Gun Crisis in America: 51 Shootings, 54 dead, 202 wounded in 29 days
Numbers don’t tell the tragic human stories of loss and pain, grief and healing — but they sure do tell the story of our national crisis. Legislators – DO SOMETHING!
Here’s the shockingly long list of mass shootings since August 4 when a 24-year-old white man dressed in body armor shot and killed 9 and wounded 27 others in Dayton, Ohio. (Mass Shootings Tracker lists all shootings where 4 or more people are SHOT (not just those where 4 or more are killed). We don’t even hear about most of these stories…
By Bobby Allyn, NPR News, September 1, 201911:37 AM ET
Updated 9/1/19, at 12:04 p.m. ET
The death toll from a mass shooting in the West Texas cities of Midland and Odessa has risen from five to seven, according to Odessa Mayor David Turner.
The mayor said that at least 18 remain injured — including a 17-month-old girl — following the shooting rampage that began after Texas state troopers attempted to pull over a vehicle Saturday afternoon on a Texas interstate for failing to signal a left turn.
The toddler, Turner said, is still in the hospital recovering from injuries that are “not as bad as they thought,” saying, “we are very grateful the injuries weren’t worse.”
As the community searches for answers about what motivated the gunman, the focus needs to be on the families of victims, the mayor said in an interview with NPR.
“We covet everyone’s prayers for those who were injured and for those loved ones who were lost and for the community as a whole,” Turner said.
Authorities in Texas are scheduled to hold a briefing on the shooting at noon local time to provide additional details about the incident.
Police say the gunman, described as a man in his mid-30s, fled police and then stole a postal truck and began firing indiscriminately at people along the highway and streets around Midland and Odessa.
Three law enforcement officers were wounded in the attack, and Turner said all three are in “stable”condition and still hospitalized.
“Our law enforcement are in as good condition as can be expected. Physical injuries are there, but there are also emotional injuries. And so, we’ll have to watch them close,” Turner said.
Police shot and killed the shooter outside of a movie theater in the Odessa area. The gunman’s motive has not been revealed.
The communities jolted by the massacre are in need of support right now, according to the Odessa mayor.
“In West Texas, we’re known for being strong and independent,” Turner said. “It’s time for us to come together and love on those who need are love that have lost friends and family.”
10 dead, 38 wounded in 6 separate mass shootings, all on just this one day across the U.S.
By Roger Straw, August 31, 2019
Odessa TX: Five dead, plus the shooter; more than 20 injured in mass shooting
The big one today was in the oil-rich Permian Basin of west Texas. We learned that yet another young white guy massacred 5 innocents, wounded 21 others, and got himself killed in Odessa, Texas today. [UPDATE 9/1/19 10am PT: Death Toll In West Texas Shooting Rampage Now At 7. “The death toll from a mass shooting in the West Texas cities of Midland and Odessa has risen from five to seven, according to Odessa Mayor David Turner. The mayor said that at least 18 remain injured” PBS.org
That one – the big one – made all the BREAKING NEWS segments on tv and the internet today.
But no one is reporting that this guy didn’t act alone.
Well, yes, he was most likely a “lone” shooter in Odessa. But there were five other mass shooters out there on this Saturday of Labor Day weekend.
Even to our OWN ears, our calls for sensible gun legislation are sounding like a broken record. I can hardly stand to call out #NEVERAGAIN, again! What, another street protest? Another vigil? Another letter to Congress to DO SOMETHING!?
The echos are still ringing from Dayton, El Paso, and Gilroy just this summer. And from Thousand Oaks, Pittsburgh, Santa Fe and Parkland last year. It gets too many to list, but we can’t forget Las Vegas, Orlando, Sandy Hook, Aurora… See a database of all the mass killings 1982-2019 on MotherJones.com.
The temptation is to NOT cry out again. We feel as though it’s of no use. Another few days and we’ll see the sentiment die down, and Congress can take no action. Again. Sigh….
Despair has a sister — apathy.
I hope YOU aren’t feeling as defeated as I am tonight. I hope you will write to your congressional representative, to the newspaper, to the NRA. This has GOT to stop!
Want a headache? Here’s the entire troubling list of mass shootings in 2019, 340 mass shootings in just 243 days so far, totaling 401 killed and 1330 wounded. (Mass Shootings Tracker lists all shootings where 4 or more people are SHOT (not just those where 4 or more are killed).
Well, of course one death by the hand of a mass shooter is too many.
But the numbers are important, and how are we to know the facts when we read widely varying reports:
“At least 60 people have died in the U.S. from mass shootings in 2019 alone” – Vallejo Times-Herald on Aug. 6
Prior to the El Paso shooting, “20 mass killings in the US in 2019 claimed 96 lives.” – The Guardian on Aug 4
“The Ohio mass shooting was the 293rd this year, accounting for 345 killed.” – The Benicia Independent on Aug 4
Yes, one is too many, but what is the real story of America’s gun violence problem? How to report with a sense of accuracy? And how are readers to make sense of the wide discrepancies?
#1 – First, it is likely that the Aug 6 Vallejo Times-Herald headline (60 killed) is just an error. I can find no other news article making that claim, and the headline is not referenced in the body of the two Associated Press news reports below the headline.
#2 – The Aug 4 Guardian article (96 killed) refers to “a database compiled by the Associated Press, Northeastern University and USA Today.” The database only counts shootings where four or more people killed, not including the shooter. Using this methodology, the shooting in Dayton was only “the 22nd mass killing in the US this year. The first 20 mass killings in the US in 2019 claimed 96 lives.”
#3 – My own reporting here on the Benicia Independent relies on two very similar databases with shockingly higher numbers: MassShootingTracker.org and GunViolenceArchive.org. Both of these track all shootings where 4 or more people are SHOT (not just those where 4 or more are killed). The justification for this as stated by example on MassShootingTracker is convincing: “…in 2012 Travis Steed and others shot 18 people total. Miraculously, he only killed one. Under the incorrect definition used by the media and the FBI, that event would not be considered a mass shooting! Arguing that 18 people shot during one event is not a mass shooting is absurd.” One difference between these two is that MassShootingTracker includes the death of the shooter, while GunViolenceArchive does not. Thus, they give these numbers for 2019 as of today, Aug 6:
Only using the more detailed mass shootings data can we understand that in the 218 days of this year, the U.S. is experiencing more than one mass shooting every day.
Updated 9/1/19, at 12:04 p.m. ET
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