The recent mass shootings at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and at an elementary school in Texas gave a sobering reminder of the gun problem in the US. As per a recent study, the US has been a scene of 73% of the mass shootings reported worldwide in the past 20 years.
William Paterson University Assistant professor Jason R. Silva stated in a press release that relative to other developed nations, the problem of mass shootings was distinctly an American problem.
America tops in mass shootings among developed nations
For the sake of this study, Silva classified a mass shooting as an occurrence that occurs in public and results in more than four deaths and victims who were picked randomly by the gunman. The US reported 101 incidents and 816 fatalities from mass shootings from 1998 to 2019. With only eight gun violence and 179 fatalities, France finished in second.
In contrast, there haven’t been any mass shootings in 50% of the wealthy nations in the previous 22 years. Only five states had at least two mass shootings. In comparison, at that time, there was at least one shooting in the United States each year.
The study’s author examined data from both wealthy and underdeveloped countries as well as earlier studies on mass shootings. Silva examined the information and identified many patterns.
Ideological motives behind the mass shootings
The findings also indicated that people with ideological motivations and those looking for their 15 minutes of attention were most likely to commit shootings in industrialized nations like the United States.
The majority of American shooters had multiple firearms, and job changes, money troubles, or interpersonal conflicts were frequently the catalyst for shootings. When they do, open areas like factories, warehouses, and offices are more likely to be targeted for attack.
Silva explained, “Relationship problems present another distinct form of strain contributing to US mass shootings. This is not to say that relationship problems do not exist in other countries or that they do not result in violence. In fact, many other countries have much higher rates of intimate partner violence and homicide.”
