Quite the discrepancy has popped up after the CPRP (Crime Prevention Research Center) released a revised report on the 9th that shows, since 2009, that 92% of mass shootings have occurred in Gun Free Zones. Compare that number to Everytown For Gun Safety’s report of just 14% of mass shootings happening in Gun Free Zones.
Yikes, who’s correct? (Can you guess?)
The report is rather in-depth (in a good way), and the Abstract consists of the following:
Mass public shootings, where the shooter intends to commit mass murder in a public place, has not “exploded” over the last five years, as frequently claimed in the media, either in terms of the number of attacks or the number of people killed. Indeed, the evidence points to a slight decline in attacks. These mass public shooters differ from other mass killers in many systematic ways. They usually die at the scene of the crime. And over half are known to have suffered from mental illness prior to the attack. The killers also carefully plan out their attacks: almost all take place where civilians are not allowed to
defend themselves. The typical attack involving so-called “assault weapons” is no more deadly than those involving other types of weapons.Everytown’s recent analysis of mass shootings is riddled with errors. Mistakes are made on the number of mass shootings as well as the extent of mental illness, the killers’ ages, and even where the attacks occurred. Those errors occurred because they did not do a complete news search on each case. They made simple accounting errors and included cases that did not fit their claimed criteria (4 or more shooting deaths). Also, their arbitrary definition of “assault weapons” seems chosen to obtain the results that fit their ideological agenda. Their numbers should not be relied on for any type of policy analysis.
The report is a fantastic read and is worth the time it takes to go through all of their organized data on this topic. You may actually find yourself surprised at some of the statistics. Spoiler Alert: They aren’t close to what the media likes to make the public believe.
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This discrepancy isn’t a surprise to us, as we’ll kindly point everyone to the “school shooting report” that Everytown famously unleashed. That report turned out to be a compiled list of ridiculousness. For example, they would add a +1 to the school shooting list if a gang member shot another gang member on school property at 2am. Or, they would count a school shooting as a person who committed suicide on school grounds.
Sorry, but those are not the types of school shootings we’re talking about. The group has been called out on numerous occasions for their statistics-gathering techniques, yet they’re likely to continue with their bad information. And truth be told, many people will simply read their info and nod their head in agreement without doing any research on their own.
And that is a large part of the wider issue at hand.
Read the full report here.
