What is the real definition of "Mass shooting"?

[jpruitt]

I don't want to get too deep into the FL shooting, but one thing that irked me was the news bringing on one of the usual liberal talking heads spouting off nonsense along the lines of "300 mass shootings a year" and "almost one mass shooting each day". Of course he then casually, almost as an afterthought, follows that with his definition of mass shooting: an incident where at least four people are shot.

With that definition his statement may be true, but when most people hear mass shooting they think of a major incident with dozens of casualties, and hearing that one a day nonsense has ordinary people thinking there's another Columbine almost daily.

My question is, what should the definition of mass shooting be? How many casualties in what period of time? Is there already a better, more rational definition than four people shot?

 

[WestKentucky]

MassShooting- term invented by leftist media to incite a predisposed panicked emotional response to a sad but real problem where people shoot several other people just to get attention from the people who created the term.

 

[Theohazard]

There is no specific definition of the term "mass shooting", just like there's no specific size for a large soda, no specific height for a skyscraper, and no specific weight for a jumbo jet. Like all the rest of those terms, it's simply a colloquial term with no set definition.

So if you want to measure the frequency of these shootings and have it mean anything, you need to decide on a common definition. A lot of people go by the FBI's definition, but enough go by other definitions that it's not really a real standard.

 

[GRIZ22]

Mass shooting can be anything from 2 victims up. LE agencies have established their own criteria.

 

[rskent]

A lot of people go by the FBI's definition,

Which is?

 

[Carl N. Brown]

FBI definition of "mass killing" is three or more dead.* The term applies to arsons (Happyland Social club, 80+, or Upstairs Lounge, 30+) as well as shootings or killings by other means.

The news media definition of "school shooting" usually starts referring to Columbine or Sandy Hook, then throws out a number. If details are requested, their definition of a school shooting can include a teacher who committed suicide alone in his office and one case was a body dumped on school grounds who had been murdered somewhere else.

The FBI also has what they term "active shooter" defined as "individual or individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area". Some people quote "active shooter" stats as "mass shootings" implying "mass killings" on the order of Columbine or Sandy Hook.

To develop policy to deal with "active shooter incidents", you need actual data not yellow journalism. Of 160 FBI-termed "active shooter" incidents (2000 - 2013), 64 qualified as mass killings (3 or more dead):
64 of the 160 qualified as "mass killing" (3 or more dead).
158 active shooters were "lone wolves" only 2 had partners
6 active shooters were women
37 active shooters committed suicide before police arrived
17 active shooters committed suicide after police arrived but before police could act
9 active shooters committed suicide after exchanging gunfire with police
6 active shooters wore or were carrying body armor
3 active shooters carried improvised explosive devices
https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-study-2000-2013-1.pdf
J. Pete Blair and Katherine W. Schweit, "A Study of Active Shooter Incidents, 2000 - 2013", Texas State University and Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington D.C., 2014.

[I'll restrict this reply to definition of "mass shooting"; but locally the schools and LE have had plans and policies since the 1990s to deal with an active shooter situation.]

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* Minor footnote. In mass killings, Wikipedia does not count a perpetrator killed as part of the victim count.

 

[Walkalong]

We don't do the news, even if gun related, and we don't do politics, and if the original post #5 hadn't been deleted, it would be a prime example of why not. A hint: It was not very nice at all.