Mass Shootings in the United States

Mass Shootings in the US: A Data explorer is created for the final project for the Johns Hopkins class "Data Products," offered through Coursera.

The Shiny app can be accessed at https://thewiremonkey.shinyapps.io/shootingsUS/

Additional files can be accessed at https://github.com/thewiremonkey/coursera_dp

Mass shootings are unfortunately a frequent occurrance in the United States. After each event, voices from all along the political spectrum attempt to define the factors that contribute, some blaming the legal availability of firearms (contrarily, the lack of firearms) to mental health problems.

In 2012, Mother Jones magazine compiled a database of events, including variables such as whether or not the perpetrator had known mental health issues, whether the gun was obtained legally, the venue at which the event occurred, weapon type and number, etc. The magazine has made the data available via Google Docs and updates it periodically as events occur.

The default view of the map and chart are for total casualties (deaths and injuries) with factors such as legality of firearm purchase and venue.

The right side panel includes a checkbox to use filters which allow the user to explor the data by type of harm, whether there was prior knowledge of the perpetrators' mental health and venue.

No claims are made regarding the prediction value of any factor.

Map
The map displays circles with a radius linked to the number of casualties.

• Click circle markers to read details of the event
• Zoom in to separate areas of high frequency (e.g, the Bay Area in California)

Chart and Table
The chart displays a scatter plot of harm (based on the filter setting) over time.

The table includes addtional details of each event.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_shooting

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data