On August 23, Mother Jones published an article showing that, on average, fewer people are killed in “public mass shootings” in the U.S. versus other countries.
Ironically, this tidbit of information was contained in an article ubiquitously aimed at showing that the U.S. has more “public mass shootings” than any other country but which ended up showing that, while you cannot completely eliminate “public mass shootings,” you can make them end much, much faster.
Drawing from a study by University of Alabama associate professor Adam Lankford, Mother Jones reports that the U.S. had “90 public mass shootings” over a period of 46 years, spanning 1966 to 2012. That breaks down to about 1.95 “public mass shootings” a year, yet it puts the U.S. ahead of the rest of the world for such attacks.
However, while there were reportedly more attacks, there were fewer deaths per incident.
Mother Jones reports that, during the 46 years studied, there were an average of “6.9 victims” killed in each attack in the U.S. versus an average of “8.8 victims” killed in each attack in other countries. Mother Jones said Lankford credited the lower death rate in the U.S. to the fact that American police “respond more quickly and are often heavily armed.”
In other words, good guys with guns come running.
Sadly, the Mother Jones piece does not mention the state-by-state implementation of concealed carry laws that began sweeping across nation in the late 1980s/early 1990s—right in the middle of the time frame Lankford studied. Concealed carry is now legal in every state. This fact, long under-reported, has contributed to the quick demise of more than one would-be mass shooting in the recent past.
Consider the Clackamas Town Center attack on December 11, 2012—an attack in which alleged gunman Jacob Roberts opened fire on shoppers, killing two. That attack, which could have been far worse, ended when Roberts noticed that carry permit holder Nick Meli was raising his Glock and was preparing to fire. KGW reported that while Meli never pulled the trigger, Roberts ended his alleged attack by taking his own life rather than shoot at another innocent.
Breitbart News previously reported that on March 22 of this year, a concealed carry permit holder stopped an attempted mass shooting by running into the business where the shooter had begun firing and killing the gunman with a shot to his chest. And on April 17, an Uber driver with a concealed carry permit in Chicago was able to exit his vehicle and stop an attempted mass shooting of pedestrians who were gathered nearby.
The Uber driver shot the alleged gunman numerous times to end the attack.
Again—”pubic mass shootings” can never be completely eliminated, but they can be ended much, much faster.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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