"US Active-Shooter Cases Spike at a 'Troubling' Rate"

[NYC_SKP]

Let us have an honest discussion of this topic in an open group.
The devil is in the details. And now we have to add a new term, "active shootings" to the list of new terms to debunk, like "assault rifles" or "assault weapons".
I suspect cherry picked data and clever misuse of terminology.

US Active-Shooter Cases Spike at a 'Troubling' Rate
Sep 24, 2014, 4:10 PM ET
BY PIERRE THOMAS, JACK CLOHERTY and MIKE LEVINE

"Active-shooter incidents" in the United States are increasing in frequency, according to an FBI study of the 160 such attacks in the country between 2000 and 2013.
“During the first 7 years included in the study, an average of 6.4 incidents occurred annually,” the report notes. “In the last 7 years … that average increased to 16.4 incidents annually.”

In a pad-and-pencil briefing with reporters today, FBI Assistant Director James F. Yacone called the acceleration of incidents “troubling.”
The comprehensive study would provide an important “baseline” that will help the FBI and state and local police respond to the shootings, and in some cases, even prevent them, he added.

The study found there have been active-shooting incidents in 40 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and they occur in big cities, small towns and rural areas. While most took place in business or school environments, there were also mass shootings in military and other government property, health care facilities and houses of worship.

The FBI study reports a total of 1,043 casualties in the 160 mass shootings: 468 people were killed, and 557 wounded, excluding the shooters. In the 45 incidents in which law enforcement officers were able to engage the shooter, nine officers were killed and 28 wounded. Yacone said that the FBI is helping local law enforcement with advanced equipment and training for confronting mass shooters.

More:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/us-deadly-mass-shootings-spike-troubling-rate/story?id=25736640

Off to bed soon.

[Eleanors38]

1. In the report, "mass shooting" was defined as...

3 or more killed in a single incident. Didn't the FBI use 4 or more as the standard for a mass murder? Did that change, or am I mistaken about the criterium?

[Duckhunter935]

3. You are right

Generally, mass murder was described as a number of murders (four or more) occurring during the same incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders. These events typically involved a single location, where the killer murdered a number of victims in an ongoing incident (e.g. the 1984 San Ysidro McDonalds incident in San Diego, California; the 1991 Luby’s Restaurant massacre in Killeen, Texas; and the 2007 Virginia Tech murders in Blacksburg, Virginia).

http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder/serial-murder-1#two

Sounds like they are trying to make it sound worse by changing the definition and I am sure skewing the numbers for a point.

[ileus]

4. They're good at changing the rules to further an agenda.

It helps sink their hater hooks into the emotional.

[Eleanors38]

5. In my perusal of media proclaiming a rise in...

"mass shooting," one source cited the shootings in Birmingham the other day in which 2 were killed. This doesn't comport with even the new & imoroved definition. Another source conflated "mass shooting" with "active shooter."

Sounds like Defense spending accounting: Reduce spending by rearranging the definitions.

[ileus]

2. I took our "active shooter" class.

The #1 thing I took away from our "guns free" hospital was that our best defense was to, Run, Hide, Barricade. As a last resort, find a pen to stab the shooter in the throat.

[Eleanors38]

6. I should think a loaded syringe would be preferable.

[Lurks Often]

8. Would one of those pens with 4 different ink colors

be considered a high capacity assault pen?

[NYC_SKP]

7. ETA, there's an FBI "study" out there, but none of the stories link to it.

Everything I'm reading so far looks skewed and biased, no links to the actual data; just opinions.

The "trend" also seems very much to depend on a new and narrow definition of something called an "active shooting".

Basically, they look at the data and filter it in as many different ways as possible until they find something that fits the narrative or shows an increase.
I.E: What if we look at shootings in confined places that last under 15 minutes? If that doesn't work try something else until you find what you want.

This is how you justify a war or any other political action, you lie or make the facts fit your agenda.

They are even including incidents in which nobody is injured:

Not all of the cases studied involved deaths or even injuries. In one 2006 case in Joplin, Missouri, a 13-year-old boy brought a rifle and handgun into a middle school, but his rifle jammed after he fired one shot. The principal then escorted the boy out of school and turned him over to the police.

So I went to the FBI website and found their article: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/september/fbi-releases-study-on-active-shooter-incidents/fbi-releases-study-on-active-shooter-incidents

The 47 page PDF study is here: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/september/fbi-releases-study-on-active-shooter-incidents/pdfs/a-study-of-active-shooter-incidents-in-the-u.s.-between-2000-and-2013

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-09-24/fbi-identifies-160-mass-shooting-incidents-since-2000

http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.617725

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/09/24/fbi-releases-report-mass-shootings/acFPd1StAfZlnA2vTWWu4O/story.html

The study reviewed 160 mass shootings between 2000 and 2013 to identify common themes and to help local law enforcement prepare for or respond to similar killings in the future.

‘‘These incidents, the large majority of them, are over in minutes. So it’s going to have to be a teaching and training of the best tactics, techniques, and procedures to our state and local partners,’’ said James F. Yacone, an FBI assistant director who oversees crisis response and was involved in the report.

The report focused on what the FBI calls ‘‘active shooter incidents,’’ cases in which a gunman in an attack shoots multiple people in a populated area. It excluded shootings that are gang or drug-related, involve self-defense, or are contained domestic disputes.