Report finds that 7% of Americans have been present at the scene of a mass shooting and 2% have been injured in one

Summary

A new study from the University of Colorado Boulder finds that 7% of U.S. adults have witnessed a mass shooting, and over 2% have been injured in one.

Researchers define mass shootings as incidents where four or more people are shot in public spaces. With nearly 5,000 such events since 2014, experts stress the need for public health strategies to address the psychological and physical impacts.

The study highlights how mass shootings are not isolated events but a widespread issue affecting millions of Americans.

  • GluWu@lemm.eeEnglish
    25·
    1 day ago

    2% have been injured? Out of 250 million adults? 5 million Americans have been injured in mass shootings? Over 50 years, 100000 every year? Over 200 every day?

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.caEnglish
      12·
      1 day ago

      In the survey of 10,000 people just under 7% of respondents answered yes and 2.18 % of respondents said they had been injured, which not only includes having been shot, but also struck by shrapnel or trampled by people fleeing the scene or suffering other injuries as they sought to escape.

      That does seem very high though.

      • Cornpop@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        12 hours ago

        Why is this data collected through a survey and not pure statistics? Can’t you lie on a survey? This is bat shit crazy. These numbers aren’t real. Maybe people were responding yes to witnessing a mass shooting because they saw a video? I mean I guess they technically did. But 2 percent of the population being injured in a mass shooting is just straight up fake news. Unless we are counting like a psychological injury from seeing a video maybe but that’s wack.

    • nexguy@lemmy.world
      132·
      1 day ago

      This can’t be right… that would mean that on average my town of 100,000 people should contain about 1,400 adults who have been injured in some way specifically during a mass shooting. I feel like it’s off by orders of magnitude?

    • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
      71·
      1 day ago

      With 500 mass shootings/year, that’s a whole lot of mass casualty events happening every day here that we just dont hear about, I guess? Even if these are drivebys, thats a whole lot of people standing around in the street where it happens. Idk, without digging into the methodology of the study this seems pretty suspect.

      • faythofdragons@slrpnk.netEnglish
        7·
        1 day ago

        Even if these are drivebys, thats a whole lot of people standing around in the street where it happens

        They’re also counting people who can hear it, so that’s a few blocks worth of people indoors and out.

        • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          And if they’re counting gang violence incidents, those are usually in more populated areas, so that would mean any one instance automatically affects more people.

          But I think if, without any other prompting, you asked someone who was near a drive-by shooting, whether they were in a mass shooting, they would say no. Gang violence and school shootings are both gun violence, but they’re not really in the same category because they have different causes and motivations.