other country in the world, a report by CNN says.
According to a 2016 study that used the FBI definition of 'mass shooting', from 1966 to 2012, nearly a third of the world's mass shootings took place in the US. It surveyed 292 incidents and found 90 of them occurred in America. Put another way, while the UShas 5% of the world's population, it had 31% of all public mass shootings.
The number of public mass shootings is published while it can be different depending on how you define the term.
The United States has never defined "mass shooting" as a stand-alone category. So, depending on whichever informal definition you go with, the tally can drastically vary. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which compiles data from shooting incidents, a "mass shooting" is any incident where four or more people are wounded or killed.
Now, the attempts to downplay the crime rate in the US appear. For instance, Federal statutes define a "mass killing" as an incident resulting in three or more deaths. The commonly accepted definition -- the one the FBI used up to 2013 -- is a shooting that killed four or more people. Then there's Congressional reports, which sometimes exclude gang-related or domestic incidents and focus on "gunmen who select victims indiscriminately." Use that, and the total tally dwindles to single digits.
Regardless of various definitions, the undeniable fact is that the three deadliest shootings in the US have occurred in the past 10 years. The Orlando attack was by far the deadliest shooting in US history in which an American born attacker killed 49 and injured 53 others. 9 years earlier in 2007 a senior at the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in two separate attacks shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others and finally on third scene in 2012, a 20-year-old boy after killing his mother at home travelled to the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he shot and killed 20 children aged between 6 and 7, and six adult workers then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
The background of crimes in US tells us that people have a greater chance of dying in mass shootings if they're at school or work as the data from 2013 shows incidents in schools and businesses represent 7 out of 10 active shootings. Some of the country's most high-profile mass shootings have occurred there: Sandy Hook, Columbine, Virginia Tech and San Bernardino. Overseas, these incidents typically happen near military installations. On the other side about 70% of active shooter incidents end with the shooter or shooters' deaths. Unlike a homicide or mass killing, the "active" aspect implies that both law enforcement and citizens have the potential to affect the outcome of the event.
Interestingly the number of background checks for gun sales from FBI data tell us a lot about the patterns of weapons demand. These patterns tend to rise directly after high-profile mass shootings, when public debates about gun control are high. The highest number of background checks in recent history was recorded following the San Bernardino shootings in December 2015. But 2016 is on pace to break that record.
A report by the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey in 2007 shows Civilians in the USown about 270 million guns. That's enough to arm every single person in Indonesia, and still have some left over and it makes America the No. 1 country in firearms per capita. Also, in more than half the American mass shooting cases, the shooter had more than one firearm.
Many have called for change US gun laws, but powerful firearms lobby, the US constitution itself do not allow for any change.
According to the Guardian, the most prominent voice of the pro-gun lobby is the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Known for its unofficial slogan “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”, the group champions itself as a “major political force”, with almost five million members pouring money into its Political Victory Fund to help elect pro-gun politicians.
It also founded the Institute for Legislative Action in 1975 specifically to lobby representatives to prevent gun control legislation.
According to its website, it has two headquarters, in Virginia and California, and a team of 80 staff including full-time lobbyists working in Washington, state legislatures and local government.
In addition, many members and NRA officials run prominent blogs and social media accounts, furthering its views and heavily criticising politicians and activists advocating changing gun laws.
It couches its arguments heavily on the US Constitution, as well as ideas of freedom and the central assertion that owning guns makes people safer, propagated by its accompanying “education programmes” and Refuse To Be A Victim seminars.
US constitution is also another obstacle preventing any change.
The US Constitution guarantees Americans the right to bear arms, a cherished freedom that has great resonance with many voters.
It reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
