Are mass shootings really random events? A look at the US numbers
This seems like trying to use a hammer (statistics) because you have a hammer, not because it's the right tool for the job.Essentially, if you look at the incidents, you see enough common factors (increasingly, using semiautomatic carbines, carrying multiple weapons, attacking schools, wearing armor or load bearing gear, etc.) to think there is some common factor at work.  The population of random people on the street doesn't pick the AR-15 to do anything, and certainly doesn't pick a school as a target for anything.  The solution space here isn't "spree shootings at schools through time", it is traits of spree shootings themselves -- location, methods, etc.  They're pretty tightly clustered.Either there is a common hidden factor, or these incidents are feeding on each other.I personally don't think gun control is the major tool to deal with this, and don't think violent video games are the problem, but rather the non-stop multi-day press coverage by the media of each of these incidents.Some insignificant douchebags from a Colorado school became about as famous as the 9/11 terrorists (and far more than fortune 50 CEOs or scientists or classical musicians) by murdering their classmates.(Columbine essentially as as big a deal for the 'how to respond to shootings' world as 9/11 was to aviation security; previously, you cordoned off the area and called in SWAT to negotiate, thinking it was a hostage situation -- now, the first 1-2 responders on scene move directly to the threat with whatever weapons they have on them at the time, ignore any wounded victims, close, and engage/destroy -- similarly, hijacked airliners are now viewed as air to ground missiles vs. hostage negotiations.)Every time the media talks about the shooters in one of these situations, making them famous, it reinforces the rational (if defective) choice of someone who wants to be famous at the cost of doing evil to copycat.The mythological/historical example is Herostratus, who burned the temple of artemis just to be famous.