1 Overview & Data Sources

The following visualizes indiscriminate mass shootings in the United States since 1982.

These data derive from an open source database assembled by U.S. magazine Mother Jones, which defines “indiscriminate rampages” as having four or more victims and which “exclude[s] shootings stemming from more conventionally motivated crimes such as armed robbery or gang violence” (Follman et al. 2019).

Instead, these massacres address the influences of these growing phenomena, “from the firearms used and mental health factors to the growing copycat problem” (ibid.).

2 Visualizing Massacres

While similar to the original interactive map by Mother Jones, the popup data provided in the below map (Map I) includes additional data, including article links, total injured victims and fatalities, city and state, weapons and weapon details, e.g. modifications, and both race and gender of the shooter(s).

How to Use this Map: Each circle in the below map represents one mass shooting, while the size of the circle indicates total fatalities per incident. Use your mouse wheel or the + or - icons to zoom in and out. Click and drag the map to move the window in different directions. Click a circle to view the details of the shooting.

3 Documentation

All documentation and reproducible scripts for the present work may be found in this Github repository.

4 Appendices

The following table (Table I) contains key variables related to the mass shootings visualized above.

5 References

Follman, Mark, Gavin Aronsen, Deanna Pan (2019). “A Guide to Mass Shootings in America”. Mother Jones. Retrieved on 07 August 2019 from https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map/.

Follman, Mark, Gavin Aronsen, Deanna Pan (2019). “US Mass Shootings, 1982 - 2019: Data From Mother Jones’ Investigation”. Mother Jones. Retrieved on 07 August 2019 from https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/.

6 Disclaimer

The use of Mother Jones as a data source, as well as the subject matter, do not necessarily reflect on the sociopolitical views or ideologies of the analyst and author of the present work.