“Mass Shooters, Firearms, and Social Strains: A Global Analysis of an Exceptionally American Problem,” offers the first qualitative analysis of all public mass shootings worldwide between 1966 and 2012. [Adam] Lankford [a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama] used data from the New York City Police Department’s 2012 active shooter report, the FBI’s 2014 active shooter report, and international sources. It omitted gang-related or drive-by shootings, as well as hostage-taking incidents, robberies, and shootings in domestic settings. A public mass shooting can be defined as a shooting that killed at least four victims, according to the FBI’s definition of mass murder…. “My study provides empirical evidence, based on my quantitative assessment of 171 countries, that a nation’s civilian firearm ownership rate is the strongest predictor of its number of public mass shooters,” he concluded. “Until now, everyone was simply speculating about the relationship between firearms and public mass shootings. My study provides empirical evidence of a positive association between the two.”
It’s as predictable as it is tired and inaccurate- Proudly Closed-Minded Gun Control Foes © claiming that MOR GUNZ!!! © will only guarantee more safety. This is the corollary of the “More guns makes for a more polite society” argument- equally tired and inaccurate…as well as being astonishingly self-serving and self-centered. These attitudes aren’t based on any substantive scientific evidence…because the evidence doesn’t break in that direction. The truth is, as yet another study shows, that more guns don’t in fact translate to a safer, more polite society. What it does translate to is a much less safe society increasing prone to mass murder. The study clearly shows that “a nation’s civilian firearm ownership rate is the strongest predictor of its number of public mass shooters,” which shouldn’t be breaking news to anyone reasonable person who’s been paying attention.
America has 200 MILLION more firearms in circulation than any other nation on Earth. I don’t know about you, but just thinking about that numbers sends chills up my spine. And not in a good way. An armed society isn’t a polite society; it’s a paranoid, trigger-happy one. There’s something fundamentally sick and maladjusted about a society which believes being armed to the teeth is the best way to ensure civility and order. “Peace through strength” didn’t work when it came to Ronald Reagan’s dealing with the Soviet Union, and it’s clearly not working within our own borders.
Until and unless those who believe MOR GUNZ!!! © isn’t the answer- and in fact is the problem- stand up and demand that Congress pass common sense gun control laws, nothing will change. Innocent men, women, and children will continue to be slaughtered, all so that Proudly Closed-Minded Gun Control Foes © may be allowed to display their ignorance and inhumanity. As long as it’s someone else’s loved one being buried, right??
This is what happens when you care about guns more than human life.
