If you use the Gun Violence Archive’s definition, there have been 565 mass shootings in 2023, including the October 25, 2023 gun violence in Lewiston Maine.
Mass Shootings are, for the most part an American phenomenon. While they are generally grouped together as one type of incident they are several different types including public shootings, bar/club incidents, family annihilations, drive-by, workplace and those which defy description but with the established foundation definition being that they have a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.
The AP/USA Today/Northeastern University mass killings database tracks all homicides in the U.S. since 2006 in which four or more people were killed intentionally within a 24-hour period, not including any offender and not including any fetus or embryo carried by a pregnant victim.
The number from The Violence Project is eight, based on their more limited definition of a mass shooting:
“a multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms—not including the offender(s)—within one event, and at least some of the murders occurred in a public location or locations in close geographical proximity (e.g., a workplace, school, restaurant, or other public settings), and the murders are not attributable to any other underlying criminal activity or commonplace circumstance (armed robbery, criminal competition, insurance fraud, argument, or romantic triangle).”
In this case, it appears that the suspect was impaired by mental illness, however, the bigger problem is the availability of guns.
In fact, according to many experts, mental illness accounts for only a small percentage of mass killings or shootings. I found the July 2022 article titled Is There a Link Between Mental Health and Mass Shootings?published by Columbia University Department of psychiatry to be helpful in understanding the correlations, or lack thereof between mental illness and gun violence. Here is an excerpt:
The public tends to link serious mental illnesses, like schizophrenia or psychotic disorders, with violence and mass shootings. But serious mental illness—specifically psychosis—is not a key factor in most mass shootings or other types of mass murder. Approximately 5% of mass shootings are related to severe mental illness. And although a much larger number of mass shootings (about 25%) are associated with non-psychotic psychiatric or neurological illnesses, including depression, and an estimated 23% with substance use, in most cases these conditions are incidental.
The article points out that perpetrators of many mass shootings or killings are stressed-out middle-aged men or young men filled with angst.
Okay, my words, but if you scroll down to the answers to What tends to be the motivations behind mass shootings? and You have said that the media’s publishing personal details about the perpetrators encourages violent behavior and is harmful. Please explain, I think you will agree with my paraphrase.
So, take a wild guess what studies show as to the cause…from the same article:
This is why it is important to consider ways to manage gun availability, for example. The yearly prevalence of the incidence of mass murder was stable at about 7 per billion people, or seven mass shootings for every billion people, between 1900 and about 1970. Then between about 1970 and 2019, the incidence increased by four times, so now mass shootings occur about 28 times per billion people around the world. One might say that this is because of the availability of guns in general, and automatic weapons, in particular, especially in the U.S. where these weapons became more available to the general population during this time period. Mass murder committed with means other than firearms also grew, but at a slightly slower rate. The other thing that one must consider is that most mass shootings are committed with non-automatic weapons, making them the weapons of choice, and supporting the notion that gun availability is a primary contributor to method of mass murder.
Here is a link to a petition that you can sign. The organization will use the signatures in their reports and efforts to convince Congress that action is needed: https://petitions.signforgood.com/Brady-Lewiston-1023
FYI, you do NOT need to include your phone number to have your email signature accepted.
Do you want something to read? Do you want LOTS of options? Here is a website for you.
This website has been around for… a long time. It’s been my go-to when I want some new input or want to see what different news services are putting out there, and for the calendars, the “fact of the day” or “word of the day” options, or reference sites, or… there are a lot of options on there. Too many to list. Check it out!
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It may not look pretty once cooked, but - the flavor!
Wow. red kabocha squash is… just wow. SOOOOOOO sweet! And, no need to peel! You can prepare it as one would prepare delicata squash. I bought it at Sweet Beet Market, my favorite local store, just because it looked so cute. Like sugar pumpkin, but more red than orange. I was expecting it to be like an acorn squash, but after reading up on it, I found out that it is a different animal…so to speak.
I cut it in half, removed the seeds, and chunked up most of one half for a pork stew I was throwing together - one of those “use up the leftovers” concoctions. Then it sat in the fridge for a few days until I figured I had better cook the rest up before it when bad. I opted to roast it, so rubbed a bit of olive oil on the cut sides (there was part of the other half left, also) put it cut side down and popped it into the oven at 400 for… probably 40 minutes? Long enough for it to get soft. Then I let it cool and tried a bite.
OMG.
Silky texture, skin included, and so very sweet. It was great in the stew, but dang! I didn’t get the full flavor hit until I tried it roasted. Amazing.
The plan has been to use it in a dip recipe I found for kabocha squash. But I might just end up eating it all up as is. I hope there are more at Sweet Beet!
What Else?
Just in time for Halloween: A mouse that howls at the moon! Well, howls to the sky, anyway. Check it out! 😁
In case the above-imbeded video doesn’t work for you, here is the direct URL:
