by Joy Dike, PhD

Visit the Resources page of our website to download a white paper about this topic of active shooter statistics. 

by Joy Dike, PhD

A quick Google search of mass shootings in 2015 will give you an answer ranging from 4 to over 350. That's a startlingly large range. Were there 4 mass shootings in 2015 or were there 300? Or were there 21? Or 294? Or 32? How are we supposed to make sense of this?

The issue at hand is how the term "mass shooting" is defined. Do we include the shooter in the casualties? Do we count only those killed? Or those shot and those killed? Do people even have to die to consider it a mass shooting? Do we include gang shootings? Drug related shootings? Domestic violence shootings? The parameters make a difference.

The next time you look at active shooter or mass shooting statistics, think about where the data came from. 

Visit the Invictus Consulting blog again in the next few days as we continue this discussion about the meaning behind the statistics.

As security professionals and active shooter experts, we at Invictus Consulting are often asked our opinion of situations that are very recent or currently unfolding. Case in point, we were asked to comment on the recent shooting at the KIA plant in West Point, Georgia earlier in the week. KIA PLANT SHOOTING 

We do not comment on situations or pick apart action plans of “breaking” events. Rather we allow the situation to resolve, law enforcement to conduct their investigations and then wait for all the facts of the situation to come out before commenting on that specific incident. This at times causes news producers and journalists a little heartburn as they want to fill airtime with anything related to the event…sometimes facts “be damned.”  We are always happy to provide expert insight into the situation by educating the viewer/listener in trends in work place (or school place) violence, the importance of and steps one should take to create an emergency action plan, characteristics of these perpetrators…you know the boring factual based important stuff.

Following is a great article by Scriven King at www.thesecuritydialogue.org   We love to give credit when credit is due and this guy nailed it on the head! Wild speculation and lack of facts do provide fodder for “info-tainment” but as security professionals our industry should be held to a very high standard. After all, we are only trying to protect human lives.

Here is the article…it is well worth reading! 
Scriven King Article