This recent spate of shootings has brought out all sorts of "data" about "mass shootings" and "mass killings", and much of it pushed by the left seems skewed. For example, how can a gang dispute over drugs or territory (which kills a few gang bangers) be categorized in the same way as the guy who ran down a bunch of people with a car in Wisconsin a few years ago. Or how could a shooting on school grounds, or near a school, after hours which included no students be categorized as a "school shooting"?
This isn't necessarily political, but I do think that we need to look at how we categorize these incidents where there are a large number of victims. Much like the inclusion of succeeds in "gun violence" numbers, which drastically inflates the numbers for political purposes, the inclusion of midnight drug shootings on school property, inflates the number of "school shootings".
I understand that there is a huge anti-gun lobby which wants to ban guns (ir drastically restrict them) and will skew numbers however they need to to achieve their goal. I'd argue that having accurate data to base policy decisions on is critical to making better policy decisions.
For all the big talk by Walz about a special session to ban "assault rifles" the MN DFL will necer actually do anything. Too many of their constituents use AR platform rifles to hunt, and we know from the data that rifles are used in a very small fraction of shootings. It's all political rhetoric, and little or no action.
2 comments:
Even if there is no political motivation behind the categorical errors, it would make sense from a law enforcement AND political standpoint to be very specific about these things. An after hours gang battle on school property MUST NOT be categorized as a school shooting, but only as a gang shooting. It's important for seeing where the problems are and who's causing them.
Specificity and accuracy of the data seems like the single most important thing in finding solutions.
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