307 mass shootings in the US this year, so far.

This is MASS shootings, not toddlers who get the gun out of a feckless Mom’s purse whilst sitting in the supermarket trolley.

This is in the country bringing “freedom, liberty and democracy” to the planet. This is the country about which Donald Trump said of the First Baptist Church, Sutherland, Texas massacre – which killed twenty seven and injured twenty seven, according to authorities –

“This isn’t a guns situation … I think that there is a mental health problem here … this was a very deranged individual …”

“Multiple weapons” were found in the gunman’s vehicle, according to ABC7 and the Washington Post.

It has now come to light, according to the New York Times and other news outlets, that Devin Kelley:

“escaped from a psychiatric hospital while he was in the Air Force, and was caught a few miles away by the local police, who were told that he had made death threats against his superiors and tried to smuggle weapons onto his base, a 2012 police report showed.”

In February President Trump: “Quietly signed a bill in to law rolling back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illness to purchase a gun.” (NBC News, 28th February, 2017.)

Felicity Arbuthnot, November 8, 2017

A church shooting killing at least 26 in Sutherland Springs, Texas marks the 307 mass shooting in the United States so far this year.…

According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, a total of 307 mass shooting incidents have occurred as of November 5, up 27 from one month ago.

Comparatively, 2016 saw a total of 483 mass shootings. See statistics for other years here.

There doesn’t seem to be an official definition for a “mass shooting” in the United States, but according to the Gun Violence Archive, a mass shooting is described as four or more individuals being shot or killed in the same general time and location.

The F.B.I. has defined “mass killing” and “mass murderer”.

The F.B.I. defines a “mass killing” as the killing of three or more people in a public place, but the federal agency also defines a “mass murderer” as someone who has killed four or more people in the same location.

The Gun Violence Archive lists itself as a not-for-profit organization that documents gun violence and gun crime nationally.

Courtland Jeffrey, KIVITV.com, November 6, 2017