Fox News Tweet Puts Increasing Frequency of Mass Shootings In Perspective, and People Are Disturbed

For many people in the United States—and those observing around the world—it seems mass shootings are increasing. But are they really?

Fox News Research division provided the answer on their Twitter feed Thursday—the day after a gunman murdered 12 people in a Thousand Oaks, California bar.

Fox News only looked at mass shootings where 10 or more fatalities occurred for their statistics (the FBI defines a mass shooting as an event where there are 3 or more victims.)

They began in 1998, the year before the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado and ended in June 2012. In that 14 year span, five mass shootings occurred that claimed 10 or more lives.

Next, they looked at the period from the shooting at Aurora, Colorado in a movie theater in July 2012 until September 2017. In those five years, four mass shootings with 10 or more fatalities occurred.

In the last 403 days, a little over one year, six mass shootings occurred.

Fox listed:

• Las Vegas concert shooting (58)
• Sutherland Springs church shooting (26)
• Parkland school shooting (17)
• Santa Fe school shooting (10)
• Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting (11)
• Thousand Oaks bar shooting (12)

The tweet sparked debate.

And people, of course, found the numbers disturbing.

People also brought up the idea of the "good guy with a gun."

After mass shootings, the National Rifle Association (NRA) posits that if only a good guy with a gun had been there, things would be different.

President Donald Trump repeated the same rhetoric after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and suggested arming teachers. Trump brought it up again after the shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue when he suggested they should have had an armed guard at their place of worship.

On Wednesday night a gunman opened fire in a nightclub in Thousand Oaks, California. 12 people were murdered, including a Sheriff's deputy who entered the scene to try to stop the gunman.