When you hear the words “mass shooting,” what comes to mind? For me, I think of the places some of these atrocities occurred. Columbine. Sandy Hook. Sutherland Springs. Parkland. Uvalde. Las Vegas. Nashville. These seemingly random acts resulted in mass casualties where the killers hunted for any human life they could snuff out. 

Recently, some variation of this statement has been circulating in media outlets: Mass shootings in the USA hits 225 in first 136 days of 2023.

I recently heard this headline repeated by someone close to me who is an ardent, politically conservative gun owner. Knowing the federal definition of a mass shooting, I knew this was incorrect, and I began to research where these numbers came from.

The extreme political left loves to redefine terms. One such example is “mass shooting.” The FBI has had a standard definition for years. Two of the criteria are that there are three or more fatalities, and there is no other criminal act occurring adjacent before the killing starts. https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-incidents-in-the-us-2022-042623.pdf/view

The Gun Violence Archive is a website maintained by a group of researchers that shares data on all manner of shootings. The problem is, they have redefined “mass shooting” to not only include shooting incidents where no one has died, but also incidents where other criminal activity was occurring (people shot during robberies, drug deals, gang turf wars, etc.). 

This is more than disingenuous. It is intentionally deceptive. The redefinition wildly inflates incident numbers and gives cover to media outlets doing sloppy propaganda journalism. In turn, it paints a picture for the average American that is simply inaccurate. The reason the Pulse Night Club shooting in Orlando dominated news coverage was precisely because that kind of random, mass carnage does not occur every day in our country. However, there is no such rarity when it comes to gang shootings in places like Chicago. Yet both kinds of incidents are categorized by the GVA as “mass shootings.”

The inflated GVA numbers have been used by many politicians to call for more infringement on the right to keep and bear arms. They feed the narrative of gun grabbers by deceptively changing definitions and purposely inflating statistics. This is not the work of serious statistical research; it is political activism, plain and simple. 

We each need to do our part in pushing back against these deceptions. We must learn to never accept the faulty premise of our opponent’s argument.  Educate those around you. Expose the lies. Speak the truth.

Finally, while these events are statistically rare, they do occur; this is one good reason why we must be persistent advocates for responsibly armed Americans to never be disarmed.