US Mass Shooting 1982 to 2022

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Analysis

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"Guns are the leading cause of mortality in Children and Adolescents in the United States"

Mass shootings in the US have become somewhat of a regular occurrence. From this CNN report on America's struggle with mass shootings, you read people talking about the fear and anxiety they live with daily, dreading another incident or worse, experiencing one. You read about people going into public places and planning possible escape routes. At this point, for some people, it's a matter of when not if.

So far this year, there have been a lot of mass shootings in public places, many of which are not captured in this report. Gun violence in America is increasing exponentially. If the first half of this year is anything to go by, I wonder what the rest of the year holds for Americans. This analysis is just another article on gun violence in the US. Hopefully, someday soon, the appropriate authority will do the needful and properly regulate firearm possession.

About the Data:

The data used for this analysis was gotten from the Mother Jones mass open-source database documenting mass shootings. The incidents documented here are majorly focused on mass shootings (indiscriminate rampage) in public places that resulted in 3 or more people being killed by the attacker. Shootings resulting from conventionally motivated crimes like armed robbery or gang-related violence are not included in this analysis. You could read more on the data source here

Data cleaning;

The initial data downloaded was not very clean, it contained some nulls and other values that were neither strings nor numbers, extra cleaning was required to make the data readable on PostgreSQL and Power BI. Nulls were replaced for all the columns necessary for this report. Replacing the nulls for the age column required extra research. Let's dive into the report.

Incidents in this dataset cover the period between 1982 to 2022. The data contains 128 cases of mass shootings in the US where at least 3 people were killed in each case. From the 128 cases in this study, 1035 people have been killed by gun violence, with 357 people killed from 2017 to the last date this data covers. This means that the last 6 years accounts for 34.5% of the total death toll in this report. Bear in mind that this report covers 40 years.

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Cases and Victims

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Victims in the last six years

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“You can't put guns in people's hands and then claim no responsibility when they murder people.” ― DaShanne Stokes

Research shows that a good number of these perpetrators obtained their guns legally. From this analysis, 68% of the people involved in these shootings obtained their guns legally. The two incidents that occurred in May this year were both perpetrated by 18-year-olds with signs of mental illness who obtained their guns legally. Under the Gun Control Act of 1968, individuals who are 18 years or older can legally obtain shotguns and rifles, as well as ammunition for both. If they are obtaining these weapons from licensed dealers, a background check is required. However, if the weapons are obtained from unlicensed dealers no background check is required.

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Weapons obtained

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Now let's talk about the background check required to obtain a gun in the US. The gun control act stipulates that firearms must not be sold to felons and certain prohibited persons like substance abusers, people convicted of domestic violence and fugitives. What this means is that a buyer fills the 4473 Form, and the seller during purchase runs the name of a buyer through NICS, a database maintained by the FBI. If there is nothing on the buyers' record that prohibits them from buying a gun, they can go ahead to purchase the gun and as much amm0 as they want. This process is very flawed, but more on that later.

Salvador Ramos the shooter from Robb Elementary School shooting in Texas, had a case of mental illness (probably unreported), but he was still able to obtain guns legally and 1657 rounds of ammo with nobody raising an eyebrow. He went on to kill 21 persons. According to wiki, Payton S. Gendron, the 2022 Buffalo shooter passed the background check to purchase a gun by filling the Form 4473, and the seller said there were no obvious red flags. However, in 2021 Gendron was investigated by the police and referred to a mental health hospital for evaluation and counselling because of his threat to other students and behavior. He wasn't convicted of any crime or committed in the hospital, so he could legally purchase guns.

From this analysis, 197 people have died from mass shootings in schools, the majority of which are students whose only crime was going to school. 283 people have died from mass shootings in their workplaces. These people started their day like every other day, and just like that, their lives were over because one person or persons can get access to guns faster than they can buy beer. We can go on and on analyzing cases like this.

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School shootings

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Workplace shootings

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People below 20, people who are not allowed into clubs have killed 144 people with guns they have no business having access to. It is also worth noting that most of the perpetrators of these shootings are white men.

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Perpetrators by age group

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Perpetrators by Gender

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"But this problem doesn't have to remain a problem forever. It's possible to create a change."

Conclusion:

There is a gun violence menace in the United States, pretending otherwise is simply being delusional. Maybe a total overhaul of the current gun control act is not the solution, but the current process to obtain a gun in the US is not working. There are too many loopholes in the system and until something intentional is done, the violence may persist.

Below are some recommendations that could help reduce the menace.

Higher security checks in public places especially schools. Security detectors for guns could be strategically positioned in public places and authorized security personnel takes custody of any firearm detected until the owner is ready to leave the environment. This could work for places like supermarkets and workplaces. Guns should not be allowed on school premises.

The current background check process is not working at all. There should be a more detailed background check for people who want to acquire arms. The background check could include more information like the history of guns and ammunition purchased periodically.

There should be a cap on the amount of ammo an individual can purchase periodically. This should be structured according to persons and needs ( eg. Age, occupation, veteran status, etc.)

There could be some form of engagement with gun dealers to further educate them on the need to act with due diligence, care and utmost ethical concern while carrying out their business activities.

There could be a community-wide effort to sensitize the public on the positive effect of good mental health and less stigmatization around mental health illnesses.

“Thoughts and prayers won't stop a speeding bullet.” ―DaShanne Stokes

The SQL queries for this analysis are here: https://github.com/Okaks/US_Mass_Shootings

You can view the slides with the summary of the analysis here: https://bit.ly/3IhXZd6