Actually, eny fule does noe on this one; mass killings of this sort have become a separate phenomenon in recent years; interesting Wired blog article here
http://www.wired.com/2012/12/are-mass-shootings-really-random-events-a-look-at-the-us-numbers/
And a good Guardian article here
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/21/colorado-shooting-james-holmes-history
BUT again, the real story of that Guardian article is that the numbers are TINY compared to other murder.
Going back to your question, Michael, I don't have data but yes, your idea that mass killings where lone psycho shoots up school, workplace, mall, church, etc., are a modern phenomenon seems to hold up. But think of the "modern" format and then look at the history of American massacres to see that definition is a bit artificial. As you well know, as well as the St Valentine's Day massacre etc, you hail from the land of the Colfax Massacre, the Wild West, Jesse James, "Indian" clearances and the like. There is a lot of gun crime, and always has been. And the mass availability of machine guns might be a driver of the fact that they are more often single-shooter than they were (in the days of the St Valentine's Day, Tommy guns were probably pretty narrowly held). But that is all controversial ground where I have no expertise.
Where I do have expertise is in filtering the data from the presentations. Other than on the very narrow modern definition there always has been a lot of gun crime. Actually, as the Guardian pointed out, it is decreasing. Mass killing is increasing, but is getting overwhelming attention compared to much higher overall levels (and compared to auto deaths, but I'll leave that alone).
Charleston was an exception, but the bulk of these shootings are "white on white". But US murder is very heavily "black on black".
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/u...es-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide
So part of what is going on is the press freaking out, in my view, and presenting a very misguiding picture of what is happening in the area of violent death in the US, because it does not fit the subconscious narrative of us being safe from gun crime because it is in the inner cities. I have never read Ta-Nehisi Coates, who writes so well on these sorts of issues, on this specific one, but he must have addressed it somewhere.
My eldest lives in Phoenix. I worry a LOT about the roads over there, occasionally a little about gun crime and never at all about mass shootings. Your daughter was very, very unlucky even to be close to one and was at more risk driving to the area and home again. I'm glad she's OK.
