By Bonnie Berkowitz, Chris Alcantara and Denise Lu Updated Aug. 9, 2019
The places change, the numbers change, but the choice of weapon remains the same. In the United States, people who want to kill a lot of other people most often do it with guns.
Public mass shootings account for a tiny fraction of the country’s gun deaths, but they are uniquely terrifying because they occur without warning in the most mundane places. Most of the victims are chosen not for what they have done but simply for where they happen to be.
There is no universally accepted definition of a public mass shooting, and this piece defines it narrowly. It looks at the 165 shootings in which four or more people were killed by a lone shooter (two shooters in a few cases). It does not include shootings tied to gang disputes or robberies that went awry, and it does not include domestic shootings that took place exclusively in private homes. A broader definition would yield much higher numbers. Public mass shootings are a small slice of gun deaths
Source: Gun Violence Archive. Excludes the roughly 22,000 annual gun suicides, which are not publicly reported in real time.
This tally begins Aug. 1, 1966, when a student sniper fired down on passersby from the observation deck of a clock tower at the University of Texas. By the time police killed him, 17 other people were dead or dying. As Texas Monthly’s Pamela Colloff wrote, the shooting “ushered in the notion that any group of people, anywhere — even walking around a university campus on a summer day — could be killed at random by a stranger.”
Search for details of a particular shooting. The most recent is selected.
1,196 killed
The people who were killed came from nearly every imaginable race, religion and socioeconomic background. Their ages range from the unborn to the elderly; 190 were children and teenagers. In addition, thousands of survivors were left with devastating injuries, shattered families and psychological scars.
The oldest victim
Louise De Kler, 98, still took her pool cue and boombox to the rec room at Pinelake Health and Rehab to play pool with the “young guys,” her daughter told the Associated Press. She was shot to death in 2009 by a man who had come to her Carthage, N.C., nursing home looking for his estranged wife.
The youngest victims
Eight-month-old Carlos Reyes was buried in a casket with his mother, Jackie, who had tried to shield him as an unemployed father of two opened fire at a busy McDonald’s in San Ysidro, Calif., in 1984. Three unborn children are included in the official death tolls from shootings in Austin, Wilkinsburg, Pa., and Sutherland Springs, Texas.
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Semiautomatic pistols
The country’s most popular type of firearm, 9mm semiautomatic handguns, are used by many law enforcement officers. They are generally light and inexpensive, easy to conceal and control, and they fire as quickly as a person can pull the trigger. The gunman who killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech in 2007 used a 9mm semiautomatic Glock 19 (and a .22-caliber Walther P22, another popular caliber). In this data, 9mm semiautomatic handguns show up more than any other weapon.
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...169 shooters
Some of these mass shooters were known to have violent tendencies or criminal pasts. Others seemed largely fine until they attacked. All but 3 were male. The vast majority were between the ages of 20 and 49. More than half — 95 of them — died at or near the scene of the shooting, often by killing themselves....
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...42 states and the District
Shootings in schools and houses of worship tend to stand out in our minds, but they make up a relatively small portion of public mass shootings. More common are those in offices and retail establishments such as restaurants and stores. California has had more of these public mass shootings than any other state, with 25....
if old man IVmiker was not hunching over the wheel and tailgating me so often on the CF ,
I would not be talking about lonely desperate insecure old men.
nOw I have you tailgating me..., enough said.
Originally Posted by Starman
if old man IVmiker was not hunching over the wheel and tailgating me so often on the CF ,
I would not be talking about lonely desperate insecure old men.
nOw I have you tailgating me..., enough said.
starfish, you continue to make stupid statements in lieu of revealing the vast body of experience that supports the Walter Mitty persona that you try to project in your posts. The manner in which you disparage others of whom you know nothing reveals the shallowness of your thought process and your lack of character allowed by the anonymity of the internet. You apparently don't care for being asked to produce some sort of evidence of credibility but until you do expect to have this old man, figuratively, putting his insecure foot in your effeminate ass. That is much more fun than tailgating.
mike r
Don't wish it were easier Wish you were better
Stab them in the taint, you can't put a tourniquet on that. Craig Douglas ECQC
Does anyone remember the incident in which a street cop fired his pistol at an attacker from about 90 yards and hit the sucker in the head. Maybe 5 or so years ago and he was hailed as a hero. It may have been a mounted officer and a knife or sword armed sucker in a big NE city or across the pond.
Last edited by jaguartx; 08/10/19.
Ecc 10:2 The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but that of a fool to the left.
A Nation which leaves God behind is soon left behind.
"The Lord never asked anyone to be a tax collector, lowyer, or Redskins fan".
Does anyone remember the incident in which a street cop fired his pistol at an attacker from about 90 yards and hit the sucker in the head. Maybe 5 or so years ago and he was hailed as a hero. It may have been a mounted officer and a knife or sword armed sucker in a big NE city or across the pond.
And he shot one handed. He was holding his horses reins with the other hand.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
Were all gonna die at some point. Can you live with yourself if you had the chance to stop something like and chose to run and save yourself instead? I’ll do my best to give the shooter hell and if I die in the process, I guess it beats croaking in a nursing home after years of regret and saying what if....
Dieing ain’t much of a livin son.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
Oh sure, it starts like that, but it ends like this.....
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
News says the Dayton shooter had body armor but he went down pretty easy. Is this yet another case of lying by the media?
P
Usually, what they call body armor is a "tactical" vest.
^^^This^^^
The Fake News Media wouldn’t know body armor from a photographer’s vest.
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
Does anyone remember the incident in which a street cop fired his pistol at an attacker from about 90 yards and hit the sucker in the head. Maybe 5 or so years ago and he was hailed as a hero. It may have been a mounted officer and a knife or sword armed sucker in a big NE city or across the pond.
RC, That was in Austin 3 or 4 years ago. One of our mutual friends, an Austin LEO, told me it was a damn lucky ass shot.
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
News says the Dayton shooter had body armor but he went down pretty easy. Is this yet another case of lying by the media?
P
Usually, what they call body armor is a "tactical" vest.
^^^This^^^
The Fake News Media wouldn’t know body armor from a photographer’s vest.
Plus.....most body armour wont stop rifles
True. A 30-30 will penetrate most body armor. Unless it has the “plates” in them.
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
Does anyone remember the incident in which a street cop fired his pistol at an attacker from about 90 yards and hit the sucker in the head. Maybe 5 or so years ago and he was hailed as a hero. It may have been a mounted officer and a knife or sword armed sucker in a big NE city or across the pond.
And he shot one handed. He was holding his horses reins with the other hand.
You Sir are correctamundo !
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
No one knows how they will react to a situation like the Walmart shooting.No matter how much you practice shooting your weapon when the chit hits the fan everything changes.Everyone wants to think that they can be a hero and stop something like this while it is going down.The truth is when the bullets are flying you do not think rationally and a stupid mistake will cost your life and save nobody.If you are armed the best you can do is to protect yourself and those close by if possible.Rocky is right .The best thing is to vacate the area .Getting your self killed will not make you a hero.It will just make you dead.
Its all right to be white!! Stupidity left unattended will run rampant Don't argue with stupid people, They will drag you down to their level and then win by experience
If nothing else, this thread revealed that most people would be better served not to Conceal Carry, the added weight of the firearm and ammunition if loaded would only slow them down while running in the other direction.