Ray From Cleveland
Diamond Member
- Aug 16, 2015
- 97,215
- 37,438
- 2,290
Here's a more up to date map of mass shootings between the two nations.
Perhaps cartography can come to the rescue. A map is worth a thousand words. And here are two pertinent examples.
First, a map of all mass shootings that have occurred in the United States in 2015, up to and including the deadliest incident so far, the San Bernardino shooting on December 2nd.. That attack claimed the lives of 14 victims and both perpetrators, as well as injuring a further 23 people.
The map was published by The Boston Globe, and is based on data collated by the Mass Shooting Tracker website. MST defines a "mass shooting" as an incident in which at least four people are shot. By that definition, the U.S. has experienced 353 mass shootings this year, resulting in 462 fatalities and 1,312 people injured (2).
The opacity of the red blobs on the map reflects the geographic density of mass shootings, their size the number of casualties claimed by each. Contrast that with the second map, showing all the mass shootings that have occurred in Australia since 1996.
That's right: none.
There's a reason why 1996 is chosen as the Year Zero for the second map. On 28 April of that year, a lone gunman went on a bloody rampage in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23. It was the bloodiest shooting spree in Australia’s modern history (3). It was also the last. Shocked by the carnage, the Australian government rapidly enacted strict gun control laws.
So why so focused on mass shootings? The Fla shooter killed 17 people. Chicago does that much or more on a holiday weekend.
Australia has less than one-tenth of our population. The entire country has less than 10 million people than California.
Because people there don't have weapons to protect themselves, other crimes have gone up during the same period from the gun ban forward.
The US ranks 12th in the world for mass murders.