Steve went ballistic and called me a lying liar who lies and lies, blustering at me at two different blogs. OK, so I didn’t have data to back up my agreement, and anyway, it was a post more about ruminating on what had happened and why. I readily admitted I had no answers, but Steve just huffed and puffed all the louder.
Then Finntann stepped in and set me straight, as he is wont to do. The murder rate has gone down over the past 40 years, and rampage killings have remained flat. A glance at Wikipedia's list of rampage killers reveals that it is not a recent phenomena and the US does not have the market cornered.
It was a stinging rebuke, but he did it with facts and without the name-calling. So without further ado, here is a repeat of what Finntann said:
@"Murder rates are worse now that 40 years ago, and we are now seeing more random killings."
Per 100,000
In 2010 the US Murder Rate 4.8
Forty years ago in 1972 it was 9.0
There were 14,748 murders in 2010 in a population of 308 million.
In 1972 there were 18,670 murders in a population of 208 million.
So much for that theory.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10tbl01.xls
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
They are called Rampage Killers and they are sprinkled throughout history.
In 1875 Alexander Keith killed 83 and wounded 200 with a bomb on a dock in Bremerhaven Germany.
In 1887 an unidentified assailant shot and killed 11 people and then committed suicide in Karachi Pakistan (then India).
In 1903 Gilbert Twigg killed 9 and wounded 25 in Kansas.
In 1913 Ernt Wagner killed 14 and wounded 11. He killed his wife and four children in Degerloch Germany, drove to Muhlhausan an der Enz and shot 20 people, nine of whom died.
In 1915 Monroe Phillips killed 7 and wounded 32 in Brunswick Georgia.
In 1927 Andrew Kehoe killed 44 and wounded 58 in the Bath Consolidated Schoolhouse in Michigan.
In 1938 Mutsuo Toi killed 30 and wounded 3 in Kaio Japan, starting with his grandmother who he beheaded with an axe. The rest of the victims succumbed to shotgun, axe, and sword.
In 1949 Howard Unruh killed 13 and wounded 3 in Camden, NJ.
In 1954 William Unek killed 21 people with an axe in the Belgian Congo and fled. Three years later in 1957 he killed 36 in Tanzania.
In 1958 an unknown arsonist killed 95 and wounded 100 in the Our Lady of the Angels school fire.
I've left off mob action as well as "Mob" action, political, terrorist, and military attacks, as well as more recent events.
There is a term "running amok" in which amok or amuk comes from the Malay language meaning "mad with uncontrollable rage". The Malay believed that it was caused by an evil tiger spirit entering one's body.
"It would be misleading to suggest that there was some long-term upward trend in mass shootings since 1976," said Gary Kleck, a criminologist at Florida State University. "The exact number are highly unstable, but ignoring small, year-to-year fluctuations, there was no trend one way or the other from 1976 to 2009. Further, if these figures were computed on a per-capita basis, taking into account population increases, the long-term trend in the rate would be downward."
• 1976-1980: 20.6 incidents annually
• 1981-1985: 16.8
• 1986-1990: 18.2
• 1991-1995: 23.0
• 1996-2000: 20.0
• 2001-2005: 21.0
• 2006-2009: 25.5
@"Murder rates are worse now that 40 years ago, and we are now seeing more random killings."
Per 100,000
In 2010 the US Murder Rate 4.8
Forty years ago in 1972 it was 9.0
There were 14,748 murders in 2010 in a population of 308 million.
In 1972 there were 18,670 murders in a population of 208 million.
So much for that theory.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10tbl01.xls
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
They are called Rampage Killers and they are sprinkled throughout history.
In 1875 Alexander Keith killed 83 and wounded 200 with a bomb on a dock in Bremerhaven Germany.
In 1887 an unidentified assailant shot and killed 11 people and then committed suicide in Karachi Pakistan (then India).
In 1903 Gilbert Twigg killed 9 and wounded 25 in Kansas.
In 1913 Ernt Wagner killed 14 and wounded 11. He killed his wife and four children in Degerloch Germany, drove to Muhlhausan an der Enz and shot 20 people, nine of whom died.
In 1915 Monroe Phillips killed 7 and wounded 32 in Brunswick Georgia.
In 1927 Andrew Kehoe killed 44 and wounded 58 in the Bath Consolidated Schoolhouse in Michigan.
In 1938 Mutsuo Toi killed 30 and wounded 3 in Kaio Japan, starting with his grandmother who he beheaded with an axe. The rest of the victims succumbed to shotgun, axe, and sword.
In 1949 Howard Unruh killed 13 and wounded 3 in Camden, NJ.
In 1954 William Unek killed 21 people with an axe in the Belgian Congo and fled. Three years later in 1957 he killed 36 in Tanzania.
In 1958 an unknown arsonist killed 95 and wounded 100 in the Our Lady of the Angels school fire.
I've left off mob action as well as "Mob" action, political, terrorist, and military attacks, as well as more recent events.
There is a term "running amok" in which amok or amuk comes from the Malay language meaning "mad with uncontrollable rage". The Malay believed that it was caused by an evil tiger spirit entering one's body.
"It would be misleading to suggest that there was some long-term upward trend in mass shootings since 1976," said Gary Kleck, a criminologist at Florida State University. "The exact number are highly unstable, but ignoring small, year-to-year fluctuations, there was no trend one way or the other from 1976 to 2009. Further, if these figures were computed on a per-capita basis, taking into account population increases, the long-term trend in the rate would be downward."
• 1976-1980: 20.6 incidents annually
• 1981-1985: 16.8
• 1986-1990: 18.2
• 1991-1995: 23.0
• 1996-2000: 20.0
• 2001-2005: 21.0
• 2006-2009: 25.5
(Source: (Politifact)
Digital rags like Hufpo make broad sweeping statements like "Mass Murder Up, Even While Gun Violence Down" and use the following statistics:
DO THE MATH
In 1980 the rate was .07 per 100,000 and in 2012 the rate was .05
If anything, it is statistically flat remaining at 20 per year for decades, and the article acknowledges that... which you couldn't tell from their headline.
Face it, no matter what we do, a small percentage of us will remain Bat-Shit Crazy.
And don't let the fact get in the way of your headlines.
Cheers!
See also:
The Decline of Violence
Assigning Blame for Aurora
Digital rags like Hufpo make broad sweeping statements like "Mass Murder Up, Even While Gun Violence Down" and use the following statistics:
"the total number of people dying in attacks that claimed four or more victims has climbed from an average of 161 a year in the 1980s to 163 between 2006 and 2008, according to FBI statistics."
""The Dark Knight Rises" Friday underscored a chilling trend: While gun violence has plummeted over the decades, mass murder has increased slightly."Yeah, and the population climbed from 226 million to 308 million.
DO THE MATH
In 1980 the rate was .07 per 100,000 and in 2012 the rate was .05
If anything, it is statistically flat remaining at 20 per year for decades, and the article acknowledges that... which you couldn't tell from their headline.
Face it, no matter what we do, a small percentage of us will remain Bat-Shit Crazy.
And don't let the fact get in the way of your headlines.
Cheers!
See also:
The Decline of Violence
Assigning Blame for Aurora
