https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States has a few sources and an easy to consume table. Per its table, rates since 1960 peaked in the 80s at 10.2/100k population; Columbine was in 1999, when the rate was 5.7 per 100k, and until at least 2018, the rate has never exceeded that.
I see the data you’ve linked, but find it fascinating what the parent comment is implying.
OP is asking: “guns have been around for so long, why are mass shootings more common only recently?”
Parent comment’s answer is “total murder rates used to be higher before, and the rate is now less than what it used to be before”
Even looking at your homocide data, what does that mean? Why have mass shootings increased?
And the further question that brings to my mind is: are people putting these 2 pieces of unrelated data together, to draw the conclusions that support their own bias? Great that overall murder rates are down compared to the 70s and 80s…but that doesn’t mean the country doesn’t have a gun problem, or that mass shootings aren’t unnecessary and avoidable deaths and a sign of some underlying unhealthiness in a community.
Mass shootings weren’t even defined before. We didn’t talk about them because they weren’t tracked. Even now the definition of mass shooting isn’t settled, with some definitions having about a dozen per year, and others having about 2 per day.
I’m not in the US but just a few weeks back I was listening to a podcast where, in my country, although violence against women still occurs (their were focusing on murder) while this year there had already been around 16 cases, thirty years back that would be the number for a single quarter. And from that point on, it was a general talk about violence in society.
Meanwhile, before mass shootings, murder was a lot more common and society was more prone to violence.
Violence has been in a downwards spiral, regardless what is pushed to public forum.
Not saying you’re wrong, but a source to go with that would be great.
Not the same person but here you go
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States has a few sources and an easy to consume table. Per its table, rates since 1960 peaked in the 80s at 10.2/100k population; Columbine was in 1999, when the rate was 5.7 per 100k, and until at least 2018, the rate has never exceeded that.
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/murder-homicide-rate has slightly different data and shows that the murder rates increased past that rate during COVID. However in 2022 the rates dropped - source and were expected to continue dropping at that rate or even faster. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/us-murder-rate-decline-crime-statistics/674290/ confirms that theory - rates for the 90 reporting cities were down 12% as of May of this year.
I see the data you’ve linked, but find it fascinating what the parent comment is implying.
OP is asking: “guns have been around for so long, why are mass shootings more common only recently?”
Parent comment’s answer is “total murder rates used to be higher before, and the rate is now less than what it used to be before”
Even looking at your homocide data, what does that mean? Why have mass shootings increased?
And the further question that brings to my mind is: are people putting these 2 pieces of unrelated data together, to draw the conclusions that support their own bias? Great that overall murder rates are down compared to the 70s and 80s…but that doesn’t mean the country doesn’t have a gun problem, or that mass shootings aren’t unnecessary and avoidable deaths and a sign of some underlying unhealthiness in a community.
Mass shootings weren’t even defined before. We didn’t talk about them because they weren’t tracked. Even now the definition of mass shooting isn’t settled, with some definitions having about a dozen per year, and others having about 2 per day.
Can we factor in things counted as massacres rather than mass shootings?
I’d like to point how polite I think your wording is. That’s probably the least offensive way to ask for a citation.
Perhaps this?
I’m not in the US but just a few weeks back I was listening to a podcast where, in my country, although violence against women still occurs (their were focusing on murder) while this year there had already been around 16 cases, thirty years back that would be the number for a single quarter. And from that point on, it was a general talk about violence in society.