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posted by janrinok on Wednesday August 05 2015, @06:41PM   Printer-friendly

A new, government-backed study [PDF] answers a question that has been on the minds of some Americans amid this summer's headlines from Charleston, Chattanooga, and Lafayette. According to the research, mass public shootings are indeed occurring more frequently than ever before in the United States.

The findings, published by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) last week, show that the average rate of mass public shootings has increased from one incident per year in the 1970s to 4.5 incidents per year from 2010 through 2013. The numbers corroborate a 2014 report from Mother Jones. Scholars from the Harvard School of Public Health and Northeastern University independently analyzed data that Mother Jones had collected, and the results showed a marked rise in the frequency of mass shootings in the last three decades. Notwithstanding the recent cluster of high-profile incidents, the CRS report also finds that over the past 14 years, the rate of increase has tapered off.

http://www.thetrace.org/2015/08/mass-shootings-congressional-report/


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Wednesday August 05 2015, @09:02PM

    by sjames (2882) on Wednesday August 05 2015, @09:02PM (#218772) Journal

    I predict that this theory will be fought tooth and nail all the way. Not just by 'big pharma' either.

    If it is correct, that would imply that the shooter is a victim just as much as the people who get shot. Watch for some amazing olympic level legal and ethics gymnastics to 'justify' punishing the people who suffer that particular side effect.

    Then there's things like Chantix. It also has the side effects but is primarily prescribed to 'help' with quitting smoking. Caution, may cause homicidal rage and life imprisonment. Everyone will believe you knowingly and willingly killed your entire family.

    Of course, we need to examine what our society is doing so incredibly wrong to cause so many to need drugs to live somewhat normally, but when the answer comes back as more rest, better pay, more forgiveness, and less work, it'll be studiously ignored.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @09:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @09:37PM (#218795)

    Scientifically literate people need to be more careful using that work.
    Sloppy use invites nonsense from the anti-Science "it's just a theory" bunch.

    After the experts have hammered on an idea and can't break it and everybody has tried to shoot holes through the notion and nobody can, THEN you have a theory--as in "This is the best explanation we have so far".

    When what you have is a case of "Let's fling this at the wall and see if it sticks", what you have is a hypothesis.
    We need to use that word more often.

    -- gewg_

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @10:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @10:40PM (#218820)

      s/that work/that word

      -- gewg_