So then why do we have so many mass shootings in places like schools and theaters? What makes us different?
What you're talking about with mass casualties in other parts of the world are areas that are in violent conflict, war, etc. That is not the same by far.
I suppose because we are a social society and when people do mass shootings they often pick congested areas and gun free zones. They go for soft targets. Schools and Malls, theaters are soft targets with very little if any resistance. Most mass killers all over the world tend to kill those who they see as vulnerable
But even most of the school shootings that have happened here in the states weren't mass shootings (4 or more). Most of them windup being one on one shootings or perhaps two. That is why the ones who do qualify for a mass shooting stand out more than the rest. But you cant just take firearm homicides alone and leave the other methods out. Around 35% of homicide victims yearly are murdered by other methods. So that has to be subtracted from the homicide total if you are only interested in firearm homicides alone.
But even taking into account the mass shootings that do happen here they don't happen nearly as often per year as one on one homicides no matter the method that was used to kill the victim/s. The numbers of homicides and attempted homicides being done on a daily basis in places like Detroit, Memphis, Chicago, LA, and other places far exceeds the mass shooting casualties we have here even taking into consideration the largest recorded mass shooting in our history done by an Isis sympathizer terrorist in Orlando. That is why I said earlier I wish something could be done about al the gang members' having so many illegal weapons which they are using to commit not only homicides including drive by shootings of young children but other violent crimes as well. I have never been of the opinion that selling drugs is a victimless crime. I read constantly how many lives it takes and destroys.
If we took into account how many of our people have been murdered in total by Islamic terrorists since 1993 it would probably exceed the loss of life taken by all homegrown mass shooters.
Imo, you cant ignore the fact that many many other countries are far more dangerous than our country. Whether in other countries their favorite weapon may be a machete/axe or whatever is used all of the victims are still just as dead but more brutally being murdered. imo, than a homicide by firearm. Just like we cant remove all homicide victims here because they happened to be attacked/poisoned etc and murdered in some other manner. All homicide victims meet the same criteria and not just those killed by firearms.. Many more countries have citizens in it that murders in far greater mass than in our country. I know some seem to like believing we are the most dangerous country in the world but it just isn't true. In fact our Olympians were just in one of the most dangerous countries on earth who ranks up there as another country with tremendous amounts of homicides committed every year. Thousands and thousands of murders happen there every year to victims who are far more likely to be murdered than in our country. . I would think that all dangerous countries have a certain weapon that is used most often but whatever it may be the facts don't change nor the outrageously high body counts for the countless victims who are murdered every year.
I don't think any family member here or around the world who has lost a loved one because they were murdered feels their loved one's murder doesn't count just because they happened to be killed barbarically by some other weapon of choice besides a firearm. Whether victims lose their lives by being strangled, smothered,hacked to death by an axe or hatchet, poisoned, burned to death or tortured to death, blown up by a bomb, beaten, stabbed or bludgeoned to death they are all equal victims of homicide under the law and are counted no differently than the firearm homicides and that includes any homicide victims in the world, We have even read cases here where mothers have sold her little child to a pedophile, and during the rapes she/he died from her/his severe injuries. I am sorry, but so many of those cases of such utterly inhumane brutality, like what Shasta and Dylan Greone had to endure or little Sandra Cantu, or little Christopher Barios, 8 Heinz family members, the 5 Gee family, and so many others like them, haunt and stay with me much more than some of the others who were shot and killed by a firearm.
Many of these dangerous other countries are not at war. The war they rage is against their own people by murdering them every year. Just like those who are Americans kill other Americans here more often.
They all count and many many many more are being murdered in other ways all over the world. They all count as they should.
I believe the first mass shooter at an elementary school was by a 16 year old female back in 1979..
Brenda Spencer kills two men and wounds nine children as they enter the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. Spencer blazed away with rifle shots from her home directly across the street from the school. After 20 minutes of shooting, police surrounded Spencer’s home for six hours before she surrendered. Asked for some explanation for the attack, Spencer allegedly said, “I just don’t like Mondays. I did this because it’s a way to cheer up the day. Nobody likes Mondays.”
Spencer was only 16 years old at the time of her murderous attack. She was a problem child who was widely known as a drug abuser with a violent streak.