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What is YOUR definition of "mass shooting".


  • Total voters
    19
  • Poll closed .
4 or more random victims, unknown to the shooter(s), not including the shooter(s), and without a gang, political or social motive....
....if it's to make a gang, political or social point/protest then it's terrorism.
 
Last Edited:
Interesting restrictions you put on it. So the annihilation of a family of 5, not being random, not being unknown to the shooter is not a mass shooting? Nor would the killing of 5 Dallas police officers? Nor the San Bernadino shooting?

Not criticizing here, I just want to understand... Is it then that only public shootings as wrought by crazy people are mass shootings? Can you give other examples? Not sure the Giffords shooting didn't have political motives, nor the Umpqua college shooting.

Whitman tower shooting, yup.

How about the Texas church massacre, not sure all the vics were unknown to the shooter, or that he didn't have social motives.

Vegas shooting - we still don't know his motives. Could be political or social or both... not a mass shooting?
 
Last Edited:
Ok, similar to "assault" weapon it is a made up term. Originating with the Texas clock tower shooting, which involved a single shooter, and multiple casualties.

While it may be subjective, my question is not how it is defined but how do YOU define it.

Yes, that dress makes you look, er, fat? :confused:
 
Family of 4= mass murder whether by knife, club, fire, car "accident", gun, poison...

Vegas= more than 4 random victims, unknown to the shooter = mass shooting.
Then, If/when a political/social motive is proven it becomes an act of terrorism, same as if he planted bombs or crashed a helicopter into the crowd.
 
Mass shooting refers to an incident involving multiple victims of gun violence. The Congressional Research Service acknowledges that there is not a broadly accepted definition, and uses a definition of a "public massshooting" if 4 or more people are actually killed, not including the perpetrator, echoing the FBI definition of the term "mass murder".
 
Then, terror attacks cannot also be mass shootings?

By my definition a terror attack isn't a mass shooting, it would simply be a terror attack where the terrorists used guns instead of bombs, poison, fire, crashing planes/trucks etc...

I guess it's kind of like, "All thumbs are fingers, but not all fingers are thumbs" if you get my drift....
Interesting topic though, hard to nail down a hard n' fast definition.
Perhaps if the media would cooperate and refer to multiple murder as mass knifings, mass truckings, mass burnings....
 
It doesn't matter how you or I or anyone else define this term. What does matter is how the media defines it. The same is true for Arsenal and Assault Weapon and even "DB Cooper" - NONE of these things exists anywhere except in the narrow minds of the "If IT Bleeds, It Leads" crowd.
 
By my definition a terror attack isn't a mass shooting, it would simply be a terror attack where the terrorists used guns instead of bombs, poison, fire, crashing planes/trucks etc...

I guess it's kind of like, "All thumbs are fingers, but not all fingers are thumbs" if you get my drift....
Interesting topic though, hard to nail down a hard n' fast definition.
Perhaps if the media would cooperate and refer to multiple murder as mass knifings, mass truckings, mass burnings....

Don't worry, the MSM will find a definition to suit each incident & the LIV (low information viewers) will suck it up like cotton candy....
 
Broad term. How many constitutes a motorcycle club and when is it classified as a biker gang? Define collectible car. What's a slut?
 
Gun Violence Archive, a database that tracks events since 2013 in which four or more people (not counting the shooter) were shot at the same general time and location. (includes injured - not just killed)

one common definition — shootings at a public place in which the shooter murdered four or more people, excluding domestic, gang, and drug violence

Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, for example, defines mass shootings more widely, as any shooting in which at least four people were murdered.


A couple of real problems for researchers are: Police departments define shootings differently, especially as to "child" and Not all report to the FBI.
2 19 year old gang bangers shoot each other, and a couple of innocents, over a known drug territory - Child shooting? Some places.

What if the shooter is the police (one or several) ?

The Texas bikers shoot out - do we have all the facts from that case? I recall some saying it was "false flag" that is the police started shooting, then the armed bikers defended themselves; if the police haddn't shot, no one would have. Would that be ?

How about a shoot out.
vs one gunman vs an unarmed group?
ex. Sandy Hook or Columbine.

LA police vs news paper delivery - 4 or more shooters -v- 2 ladies in a truck got shot up (not killed) ?
No charges for LAPD officers who shot newspaper delivery women during Dorner manhunt
 

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