Thursday, December 3, 2015

Mass Shootings Not on the Rise

The shooting yesterday in San Bernadino, CA was shocking and inexplicable.  How do you categorize it?  Workplace violence?  Terrorism?  Why did this guy Syed Rizwan Farook decide to do this, and why did he drag his wife into it?  

Are mass shootings--defined by the FBI as four or more victims--on the rise?  Not according to criminologists at Northeastern University, who claim they have held steady at about 20 events per year for the last four decades or so.  See this article in Slate:  mass_shootings_in_america

The homicide rate in general has been declining for years, but these mass incidents suggest deeper problems.  And no one has a reasonable solution to this.

Even if some of the employees at the training center were armed, it probably wouldn't have done much good, as the couple employed AR-15s and wore body armor.  They were well prepared for this mayhem.

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