SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, 2018
Special Series from 1A
Sadly, in another political
climate, those same statistics
could potentially be used to
gain useful information to
improve gun safety on school
grounds. Was the night shooter
putting anyone in danger?
Could the suicide have been
prevented?
But these finer points get lost
in the debate as the weaponiza-
tion of statistics makes it
increasingly difficult to even
agree on what the definition of
a mass or school shooting is.
The FBI defines “mass mur-
der” as “an incident where
three or more people are killed,
regardless of weapons.”
But other organizations
define a mass shooting as at
least four or more people shot.
And then there are questions
of how motive plays into defin-
ing mass or school shootings. Is
terrorism a mass shooting
event, or its own separate cate-
gory? What about gang vio-
lence? Is a drive-by shooting of
several individuals a mass
shooting? What if it occurs at
school but is limited to gang
members? Is it a mass shooting
if one person kills only family
members? And if the shooter
takes his or her own life at the
end, should they be included in
the death toll or only their vic-
tim(s)?
All of these variables can be
added or subtracted to bolster
the arguments of the side pre-
senting them. Some gun
reformers want higher numbers
to force action on gun control,
while gun rights advocates
sometimes deflate numbers to
temper concerns.
The highest reported number
comes from left-leaning publi-
cation The Guardian, which
reports a staggering 1,624 mass
shootings in 1,870 days.
That publication keeps a run-
ning count of shootings but
doesn’t clearly state its method-
ology for determining a mass
shooting. In fact, it doesn’t
even gather its sources directly,
instead culling them through a
list of shootings from the online lated area.”
are absolutely correct in their
Statistics are being used to
website
“Gun
Violence
Cato took that FBI study and mathematical assessment based minimize opponents or instill
Archive,” which lists a mass compared it to the liberal-lean- on the criteria defined by each. fear. But fear is the last thing
shooting as “an event
that Pitcher believes we
where at least four peo-
need to feel.
“‘Counter’ can be, ‘I’ve got something I can throw at the guy,
ple are injured or killed
in a single incident, at and then I run.’ We always want to make creating a distance
“I’m not scared,
the same general time the first option when you have a threat. ‘Counter’ is the very
I’m prepared”
and
location,
not
“The odds of a mass
last option. If you’re talking about grade school kids, obvious-
including the shooter.”
shooting
happening
The Guardian lists ly you’re not expecting them to swarm an armed adult.”
anywhere are slim,”
— Commander John Pitcher, Pitcher said when
incidences that would
otherwise be excluded
Florence Police Department asked about the possi-
from other mass shoot-
bility of a school shoot-
ing lists. For example, it
ing in Florence. “You
cites a Feb. 11, 2018, incident ing publication Mother Jones’
And, as Pitcher pointed out, could pick a school in L.A. and
involving a domestic dispute study on mass shootings, which all of these numbers have that would be slim. In Florence
where a male gunman killed his defines a mass shooting as worth.
it’s pretty slim. But to think it
girlfriend, two women and then “indiscriminate rampages in
It’s important to keep in would never happen is naive.”
himself during a 14-hour stand- public places resulting in four mind that, statistically, mass
Yet with the seemingly con-
off. The gunman also wounded or more victims killed by the shootings are rare compared to stant barrage of media cover-
three officers during the inci- attacker. We exclude shootings other homicide deaths, no mat- age, it might seem that the next
dent, and then shot himself.
stemming from more conven- ter how it may feel with media school shooting is waiting
Many lists exclude domestic tional crimes such as armed coverage.
around the corner.
disputes.
robbery or gang violence.”
For example, the Center for
“Let me show you some-
The Guardian also lists an
That’s entirely different from Disease Control reported that thing,” Pitcher said as he
incident on Jan. 27, 2018, when the FBI’s data, and is an apple there were 12,979 firearm brought out the children’s pic-
an argument at a bar resulted in to oranges comparison.
homicides in 2015. The num- ture book “I’m Not Scared, I’m
four people getting shot, but
Regardless, Mother Jones bers did not differentiate where Prepared” by Julia Cook. The
with no fatalities. The majority also showed an increase of and how these homicides took book highlights some of the
of lists require a mass shooting mass shootings, just as the FBI place, nor did it account for sui- measures of the ALICE active
to require fatalities.
did for active shootings.
cides, which make up the shooter response program, a
On the other end of the spec-
Cato rightfully pointed out majority of gun-related fatali- nationwide program that
trum, the conservative-leaning that Mother Jones had a liberal ties.
informs children, school facul-
group Cato Institute, which bias but throws out the rising
The Gun Violence Archive, ty, police responders and others
often advocates for gun rights, trend due to its limited time which The Guardian used in its what to do if a school shooting
had much lower numbers.
span. Cato instead averaged the statistics, found 475 people occurs.
In a February 2018 report, it death from every year, pointing were murdered, less than 4 per-
“That’s what we want people
cited an FBI study from 2000 to out that there are only 23 deaths cent of all homicides.
to be,” Pitcher said. “Prepared.
2016 that showed a rising trend per year from mass shootings,
This is not to diminish fatali- You don’t have to be scared.
in mass shootings but ques- an extremely low number when ties in mass shootings — most Just be prepared. Learn how to
tioned the agency’s methodolo- compared to the overall gun would agree one fatality is still survive these incidences.”
gy because FBI statistics deaths in America.
too high a number. But by
Pitcher and his department
include gang violence. Cato
However, Cato ignored focusing the entirety of the gun recently taught ALICE —
Institute also questioned how Mother Jones’ and the FBI’s debate on mass shootings, the which stands for Alert,
the FBI graphed the rise in inci- main premise that mass/active debate runs the risk of missing Lockdown, Inform, Counter,
dents as a way of discrediting shootings are rising, conclud- key social and economic fac- Evacuate — to local school dis-
the report.
ing instead mass shootings are tors that can play into gun tricts. It’s a way to be more
However, no matter how one a rare occurrence in relation to homicides.
proactive during a school
graphs the data, the numbers do gun deaths as a whole.
If placing a blanket ban on shooting.
show a rise in active shootings.
At the end of the article, Cato what some consider an “assault
Previous recommendations
It should be noted that the takes its own partisan jab, stat- rifle” could, in some way, stop involved people waiting the
Cato study, titled “Are Mass ing, “Every time one of these mass shootings, would such a shooter out, either by hiding in
Shootings Becoming More random mass shootings occurs, ban stop all gun homicides in hopes the shooter wouldn't find
Frequent,” states that the FBI journalists and legislators America? We must ask if this them, or that the shooter ends
was studying “active shoot- invariably seize on the tragedy debate is solely about stopping the rampage through suicide,
ings,” but doesn’t go into to lecture about the need for mass shootings, or if it is about running out of bullets, the
details.
artfully unspecific changes in a larger issue that encompasses police, etc.
An active shooting, as federal gun control laws.”
issues like economics, race
But ALICE teaches a more
defined by the FBI, is “an indi-
Are any of the numbers relations, access to medical proactive approach, stressing
vidual actively engaged in being presented wrong?
care and other societal hurdles. evacuation, such as exiting
killing or attempting to kill
No.
These finer points often get windows, or stacking obstacles
people in a confined and popu-
Both Cato and The Guardian lost in the discussion and are that make it more difficult for a
not used in a good faith exami- shooter to traverse the land-
nation on the issue of firearm scape.
fatalities in America. Rather,
ALICE does have its detrac-
they are used as a way to prove tors, though, particularly when
the other side wrong.
it comes to the “counter” por-
“It’s sad that we use statistics tion of the program, including
to attack one another,” Pitcher complaints that teaching ele-
said.
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7 A
swarm a shooter is unrealistic
and dangerous.
“‘Counter’ is not just swarm-
ing,” Pitcher said. “‘Counter’
can be, ‘I’ve got something I
can throw at the guy, and then I
run.’ We always want to make
creating a distance the first
option when you have a threat.
‘Counter’ is the very last
option. If you’re talking about
grade school kids, obviously
you’re not expecting them to
swarm an armed adult.”
It has also been pointed out
that ALICE’s effectiveness has
not been proven by any peer
reviewed studies. However,
data on any school shooting is
scarce due to their infrequency.
And there has been anecdotal
evidence that supports the use
of ALICE.
On Jan. 20, 2017, a student
at Liberty-Salem High School
in Ohio shot and injured anoth-
er student in the restroom of the
school and intended to shoot
others in the school indiscrimi-
nately.
After hearing the shots, stu-
dents at the high school began
barricading doors and evacuat-
ing, while high school staff
pounced on the shooter and
restrained him until law
enforcement arrived.
School officials credited
ALICE training for saving stu-
dents’ lives.
“We’re not expecting little
kids to swarm and take down
an adult,” Pitcher said. “But
once we get into the high
school range? Believe me, I
think it’s a very legitimate
option.”
Pitcher pointed to the
Thurston High School shooting
in Springfield, Ore., that was
also stopped by high schoolers
swarming a shooter.
“‘Counter’ is a very last
option,” Pitcher said. “‘If I
don’t do this, I’m going to die.’
So that’s why we teach it. We
want to give someone an option
other than dying.”
But if programs like ALICE
prove to be effective, it leads to
the question: Do we need to
arm school staff?
After the Parkland, Fla.,
school shooting, multiple calls
have been made to arm teachers
because of the response time of
law enforcement.
A 2013 FBI report found that
in 160 active shooter incidents,
44 ended in 5 minutes or less,
with 23 ending in 2 minutes or
less — with 107 of the inci-
dences ending before law
enforcement could arrive.
“Even when law enforce-
ment was present or able to
respond within minutes, civil-
ians often had to make life-and-
death decisions and, therefore,
should be engaged in training
and discussions on decisions
they may face,” the FBI report
stated.
Suggestions
regarding
school staff come down to two
groups: Resource officers and
teachers.
Resource officers generally
have wide support on both
sides of the debate, and they
have been credited with saving
lives.
In August 2010, a man
entered Sullivan Central High
School in Tennessee, armed
with two hand guns, pointing
one of the guns at the school
principal’s head. The school
resource officer was notified,
and held the gunman at bay
until the arrival of police offi-
cers, who eventually shot and
killed the gunman.
More recently, in March a
high school student in
Maryland who was believed to
be carrying out a mass shooting
was confronted by a resource
officer after shooting two stu-
dents.
While the resource officer
was initially credited with
killing the gunman by politi-
cians and the NRA, the gunman
actually shot and killed himself.
However, he did so when the
officer had already drawn his
weapon and got off one shot
before the assailant took his
own life, according to a March
27 CNN report. Whether the
resource officer’s actions
directly led to assailant’s death
is hard to say.
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SPECIAL SERIES 10A