Mass Killings vs. Mass Shootings: There's a Difference

Richard Fernandez : Aug 16, 2019
PJmedia.com

It is sometimes argued that gun control can force rampage killers downward to knives, but there is nothing to prevent them from trading up to a deadly plan and a box of matches. Any strategy to reduce mass killings must consider psychological and network factors as much as object control (like banning knives).

[PJmedia.com] In trying to measure the effects of guns on society—not just the Americans—it pays to be careful about what we are describing. The Washington Post explains that there is no direct relation between the number of firearms in circulation and the number of ordinary gun-related murders. (Image: Unsplash-Christopher Burns)

Most Americans incorrectly think gun-murder rates have gotten worse, not better ... To be explicit: This is wrong. Data from the FBI breaks out reported murders by type of weapon, showing a drop in the raw count of firearm murders since a peak in 1993...

But remember, too, that the question asked about the murder rate—that is, the number of murders as a function of the population. In that regard, the drop is even steeper. In 1994, the FBI data suggest a rate of about 6.2 firearm murders per 100,000 people. In 2017, the rate was 3.38 murders, up from the 2014 low in which the rate was less than half of that in 1994... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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