The Effects of Media Coverage on Mass Shootings in the United States

This paper discusses the effects media coverage and media portrayal have on mass shootings in the United States. As the occurrences of mass shootings in the United States have increased, the depiction of these events through news outlets, media stories and journal articles have also increased. With these devastating events on the rise, the perceived public safety within the nation is at stake. By evaluating the effects of media coverage on mass shootings, we are able to uncover whether it may be encouraging the increasing trend. Through the examination of multiple news articles, scholarly journals, and books through a behavioral and psychological approach, we are able to further understand how media coverage and portrayal has changed the perception of mass shootings to future perpetrators and whether the discussion of media change surrounding perpetrators has actually occurred. As a result, we are able to conclude that media coverage on perpetrators does have an impact on the occurrences of mass shootings, as the amount attention surrounding perpetrators has been shown to be correlated with the number of shootings

Officer-Involved Shootings in Anchorage 1993–2013

This report describes situational, officer, and citizen characteristics of the 45 officer-involved shootings in Anchorage for the period 1 Jan 1993 through 11 May 2013 as recorded in Anchorage Police Department (APD) criminal investigation files. An “officer-involved shooting” is defined as an incident in which a sworn APD employee purposefully discharged a firearm with the intent of stopping a human being while acting under color of law, including firing at vehicles when the intent is to stop the vehicle. A total of 45 officer-involved shootings occurred during the 20-year study period. APD policy with regard to use of force and investigation of officer-involved shootings is also described.Anchorage Police Department.Executive Summary / Introduction / Investigation of officer-involved shootings and current policy / Policy / Data source and limitations / Temporal and spatial characteristics / Situational characteristics / Types of weapons used by police / Number of shots fired by police / Officer characteristics / Citizen characteristics / Summary / Appendix A: Variables Collecte

Mass Shootings and the Media: How Race and Ethnicity Influence Media Coverage

Topics related to crime and the criminal justice system comprise a majority of topics discussed in the media. This study explores how media coverage of mass shootings varies based on the racial or ethnic identity of the shooter. Topics examined include popular beliefs and misconceptions about the race of mass murderers, the role mass media plays in influencing public perceptions about race and crime related topics, and the alarming rate at which the public recognizes and accepts the media as a reliable source of information when official data sources provide a much different picture. Further analysis of the Columbine High School massacre and Virginia Tech shooting provides a more targeted and detailed examination of how the media dealt with the issue of race when reporting on these two shootings. Additional research focusing on a larger selection of mass shootings is needed to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the problem in its entirety. Regardless, the mass media’s representation of a shooter’s race and ethnicity has serious policy implications for the criminal justice system and public intergroup relations, indicating that extensive changes in how the media reports information surrounding these events are required

Drive-By America: Second Edition

Drive-by shootings are commonly defined as an incident in which the shooterfires a firearm from a motor vehicle at another person, vehicle, building, or another stationary object.This study is a follow-up to the July 2007 Violence Policy Center (VPC) report Drive-By America, which, using a limited sample of information, offered for the first time a nationwide overview of drive-by shootings.Three years after the publication of the original VPC study, there remains no national data on the prevalence of drive-by shootings, those who commit them, those who are killed and injured as a result of them, the firearms used, where they takeplace, or at what times they most often occur.The goal of this new edition of Drive-By America is to continue the VPC'sefforts to fill the information gap surrounding drive-by shootings while illustrating the need for improved data collection regarding this specific category of firearms violence

Major School Shootings in the United States Since 1997

This is a listing, compiled from newspaper reports, of major school shootings in the United States since 1997

Officer-Involved Shootings in Anchorage 1993-2013

The full report upon which this article is based, Officer-Involved Shootings in Anchorage 1993–2013 by Troy C. Payne (Anchorage, AK: Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, 11 Dec 2013) is available online at https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/3992.This article presents findings from the December 2013 report Officer-Involved Shootings in Anchorage 1993–2013, which describes shootings involving officers of the Anchorage Police Department (APD) for the period January 1, 1993 through May 11, 2013.[Introduction] / Data Source and Limitations / Shooting Incident Characteristics / Weapon Use by Citizens / Injuries to Citizens, Officers, and Bystanders / Officer and Citizen Characteristics / Mental Illness and Drug Use / Warrants, Suspicion of Other Crimes, and Criminal Histories of Citizens / Discussion and ConclusionYe

Variables Predicting the Severity of a Mass Shooting: the connection to white supremacy

Since mass shootings have become increasingly relevant in today’s society, the subject of what makes a mass shooting deadly has become more and more popular. This project focuses on how selected variables correlate with the severity of a mass shooting, and especially focuses on the impact of white supremacy ideology. Theoretically, a shooter imbued with this ideology will likely be more violent, thus causing a higher victim count (injuries + deaths). The other variables included in the model are: the use of a long gun, the use of multiple guns, the use of semi-automatic guns, mental illness, and shooter suicide. This project seeks to assess the relationships of these variables to the victim count, and the statistical significance of each of these relationships. By drawing from two prominent mass-shooting databases and associated media sources, a dataset was constructed, then analyzed with correlation, regression, and ANOVA. These analyses confirmed all of the hypotheses, with predictor variable correlating positively and significantly to victim count. Most importantly, the findings confirmed the significance of the white supremacy ideology variable in predicting the violence of a mass shooting, and the effect withstood the introduction of a variety of important control variables; in short, shooters with a white supremacy background tend to inflict a higher victim count during a mass shooting. Based on these findings, suggestions for further research include separating active-shooter mass shootings from other types of mass shootings; standardizing the operational definition of a mass shooting; and increasing the number of possible predictor variables in current mass shooting databases

Commonsense Solutions: How State Laws Can Reduce Gun Deaths Associated with Mental Illness

Guns in the hands of the dangerously mentally ill have taken the lives of too many people. Mass shootings, like the shooting in a parking lot in Tucson, Arizona in January 2011, and the shooting in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado in July 2012, have brought this problem to the attention of the American public. Experts have objected to the media's emphasis on mentally ill mass shooters, because mental illness is not the cause of most forms of gun violence toward others. Nevertheless, mental illness certainly plays a role in this violence, as the recent surge in mass shootings demonstrates. In fact, mental illness plays an even greater role in gun suicides, many of which could be averted if guns were temporarily removed from the situation. Existing state laws do not do enough to remove access to guns from dangerously mentally ill people. This report provides a series of proposals that state legislators should consider to address this problem and save lives

Granite Staters Support Gun Control Proposals 2/8/13

In the aftermath of school shootings in Connecticut, most New Hampshire residents, including gun owners, strongly favor legislative proposals that would limit access to guns. There is less support for proposals to ban military style assault rifles and large ammunition clips

The Real Story Behind School Shootings

This factsheet highlights the ease with which young people are able to access guns, which is deeply troubling. Surveys show that 1 in 20 high school students reported carrying a weapon in the past 30 days. Keeping our schools safe starts at home, and parents have a fundamental role to play in averting school violence. In the United States, 1.7 million children have access to an unlocked, loaded gun in their home. Tragedies could be avoided if parents would only take simple steps to ensure that these guns are not accessible to their childre