As a long time advocate for gun violence prevention (18 years) I am very concerned over the issue of FBI data collection and reporting. Many times I have testified using data from the Virginia Violent Death Reporting System, which exhaustively studies and reports on all violent deaths in the Commonwealth, only to have gun lobby representatives cast doubt on the figures stating that the FBI numbers are much lower than those I quoted. In particular they always want to downplay the number of homicides by semi auto rifles. I trust the VVDRS data much more than the FBI, but many lawmakers are more willing to take the FBI data as “gospel”. Thanks again for your accurate reporting on what is really going on in our schools.
Hi again, I was looking over your database and am wondering if you have a particular indicator for which entries would be parallel entries to ones that the FBI is cataloging in the Active Shooter Incident reports? In other words, of the 20154 entries that occur in your database covering the 2000-2024 period, which one of those would you consider to be Active Shooter Incidents?
Hi David, Very interested in this post. I made a database from the "Active Shooter Incident" reports from 2000 through 2023 and have not yet looked at 2024. I'm confused a bit about a statement, "If you put in the missing incidents, the majority of the shootings on school campuses would be committed with rifles." Are you talking the 7 missing incidents previously mentioned?
The FBI report has 4 shootings at schools (1 rifle, 3 handgun). If you add the missing active shooter incidents at k-12 schools, it would be 5 with rifles and 4 with handguns at schools in 2024.
As a long time advocate for gun violence prevention (18 years) I am very concerned over the issue of FBI data collection and reporting. Many times I have testified using data from the Virginia Violent Death Reporting System, which exhaustively studies and reports on all violent deaths in the Commonwealth, only to have gun lobby representatives cast doubt on the figures stating that the FBI numbers are much lower than those I quoted. In particular they always want to downplay the number of homicides by semi auto rifles. I trust the VVDRS data much more than the FBI, but many lawmakers are more willing to take the FBI data as “gospel”. Thanks again for your accurate reporting on what is really going on in our schools.
Hi again, I was looking over your database and am wondering if you have a particular indicator for which entries would be parallel entries to ones that the FBI is cataloging in the Active Shooter Incident reports? In other words, of the 20154 entries that occur in your database covering the 2000-2024 period, which one of those would you consider to be Active Shooter Incidents?
Hi David, Very interested in this post. I made a database from the "Active Shooter Incident" reports from 2000 through 2023 and have not yet looked at 2024. I'm confused a bit about a statement, "If you put in the missing incidents, the majority of the shootings on school campuses would be committed with rifles." Are you talking the 7 missing incidents previously mentioned?
The FBI report has 4 shootings at schools (1 rifle, 3 handgun). If you add the missing active shooter incidents at k-12 schools, it would be 5 with rifles and 4 with handguns at schools in 2024.