Hacker News Reader

> You think they happen less often in Russia? Syria? Venezuela?

"Mass Shootings", yes. "Shoot outs", no.

Venezuela, most shooting homicides are to cover up a crime, such as petty theft. These are inherently not "mass".

Syria is in active civil war, these are not "mass shootings" as much as battles. They're also more shootings to achieve a political end (not to create terror towards a political end) or for the personal vendettas of the shooter.

I don’t care why an innocent person is hurt. I only care that they are. The US is pretty good compared to most other countries on the metric of people getting hurt.

Mass is simply defined as three or more people getting shot.

I mean we can play semantics but the lone wolf shooter who shoots (many, many) people for no other reason than to shoot them is a problem almost entirely uniquely American.

But the lone wolf killer who kills many people for no other reason than to kill them is not.

They happen less in the UK.

They happen less in countries with similar political and economical environment like Europe.

Depends on the time frame - if we go back 100 years and include governmental killings the US seems much more peaceful.

I don't think that's relevant in a discussion about school shootings.