A less provocative title for this still invites controversy, and that is “At What Point do We Acknowledge a Need For Gun Control?”
My rants on this on Facebook have gotten long and emotional. My opinion on this is constantly met with “we’ll just have to agree to disagree” when I even say the words “gun” and “control” in the same sentence. There’s this visceral need to equate the idea of preventing people from getting guns that should not have them through mandatory background checks with taking away everyone’s guns that has ever owned them, ever. Honestly, I’m not going to espouse the virtues one way or another. I’m just going to put statistics in front of you and let you decide for yourself. Actually, statistics might be wrong term, as well, since people are fond of saying that “statistics lie” or “you can make statistics say whatever you want.” This is true, and I think I’ve been guilty of presenting data in a way to support my research a time or two back in school. So, let’s just look at raw numbers shall we?
Here are the numbers, by state and by year, of mass shootings, per year, where “mass” is defined as more than three people being involved and “shooting” being defined as an event that involved the use of a firearm.
| State | 2013 | | | 2014 | | | 2015 | | |
| | Incidents | Deaths | Injuries | Incidents | Deaths | Injuries | Incidents | Deaths | Injuries |
| Alabama | 8 | 15 | 22 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 14 |
| Alaska | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Arizona | 8 | 20 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 15 | 9 |
| Arkansas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| California | 53 | 68 | 200 | 37 | 47 | 134 | 14 | 16 | 51 |
| Colorado | 4 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Connecticut | 4 | 6 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
| Delaware | 4 | 3 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Florida | 23 | 40 | 72 | 21 | 42 | 79 | 15 | 12 | 53 |
| Georgia | 7 | 5 | 30 | 12 | 15 | 46 | 13 | 23 | 40 |
| Hawaii | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Idaho | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Illinois | 23 | 22 | 104 | 29 | 31 | 102 | 11 | 7 | 45 |
| Indiana | 8 | 8 | 26 | 7 | 4 | 29 | 5 | 4 | 21 |
| Iowa | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Kansas | 7 | 15 | 17 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Kentucky | 6 | 11 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 15 |
| Louisiana | 10 | 10 | 55 | 13 | 8 | 60 | 10 | 15 | 40 |
| Maine | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Maryland | 5 | 5 | 19 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 28 |
| Massachusetts | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 21 |
| Michigan | 15 | 11 | 62 | 14 | 9 | 55 | 6 | 2 | 36 |
| Minnesota | 5 | 6 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mississippi | 2 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| Missouri | 12 | 14 | 43 | 4 | 2 | 17 | 7 | 12 | 21 |
| Montana | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Nebraska | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nevada | 6 | 12 | 14 | 5 | 6 | 16 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| New Hampshire | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New Jersey | 12 | 9 | 46 | 8 | 8 | 29 | 9 | 6 | 30 |
| New Mexico | 4 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New York | 16 | 19 | 56 | 11 | 5 | 41 | 16 | 14 | 62 |
| North Carolina | 18 | 13 | 62 | 8 | 17 | 19 | 5 | 11 | 12 |
| North Dakota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ohio | 13 | 14 | 42 | 9 | 19 | 20 | 10 | 12 | 41 |
| Oklahoma | 7 | 17 | 12 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 15 |
| Oregon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Pennsylvania | 17 | 16 | 63 | 10 | 11 | 43 | 5 | 3 | 27 |
| Rhode Island | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| South Carolina | 6 | 14 | 15 | 5 | 5 | 20 | 5 | 17 | 9 |
| South Dakota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tennessee | 11 | 19 | 27 | 9 | 10 | 30 | 6 | 8 | 24 |
| Texas | 15 | 36 | 47 | 20 | 34 | 83 | 12 | 25 | 56 |
| Utah | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Vermont | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Virginia | 11 | 12 | 39 | 7 | 10 | 24 | 5 | 3 | 20 |
| Washington | 4 | 8 | 13 | 5 | 8 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| West Virginia | 3 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wisconsin | 2 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 16 | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| Wyoming | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Washington DC | 6 | 14 | 37 | 4 | 0 | 19 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Puerto Rico | 3 | 11 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| Totals | 363 | 500 | 1258 | 281 | 348 | 1032 | 205 | 260 | 752 |
So, take 2013. That’s 500 people killed in 363 separate incidents with over 1,200 people injured. I’ll only use my personal knowledge for comparison, here, but that 500 people is more than if you killed the entire graduating class of Wabash College for that year…two and a half times. The year of 2014 was a little better, but still would have killed off more than the entire graduating class of Wabash College for that year, almost twice, as well. So far, in 2015, it’s looking like another wipeout, having already eclipsed this past year’s graduating class number – which was the highest it’s been in over decade.
So, for perspective, if you were to average that out to fit within the graduating class paradigm, the number of people killed in mass shootings over the last three years would be the equivalent of wiping out the past 5.9 years of Wabash College graduates. We haven’t even addressed the number of people injured in these shootings, which has eclipsed the 3,000 mark over the past three years and we’re just over half-way through this current year.
If you want to look at it, in totality, for the past three years per state, it looks like this:
| | Total | | |
| | Incidents | Deaths | Injuries |
| Alabama | 15 | 22 | 47 |
| Alaska | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Arizona | 14 | 36 | 28 |
| Arkansas | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| California | 104 | 131 | 385 |
| Colorado | 5 | 7 | 14 |
| Connecticut | 8 | 8 | 34 |
| Delaware | 5 | 3 | 20 |
| Florida | 59 | 94 | 204 |
| Georgia | 32 | 43 | 116 |
| Hawaii | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Idaho | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Illinois | 63 | 60 | 251 |
| Indiana | 20 | 16 | 76 |
| Iowa | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| Kansas | 10 | 20 | 25 |
| Kentucky | 12 | 17 | 36 |
| Louisiana | 33 | 33 | 155 |
| Maine | 2 | 6 | 3 |
| Maryland | 16 | 17 | 58 |
| Massachusetts | 9 | 5 | 38 |
| Michigan | 35 | 22 | 153 |
| Minnesota | 8 | 7 | 27 |
| Mississippi | 7 | 10 | 20 |
| Missouri | 23 | 28 | 81 |
| Montana | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Nebraska | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nevada | 12 | 21 | 31 |
| New Hampshire | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New Jersey | 29 | 23 | 105 |
| New Mexico | 5 | 7 | 14 |
| New York | 43 | 38 | 159 |
| North Carolina | 31 | 41 | 93 |
| North Dakota | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ohio | 32 | 45 | 103 |
| Oklahoma | 16 | 29 | 38 |
| Oregon | 4 | 2 | 15 |
| Pennsylvania | 32 | 30 | 133 |
| Rhode Island | 3 | 0 | 13 |
| South Carolina | 16 | 36 | 44 |
| South Dakota | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Tennessee | 26 | 37 | 81 |
| Texas | 47 | 95 | 186 |
| Utah | 4 | 12 | 7 |
| Vermont | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Virginia | 23 | 25 | 83 |
| Washington | 9 | 16 | 30 |
| West Virginia | 4 | 10 | 9 |
| Wisconsin | 9 | 7 | 33 |
| Wyoming | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Washington DC | 12 | 16 | 62 |
| Puerto Rico | 3 | 11 | 10 |
| | | | |
| Totals | 849 | 1108 | 3042 |
So, if you take that over the past three years, and I’m going to fudge and make the data look “less bad” by counting 2015 as a complete year for our purposes. I’ll address it, correctly, in a minute. Over the past three years, that translates to 0.77 incidents per day. Remember, this is counting 2015 as a complete 365 days. These numbers translate to 1.01 deaths per day. That’s a person a day, every day, for three complete years. For injuries, that translates to 2.78 injuries per day as part of a mass shooting. Remember, that’s if we’re going on the assumption of 365 days times three – 1095 days.
It looks slightly worse if we consider that we’re only 209 days into the year. So, that would make a total of 939 days. This changes it to, over the past two years and this year, to date (as of July 28, 2015), 0.9 incidents per day. This may not seem significantly different, but we’re that much closer to a mass shooting every single day for the past two and half years. Think about that. The death per day number is, now, 1.18 – that’s over a person a day being killed in a mass shooting. Counting up the injuries, we are looking at 3.24 people per day.
So, if you’re looking at choice vacation spots, it might be wise to avoid Chicago or Detroit whose mass shooting violence is on the uptick. California still shows the largest numbers, but it is a pretty big state.
I’m just putting the numbers out there. How you feel about the numbers is up to you. My question is only this – at what point are the lives of the dead and injured important enough to admit something needs to be done?
For those wondering, here are the data sources used. I know the danger inherent in using a single source and I’m pretty sure they’re incomplete just because of the sheer numbers, but even if that’s the case, the picture they paint is gruesome and worth considering.
http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2013
http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2014
http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2015
