PERSPECTIVE -- FOR MEANINGFUL CHANGE WE MUST

From 1982 through today, February 26, 2018 -- 816 people have been killed in mass shootings. This averages out to 31 deaths per year over 26 years. [Mother Jones, data - link at bottom of page].  Of the 31 people who are killed, 10 of these 31 die in school shootings.

When these horrific events happen we are pummeled by media, we are hammered by activists, we are heartbroken for families & communities and we are outraged. We are inundated with images, arguments, public protests – we are made to feel as though this sort of the thing is THE NUMBER ONE DANGER IN AMERICA TODAY. Researchers at Northeastern University that found mass school shootings are extremely rare, that shootings involving students have been declining since the 1990s, and four times as many children were killed in schools in the early 1990s than today. The victims in these events are true and utter innocents so even if it is not the number one danger in American today – it should NEVER, EVER happen! It is at the hands of a madman that these lives are taken. 

But, and here is where we cannot lose sight of reality – these events are rare, regardless of how many times you see a headline. THEY ARE RARE; kids marching, people screaming and pundits "punditing" do not make them any less rare. The numbers of victims are a tiny subset of the nation’s population. It gets really hard when we are forced to convert lives, especially young, innocent ones, into numbers and statistics. But for policy to be made for a nation of 330M+, we must.

In 2015 alone in the United States, over 800 bicyclists died in cycling accidents I know to the very depth of my being that working on perspective when dealing with a horrific event is hard and feels heartless. But we have to do it. Since 1994 an average of 99 people die every single day in automobile accidents on America’s roads; that is over 35,000 per year. And again, based on published, non-political numbers roughly 31 people are killed each year in the United States in mass shootings. [all accident data is National Highway Transportation Safety Administration FARS data - link at bottom of page].

“There is not an epidemic of school shootings,” said James Alan Fox, the Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy at Northeastern University. He said more children die each year from pool drownings or bicycle accidents.

So just comparing these two numbers for perspective, in the WHOLE 25 years 25% FEWER people were killed in mass shootings than people died in bicycle accidents in a SINGLE CALENDAR YEAR. There are around 55 million schoolchildren in the U.S., the Northwestern study said, and over the past 25 years, about 10 students, TEN STUDENTS, on average per year were killed by gunfire at school. Again, I do not minimize the trauma, the loss, the shock and the pain; I am not heartless.

Each DAY in America 4 children are killed by abuse or neglect. [childhelp.org - lower estimated numbers) (see link at bottom of page also footnote 3]. 

THAT IS FOUR CHILDREN A DAY OR 1,460 A YEAR.

Let’s go back:

816 people killed in mass shootings between 1982 and 2018 (26 years) – that is roughly 31 people per year and 10 of those die in school shootings. DURING THAT SAME TIME PERIOD APPROXIMATELY 36,500 CHILDREN DIED DUE TO ABUSE OR NEGLECT.

I wish no one died for any of these reasons. Here is a snap shot of this discussion in the raw, unemotional numbers.

AVERAGE ANNUAL DEATHS & CAUSE

Mass Shootings: 31 people, 10 in school shootings

Child Abuse/Neglect: 1,460

Bicycle Accidents: 800+

Auto Accidents: 35,000+

We have GOT to have perspective on things like this. When we lose perspective we do two primary and huge disservices. First we make hasty, emotional decisions with knee-jerk reactions. We think we are going to change outcomes with these hasty decisions, rules and laws. We are dismayed and angry when we find that NONE of our changes positively affected anything. We cannot legislate for a nation when the reality of the issue does not warrant it.

The 2nd disservice we do is that we neglect addressing much more profound issues. Some of the above stats seem to be somewhat acceptable to us; tragic but tolerable. We accept auto and bicycle fatalities to some extent as part of the inherent dangers of engaging in the activities. But what about the child abuse and neglect numbers? They dwarf the mass shooting numbers – but they, because they happen one or two at a time, ALL the time, seem to be invisible.

I don’t proffer to have solutions here other than to be rational when every fiber of your being is to scream “NO”. I encourage people to work hard to use rational thought and to work toward perspective. Without it, meaningful changes are all but impossible.

Life is inherently a dangerous activity to engage in. But because we had no CHOICE on whether or not we were blessed with life at the time of our birth, we had nothing to do with it, we somehow think life should be safer since we didn’t willfully opt-in. Life is not a safe activity at all. Life is however FAR safer today than at any other time in history – no matter what anyone tells you.

Footnotes:

1. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/
2. https://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx

3. American Society for the Positive Care for Children -SPCC has child abuse fatality numbers as high as 1,670 to 1740 deaths annually.
4. Northwestern University researchers  used data collected by USA Today, the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report, Congressional Research Service, Gun Violence Archive, Stanford Geospatial Center and Stanford Libraries, Mother Jones, Everytown for Gun Safety, and a New York City Police Department report on active shooters