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Re: Terminology Nate Send a noteboard - 24/08/2012 11:08:03 PM
I think it's important to differentiate. The term "mass shooting" implies someone who takes a gun and sets out with the purpose of killing/harming as many people as possible. It carries frightening connotations of randomness and anarchy. That's not what happened here.

Yes, it's bad that two people were killed and eight more were wounded, but there has to be a better term for it than mass shooting. Some of the people who were injured were accidentally hit by police bullets as they took down the shooter, after all, so the shooter isn't even responsible for all of those numbers.

I'm not trying to lessen or minimize it, but I'm also trying not to inflate it. Even if it hadn't been a case of one person trying to target a specific other person, even if it had been a lunatic out to kill random people, said lunatic only killed one person and wounded some percentage of eight others (what percentage that was, I'm not sure). Since that still wouldn't meet the definition of a mass shooting, I don't think that's what it should be called.

You could call it a shooting. BBC calls it a "deadly shooting". You could call it a wild homicide, I don't know. But I think that "mass shooting" should be reserved for things big enough to fit its definition.
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This message last edited by Nate on 24/08/2012 at 11:08:51 PM
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*EDIT* Another mass shooting in America...no big deal, another day another drama.... - 24/08/2012 08:34:52 PM 737 Views
Could you link to a serious article? - 24/08/2012 08:38:37 PM 350 Views
serious link - 24/08/2012 08:44:42 PM 477 Views
That wasn't a mass shooting. That was a disgruntled coworker killing his boss - 24/08/2012 08:46:45 PM 381 Views
9 people shot and 2 dead isnt a mass shooting? - 24/08/2012 10:44:40 PM 375 Views
Funnily/Horribly enough, the additional casualties are apparently NOT from the original shooter... - 25/08/2012 12:32:36 AM 406 Views
Noticed that, too; hopefully some folks lose their badges over it. - 26/08/2012 02:17:35 AM 422 Views
Really? - 27/08/2012 03:13:17 PM 348 Views
To not shoot into a crowd? *NM* - 27/08/2012 03:54:20 PM 149 Views
I hope I would do better if trained to do so, yes. - 27/08/2012 07:33:48 PM 375 Views
Their marksmanship was abysmal. They shouldn't be carrying guns. - 27/08/2012 10:02:18 PM 351 Views
+1 - What happened in Norway was a mass shooting/killing. - 25/08/2012 04:39:57 PM 342 Views
Re: +1 - What happened in Norway was a mass shooting/killing. - 25/08/2012 05:12:20 PM 398 Views
<3 *NM* - 25/08/2012 05:22:31 PM 150 Views
+1 *NM* - 26/08/2012 01:44:49 AM 139 Views
Agreed. - 26/08/2012 02:16:03 AM 340 Views
Technically I think it takes six deaths to be a mass shooting. - 24/08/2012 08:54:34 PM 487 Views
whatever it statrted out as...it ended with 9 people shot in front of the Empire state building *NM* - 24/08/2012 10:48:01 PM 182 Views
Re: Terminology - 24/08/2012 11:08:03 PM 438 Views
300 people die in this country every hour, so actually it isn't a big deal - 24/08/2012 11:22:33 PM 365 Views
Yup. - 25/08/2012 06:59:04 PM 348 Views
I would not put it THAT way. - 26/08/2012 02:35:49 AM 410 Views
New article - 25/08/2012 05:28:00 PM 381 Views

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