fishercob wrote:I am curious about your hypothesis that mass violence isn't more prevalent now than in the past. Certainly mass shootings are, right? When was the last one before Columbine? Now they're almost regular occurrences -- Newton, Aurora, Oak Creek, VA Tech. If something big happened again next month or next week, would it surprise anyone? I don't think so, and I think that's a big change from 30 years ago.
At quick glance, this article would appear to support that: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/18/11-essential-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/
I've seen other studies that say just the opposite:
Grant Duwe, a criminologist with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who has written a history of mass murders in America, said that while mass shootings rose between the 1960s and the 1990s, they actually dropped in the 2000s. And mass killings actually reached their peak in 1929, according to his data. He estimates that there were 32 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s and 26 in the first decade of the century.
Here's another one that shows a somewhat mixed bag. Shootings dropped throughout the 2000's but are on the upswing in the last 4 years.
