Mass shootingMajor mass-shooting attacks in the U.S. since January 2009
Between 2008 and 2013, the FBI used a narrow definition of mass shootings – limiting the designation “mass shootings” to incidents in which an individual “kills four or more people in a single incident… typically in a single location.” In 2013 the FBI changed its definition, moving away from “mass shootings” to identifying an “active shooter” as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.” The FBI designated the incidents listed below as mass-shooting incidents.
A first anniversary rememberance ceremony pf the Fort Hood massacre // Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Between 2008 and 2013, the FBI used a narrow definition of mass shootings – limiting the designation “mass shootings” to incidents in which an individual (in a handful of cases, more than one individual) “kills four or more people in a single incident (not including the shooter), typically in a single location.” In 2013, the FBI changed its definition, moving away from “mass shootings” to identifying an “active shooter” as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.” Frederic Lemieux notes that this change means that the agency, when referring to incidents which used to be described as mass shootings, now includes incidents in which fewer than four people are killed, but in which several are injured.
The change in definition has resulted in some confusion regarding specific cases, and whether or not they should be included in studies of mass shootings. It has also made it more difficult to conduct comparative studies of trends in mass shootings before and after 2013 – and compare studies which were made with the researchers using the earlier definition to studies in which the researchers used the more recent definition.
The Telegraph offers a list of the major mass shooting incidents in the United States since January b2009 (these are incidents which the FBI would describe as mass under both the 2008 and the 2013 definitions).
March 2009 / Geneva County Massacre, Alabama
10 dead
Laid-off worker Michael Kenneth McLendon, 28, opens fire while driving through several towns.
April 2009 / Binghamton shootings, New York
13 dead
Jiverly Antares Wong, a naturalized American citizen from Vietnam, starts shooting at a civic center.
November 2009 / Fort Hood, Texas
13 dead, 42 wounded
Self-radicalized U.S. army psychologist, Major Nidal Hasan, opens fire at a Texas military base.
February 2010 / University of Alabama in Huntsville
3 dead, 3 wounded
Amy Bishop, a biology professor angry at being denied tenure, starts shooting fifty minutes into a Biological Sciences Department faculty meeting.
August 2010 / Manchester, Connecticut
8 dead
Omar Thornton, 34, a driver for Hartford Distributors, leaves a disciplinary hearing and begins shooting before turning the gun on himself.
January 2011 / Tuscon, Arizona
6 dead, 11 wounded
Jared Lee Loughner, 22, shoots Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords in the head during a constituents’ meet-and-greet at a supermarket.
October 2011 / Seal Beach, California
8 dead, 1 wounded
Amid a child custody dispute, Scott Dekraai, 41, walks into a crowded hair salon and opens fire on his former wife. Dekraai pleads not guilty.
