In “The myth of the mass shooting epidemic” (Ideas, Jan. 5), James Alan Fox warns against characterizing American mass shootings as an epidemic and says that unjustified fear undermines effective policy. It is true that mass shootings, defined by the Gun Violence Archive as four or more people shot, are relatively rare when compared with the more than 48,000 annual gun deaths and about 115,000 more injuries. Yet downplaying their frequency undermines sound public policy. Although mass shootings and gun-related deaths overall have declined following a record increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, the US rate of gun violence remains substantially higher than that of other developed nations.
Narrowing the definition of what counts as a mass shooting dismisses the suffering of affected communities. Further, cherry-picking evidence leads to bad policy and feeds the disinformation campaign to convince Americans that guns make them safer, despite overwhelming evidence that more guns bring more death and destruction.
Continue reading at The Boston Globe.