Thursday, December 12, 2013

Mass shootings analyzed

Mike Masterson, the police chief in Boise, Idaho, feeds an email list that I subscribe to with some very interesting posts. He sent a link out this week to a fascinating analysis of mass shootings in the United States since 2006, from USA Today.

Not only is the analysis interesting, the techniques used for visualizing the data are impressive. The statistics come alive in this infographic, in a very powerful way.  There is also an interactive database application with which one can query the dataset in several ways.




5 comments:

Steve said...

That was very interesting, and the presentation was done well. I was not particularly surprised by any of the data, though. I think people who promote gun control might do well to examine this data and focus more on things that might actually do some good. Of particular interest to me were the "failures" that resulted in mass killings. It seems so many times, we either hear, "I would never have believed he could do something like that," or, "I knew it was only a matter of time before he would do something like that."

Anonymous said...

The dramatic photos don't really add anything but drama, so I didn't watch beyond the first frame. Does it show how many suspects were taking or had recently stopped taking prescribed psychiatric drugs? That's a big factor in a large percentage of these incidents (but one that gun grabbers and drug companies don't like to talk about). If you're not crazy before you begin popping those profitable pills, you soon will be.

Anonymous said...

For some support on the all-too-common link between many mass shootings and psychiatric drugs, I offer this link.

Anonymous said...

One of them killed some people by smashing their heads in with the butt of a shotgun.

Question. Does that mean he used a shotgun to kill them or was it counted as blunt force trauma which would classify it as 'other'?

Anonymous said...

Here is something that public safety personnel will have to deal with in the future, specifically the side effects of these meds, and the resultant homicidal and suicidal ideation in these patients. I doubt parenting is going to get any better, and will more likely continue to degrade, so we'll just keep throwing pills at the problem.