The authors’ most newsworthy claim is that there were no “fatal mass shootings” after the Australian gun law of 1996 (between 1996 to 2016), even though there were 13 between 1979 and 1996, but this is entirely the result of their unique definition. Not only do the authors set an extraordinary high standard of five deaths as the minimum number for a “fatal mass shooting,” but they also exclude family shootings which is quite surprising.

The authors give no explanation for their definition which deviates from the standard of a minimum of three deaths for a “mass killing” accepted by both the FBI and European researchers. Setting the minimum number of deaths at five, rather than the usual standard of three clearly eliminates a number of ‘mass killings.’

The claim of no mass shootings after 1996 in Australia evaporates if the conventional definition is used. A cursory check with Wikipedia shows that there have been at least three fatal mass shootings after the firearm law changes in 1996 when the minimum is set at three (instead of five) deaths, and if the death of the murderer is also included, the number increases to four fatal mass shootings between 1996 and 2016. The frequency of fatal mass shootings may have decreased following 1996, but mass shootings continue.

https://drgo.us/?p=3393