Why the U.S. Has the Most Mass Shootings --Rebecca Brandt

The article I read explains why the U.S. might have the most recorded occurrences of mass shootings in the world. The U.S. has around 31% of the world's mass shootings. One reason for this was suggested to be that most American shooters have more than one firearm, while in the rest of the world, the shooter usually had just one gun. However, the average number of victims of a shooting in America is 6.87, while in other countries it is 8.8. This is most likely because the police in America are more better prepared for this type of incident. Adam Lankford, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama, says that the reason many shootings happen in America is because of the shooter. Many shooters are mentally ill, many are influenced by stories of other mass shootings, also known as the "copycat phenomenon", the access to guns is much easier than it is in most other countries, and some shooters even kill many people in a desire to be famous. From 2011 to 2014, the incidents tripled and mass shootings started to occur every 64 days on average. The other countries in the world have learned from the U.S. to be prepared for these occurrences because they do happen.

This article is very alarming and quite frightening to Americans reading it. The article was updated on August 28, 2015, by the author, Jen Christensen, however the data in the article has been recorded over the past 49 years. The article sites many examples of mass shootings such as the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, both in 2012. The author uses professor of criminal justice, Adam Lankford, as her primary source. Lankford's ideas for why the average shooter chooses to murder many people make up the basis for the article. The fact that the most shootings happen in America is not surprising considering most other countries, such as Australia, have an extremely tight handle on gun control. Australia has not had a mass shooting since 1996. However, the United States should have more control on firearms. The article says that the United States has about 310 million guns, which is about one gun per person. I hear about mass shootings every now in then in the U.S., however I had no idea how often they happen. This article, most likely written for Americans' safety and awareness, was the first I had ever heard about the statistics of mass shootings in America compared to the other 171 countries. This article was written to show Americans that we need to try and tighten gun control. However, if that doesn't work, we need to be aware of events like this going on because these things can happen at work or even school. We need to be careful and start taking precautions to try and eliminate the number of mass shootings in the United States.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/27/health/u-s-most-mass-shootings/index.html