Mass shootingsStanford’s John Donohue on Mass Shootings and the Uniquely American Gun Problem

Published 29 March 2021

As Americans emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the reality of the other U.S. epidemic—gun violence—has been made very clear after two mass shootings within a week. On 16 March, a gunman killed eight people at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, and on 22 March ten people were gunned down in a Boulder, Colorado grocery store. Stanford Law School’s John J Donohue III, a gun law expert, discusses mass shootings in the U.S., the challenges facing police when confronting powerful automatic weapons, and the prospect of gun control laws.

As Americans emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the reality of the other U.S. epidemic—gun violence—has been made very clear after two mass shootings within a week. On 16 March, a gunman killed eight people at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, and on 22 March ten people were gunned down in a Boulder, Colorado grocery store. Gun law expert John J Donohue III, who was an expert witness for the City of Boulder in its assault weapons ban case, discusses with Stanford Law School Blogs Sharon Driscoll issues such as mass shootings in the U.S., the challenges facing police when confronting powerful automatic weapons, and the prospect of gun control laws.

Sharon Driscoll: A police officer was shot and killed during the mass shooting in Boulder by a shooter who had an assault weapon. Can you talk about the dangers first responders face when they arrive to a mass shooting?
John Donohue
: One of the most dangerous acts that any police officer can take is approaching a mass shooting incident. You may recall that in the Parkland High School Shooting in Florida, the armed security guard did not charge into the building and was severely criticized, but facing a shooter with an assault weapon and a high-capacity magazine is a shockingly dangerous activity, which in part explains why armed civilians rarely play any positive role in these deadly episodes.

An FBI report on 160 active shooter incidents from 2000-2013 found that “Law enforcement suffered casualties in 21 (46.7 percent) of the 45 incidents where they engaged the shooter to end the threat. This resulted in 9 officers killed (4 of whom were ambushed in a shooting) and 28 wounded.”  In other words, in about half of these cases, at least one officer who engaged the shooter was shot.