The Depth and Scope of the Problem - Mass shootings vs. Other methods of mass murder
In the United States [1][2][3], there has been three mass shootings attacks which killed more than 30 people, 6 which killed more than 20, 22 which killed 10 or more, and 35 which killed 8 or more people, and about 80 which killed over 4 (78 between 1983 and 2012) [4], and between 100-150 which killed 3 or more. [5][6] The deadliest mass shooting in the entire world killed 67 people with a handgun, and 58 in the U.S. in the vegas shooting. This is a regular occurrence with car bombings around the world [1][2][3], which almost all kill over 8, and still pales in comparison to other forms of attacks, such as arson with an arson attack killing 86 in the U.S. and 400 in Iran, the Oklahoma City Bombing attack killing 168, the Jim Jones poisoning massacre killing 900, and 9/11 killing 3,000. 9/11 has killed more than all the mass shootings in the last 30-40 years in the U.S. combined, largely because this is how far back the records go, depending on the source. It makes up decades worth of mass shootings, as do many other attacks. The argument that guns are the problem when other weapons obviously can and do kill more people, with car bombings largely being made from fertilizer, and arson being done with gasoline, poison with rat poison and vehicle ramming attacks with cars or planes, points to the idea that guns are not the problem. People are the problem. It's difficult to express the frustration over gun control arguments, when no-one would even think of regulating fertilizer, hydrogen peroxide, matches and gasoline, and so on after an attack,but for some reason, regulations are on guns and knives are rather frequent, despite not even being as deadly.
Just looking at the list of car bombings, hundreds kill over 30, and dozens have killed over 100, making it hard to grasp in terms of the scope of the problem. These represent years, literally years worth of mass shootings per attack, even by the broadest of definitions of attacks, such as 3 or more injured, and other more deadly attacks like various grain poisonings killing hundreds, or plane attacks killing over 150, When one realizes that the average mass shooting kills about 1 to 1.6 people per attack [1][2], and very few ever break over 3, less than 1%, it's easier to understand in context the raw danger of explosives and virtually every other form of attack available. According to the Guardian there's been 1624 attacks which killed 1875 people in a span of about 6 years, or approximately 1.15 people killed per attack and 300-350 per year, where as according to Mass Shooting tracker, X. While the definition varies from source to source, most indicate a death rate of under 2 per attack, and only a little over 1 per attack, with it being extremely rare for 3 or more to die. Nonetheless, the average death for car bombings is far higher than this, although it has received far less attention, and thus complete lists are much harder to find. The emphasis and focus on guns is arbitrary, given the lethality of other attacks, however it is a consistent problem with the media. In fact, media coverage by itself has a tendency to influence the type of attacks which occur.
Numerous studies have found that copy cat murder surge after media coverage of an attack occurs. Thus, the media's obsession with mass shootings encourages more to occur, which despite the intense coverage and thus growing figure, still is less than all the deaths from a single bombing attack in the U.S.
