Observations
While there is an increase in mass shootings, it’s certainly not the one a day figures promoted by the media.
Most of the data you hear and read about school crime and mass shootings is wrong.
As of this writing, local and national media is still citing 18 school shootings since the beginning of the year, that crime in schools is increasing, and there is one mass shooting a day; all are incorrect.
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Thirty-five years of speaking for national and state government agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Over fifty national and regional awards. Post-Masters’ Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University.
Author of Success With The Media: Everything You Need To Survive Reporters and Your Organization available at Amazon.
Article
You are going to hear and read endless data about school and mass shootings. Most of it is wrong and is based on advocacy organizations trying to gain publicity.
I just wrote, “Honesty, School And Mass Shootings” at Crime in America where I debunked data on school shootings (via the Washington Post) and an alleged increase in school crime; violence in schools is at record lows per US Department of Justice data.
Then I wrote that there are approximately four to five mass shootings a year, not the nearly one a day cited by multiple news sources, Crime in America.
How does a parent or school administrator react to the endless proliferation of bad data from news sources? If I was a student, and I was told that there were 18 school shootings since the beginning of the year, or that school violence is increasing, or there was nearly one mass shooting a day, I wouldn’t leave the house. I would be traumatized.
The media has the responsibility to get their facts right. When wrong, or when wildly incorrect, the media has the responsibility to examine how it collects and reports information. Thus far, that isn’t happening.
Nearly One Mass Shooting A Day
From The Crime Report: The widely held belief that there is an upward trend in deadly massacres is a product of media misrepresentation and public misunderstanding.
In the past few years, following each major mass killing involving firearms, the print and electronic media, desperate for sidebar material to serve as an audience hook, have reported that over 300 mass shootings occur every year, nearly one a day.
Frightening figures like these are culled from the Gun Violence Archive with its alternative definition of mass shooting as four or more people shot, but not necessarily killed.
In fact, in nearly half of the Archive’s 1,333 mass shootings from 2014 through 2017, no one was killed, not even the gunman. And in over three-quarters of the cases, at most one person perished, The Crime Report.
Congressional Research Service
The Congressional Research Service tracks the increase in mass shootings going from one incident a year during the 1970’s to 4.5 incidents a year from 2010-2013.
While there is an increase, it’s certainly not the one a day figures being promoted via the media, Crime in America.
18th Mass Shooting in a School
Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit group, tweeted Wednesday after the Florida school shooting that this, “is the 18th school shooting in the U.S. in 2018.” The list of media and notables referring to the statistic is uncountable. It was quoted by a celebrity newscaster during my favorite national morning show.
The group’s criteria is, “any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds.” Schools include any educational institution including colleges.
Per their guidelines, a bullet fired that hits a school closed for years would still be counted as a school shooting. Think I’m exaggerating? Read the article from Peter Hermann of the Washington Post.
Per the Washington Post’s headline, “No, there haven’t been 18 school shootings in 2018. That number is flat wrong.” How much credibility will the group or similar advocates have after this? Crime in America .
School Violence Increasing?
Per the US Department of Justice, In 2015, approximately 3 percent of students ages 12–18 reported being victimized at school during the previous 6 months. About 2 percent of students reported a theft, 1 percent reported violent victimization, and less than one-half of 1 percent reported serious violent victimization.
Between 1995 and 2015, the percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported being victimized at school during the previous 6 months decreased overall (from 10 to 3 percent).
In 2015, about 6 percent of students in grades 9–12 reported that they had been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property during the previous 12 months.
The percentage of students who reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property was lower in 2015 than in every survey year between 1993 and 2011; however, there was no measurable difference between the percentages in 2013 and 2015.
Yes, any student should be able to go to school completely free of threats and violence but we know from data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the US Department of Justice that younger people will always have higher rates of violence than those older. Crime in schools and crime in the proximity of schools will always be an issue.
But the facts state that crime in schools decreased concurrently with the overall declines in national crime, going from 10 to 3 percent since 1995.
Students who reported being threatened or injured with a weapon decreased and remain at historical lows.
If 1 percent are violently victimized at schools for an age group with higher overall victimizations, it indicates that schools are doing a decent job of protecting students.
Parents should be talking to their kids about any behavior that makes them feel uncomfortable (most mass shooters provide indicators that they are leaning towards violence), but let’s not forget that a tiny fraction are violently victimized, Crime in America.
Conclusion
Why are we unnecessarily scaring our students with false information regarding out of control schools?
There will be an after-action analysis (there always is) by those who review data used by the media during incidents of note. When it happens, the media will have to answer questions as to why they used inaccurate and inflammatory figures as often as they did.
