Bill Clinton banned assault weapons in 1994; mass shootings dropped by 43%.
George W. Bush and the GOP let the assault weapons ban expire in 2004; mass shootings increased by 245%.
These numbers tell the whole story.
@Strandjunker
Interesting.
The numbers tell that between before the temporary assault weapons ban and after, mass shootings increased by only 5.4%,
i.e., stayed roughly the same.
@tatzelbrumm @Strandjunker I hope not being dense, but I'm having difficulty parsing your comment - what do you mean?
@patsytheshark @Strandjunker
Just
The Cold Equations:
(43/100) * (245/100) = 1.0535
i.e.,
a drop to 43%
followed by an increase to 245%
results in a modest 5.4% increase overall.
However, I may have read this wrong and
a drop BY 43%
followed by an increase BY 245%
results in
(1-43/100)*(1+245/100) = 1.9665,
i.e., twice as many mass shootings overall.
So the story the numbers tell is actually ambiguous, as usual.
oh I see what you mean! Important analysis to do
And I agree with your second calculation, cos in your first method an increase of 100% would be static. So absence the ban and reinstatement, an overall nearly doubling
I also agree that it's confusingly worded, as these things often are!
@tatzelbrumm @patsytheshark @Strandjunker There is also the dataset (which makes it harder) when you look at the mass shootings (using the injured metric) are done with handguns.
Most are not with what people are calling weapons of war. They do horrific damage but I'm afraid we are looking at the "look" of a weapon and not what is happening behind the scenes.
@demiurg @jlo @patsytheshark @Strandjunker
Easier to understand
(the US and A are a nation of murderous AND suicidal gun nutcases), but different story.
Also, Israel and its Bantustan Gaza are missing in the statistic.
@tatzelbrumm @jlo @patsytheshark @Strandjunker The data is from 2010. I am quite sure Gaza is no high income country (it is not a country, yet) and it dosen't count wars.
The question, if assault riffles are contributing to this horrible numbers or not, is not a sane one from the perspective of an EU citizen. No citizen should have any gun and the statistic shows a very strong correlation between number of guns and killed people by guns per capita.
@demiurg @tatzelbrumm @patsytheshark @Strandjunker
Yes but this doesn't necessarily mean that the assault weapons ban being in place (or not) helped reduce mass shootings.
Mass shootings (in a public place) are still incredibly rare in the US.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/811487/number-of-mass-shootings-in-the-us/
That doesn't mean that gun violence is not rare though.
Edit - Removed a wrong link.
@jlo @demiurg @tatzelbrumm @patsytheshark @Strandjunker Compared to anywhere else not currently involved in a war, they're incredibly common.