Weaponry of Mass shootings

Weapons and mass shootings BY ALBERTO CUADRA, KENNEDY ELLIOTT, TODD LINDEMAN, TED MELLNIK AND RICHARD JOHNSON America's latest mass shooting took place just over a week ago when a 22-year-old college student with a history of mental illness killed three people with a knife in his apartment before going on a shooting spree through Santa Barbara, Calif. By the time he took his own life, six people were dead and 13 wounded. The guns he used, a pair of Sig Sauer P226 handguns and a Glock 34 handgun, were registered to him and had been purchased from federally licensed gun dealers. Data collected by Mother Jones looking back at the weapons used in the last 30 years of mass shootings in the U.S. show that legal weapons are the norm. The guns LEGALLY PURCHASED From 1984 to today, mass killers have ILLEGALLY ACQUIRED utilized 22 shotguns, 23 revolvers, UNKNOWN 29 rifles and 77 semiautomatic handguns. According to Mother Jones, more than three-quarters of these had been legally purchased. The killers The victims In December 2012 in Newtown, Conn., a 20-year-old with his mother dead at their home then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School. Once inside he history of mental problems shot More than half of the mass killers of the last 30 years possessed assault weapons or high- capacity magazines, according to Mother Jones. High-capacity magazines allowa gun to fire opened fire, killing 20 children and six adults before committing suicide. Mental health issues without the need to reload, maximizing damage, increasing body count and minimizing risk to have been noted in many of the killers, shown here at the time of their attacks. the shooter. Below is a look at the numbers of dead and wounded. IWITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE TUNCLEAR IWITH NO MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE | KILLED I WOUNDED 140 120 100 80 3 60 40 20 1984 "86 *88 1990 "92 "94 '96 '98 2000 '02 "04 '06 '08 2010 '12 '14 1984 '86 '88 1990 '92 '94 '96 '98 2000 '02 '04 '06 '08 2010 '12 '14 Killers by age and race Almost 65 percent of the killers were white, which is comparable to their share of the population. More than 16 percent of the killers were black, slightly higher than their 12 percent share of the population. Only 6 percent of the killers were Hispanic, well below the approximately 17 percent of the total population share. And only two, less than 3 percent, have been women. O ASIAN, NATIVE AMERICAN AND UNKNOWN By age group WHITE BLACK HISPANIC 60 to 70 years old 50 to 59 5 40 to 49 22 30 to 39 14 20 to 29 18 10 to 19 9. 2000 2005 2010 2014 1984 1990 1995 *Women 16 mass shootings 18 mass shootings 34 mass shootings NOTE: Mother Jones mass data contain both mass and spree shootings of more than four people. The FBI defines mass murder as the murder of four or more people during an event with no cooling-off period between the murders, and a spree killer is someone who kills victims in a short time in multiple locations. Source: Mother Jones -A Guide to Mass Shootings in Armerica, United States ceneus and news reports