One-A-Day!?

Yesterday, on my facebook page, I posed the comment I posed here about the proliferation of mass shootings. Last night while catching-up on my back issues of The Daily Show, Jon Steward said something that I had a hard time believing. He claimed that there was - on average - one mass-shooting per day. 

Jon Steward made a comment the other night on his show that I really was not sure I could agree with. Not that I didn't agree with the sentiment, I was not sure about his numbers. He said that if you define a mass shooting by the current FBI Definition (Four or more people injured by a single gunman in a single incident - this distinguishes mass shootings from serial murders) there have been nearly one per day - Well, this took research. There are plenty of references to that definition so I will not include that link. But the numbers... are they right? 

Turns out, they appear to be correct. Today is September 21, 2013. It is the 264th day of the year. This means that we'd have t have 263 or more mass shootings to make Jon Stewart's numbers work. I have never so much wanted him to be wrong!

The good people over at the "GUNS ARE COOL" page on Reddit have compiled a list so that you can more easily verify the numbers. 

The BAD news is that Jon was not only right, we're actually bang-on! (Pun not intended.) With the Chicago shooting a couple days ago we were actually ahead of schedule. Number 264: 9/19/13, Unknown, 13 injured, Chicago, IL 

We REALLY need to do something!

Wherever you are this morning, I hope that you'll stay safe! 

Don Bergquist - September 21, 2013 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA