Mass Shooting in the United States of America: Data and Statistics

Running head- THESIS PAPER
Chapter 3- Mass shooting in the United States of America
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Author Note

THESIS PAPER 1
Table of Contents
Chapter 3- Material and Methodology............................................................................................2
Study area description..................................................................................................................2
Data collection.............................................................................................................................4
Methods of data collection...........................................................................................................4
Analysis of collected data............................................................................................................5
Recommendations........................................................................................................................8

THESIS PAPER 2
Chapter 3- Material and Methodology
Mass shooting refers incidents that involve several victims, who have been affected with
firearm related violent acts. In other words, public mass shooting is defined as an incident that
involves indiscriminate selection of four or more individuals, who get injured or killed,
excluding the perpetrator (Follman, Aronsen & Pan, 2012). The USA has maximum incidents of
mass shooting every year, higher than any other nation. This chapter will discuss the data and
statistics related to mass shootings in the US.
Study area description
The United States of America (USA/US) is a federal republic that is composed of 50
different staters, 5 self-governing territories and other possessions. Mass shootings in the US
have been a major concern for sociologists, psychologists, public health matter experts,
government officials and policy makers. Owing to 33.4% of the total world wealth, the US
accounts for the largest proportion of global health that is concentrated in one particular country,
on a global scale. The government is regarded as the oldest surviving federation in the world, and
principally focuses on protection of minority rights (Brownlee, 2016). The US constitution acts
as the supreme legal document of the country. Furthermore, the citizens are generally subjected
to three government levels, namely, local, state, and federal. While the duties of the local
government are split between municipalities and counties, the federal focuses on three different
branches, such as, the judicial, executive and the legislative (Young, 2015). Mass shootings in
the US can he attributed to an increase in terrorism as well. Recent trends suggest that several
mass shooting incidents in the country have been caused due to Islamic extremism, black

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supremacy, Palestinian militancy, white supremacy and left wing or anti-government extremism
(Fox & DeLateur, 2014).
Data reports from the government registers that contain records of the history of mass
shooting incidents in the US have supported findings from peer reviewed articles that suggest
that individuals suffering from mental illness that interfere with daily life activities have been
found at an increased likelihood of committing violent acts such as, mass shootings (Metzl &
MacLeish, 2015). This correlation is further established by the fact that there are several laws
related to gun violence and databases that contain information of mentally disabled individuals,
in order to reduce risks of mass shooting in the districts (Rosenberg, 2014). History of mass
shooting, in the US, hint at long-held grievances, against the government, or policy makers, of
the country (Killias, Van Kesteren & Rindlisbacher, 2001). Mass shootings began gaining
attention of the media since the last two or three decades and resulted in the formation of endless
speculation among the public regarding the motive behind such violent acts. This triggered
political debates on firearm regulations (McGinty et al., 2014).