Mass shooting deaths versus drug overdose deaths in the USA. A few thoughts on the matter and where our society is headed.

Recently been alot of chatter over all these mass shootings, but just what exactly constitutes a mass shooting and how common are they in reality, and are mass shootings the main thing we should be focusing on?

I'm going to list all my sources of info below, and said sources are down the middle least biased with no political affiliation, and upon doing an independent fact check they all rate high in the accuracy of their reporting [mediabiasfactcheck.com]. The following sources tell a rather different story than what most mainstream media sources would have us believe, and after hours of research on both topics of mass shootings and drug overdose deaths, I'm confident in saying that the latter of those two is far more of a direct concern to our society. When it comes down to the body count for both, a little over 2,000 individuals lost their lives in mass shootings since 1999, while drug overdose (both prescription and street drugs) incidents that resulted in death have claimed nearly 1 million lives since 1999. Those numbers are staggering, and clear evidence the problem with Americans getting hooked on and overdosing on drugs is a far greater concern than mass shootings, and your average American teenager these days is at least five times more likely of getting hooked on drugs and suffering an overdose than they are getting shot dead in a mass shooting. On a side note, these statistics do not yet include the recent tragedy in Texas, nor is this post about mass shootings in countries besides the USA. Mass shootings in other countries is a whole other topic, and plenty of other countries do indeed experience them, off the top of my head there was this recent massacre in Mexico-[news.yahoo.com]

The following is from the source Statista, whom have a solid factchecking past, and there's no reason to believe they had misrepresented anything. Number of mass shootings in the US between 1999 and 2021.

2021- 6
2020- 2
2019- 10
2018- 12
2017- 11
2016- 6
2015- 7
2014- 4
2013- 5
2012- 7
2011- 3
2010- 1
2009- 4
2008- 3
2007- 4
2006- 3
2005- 2
2004- 1
2003- 1
2002- 0
2001- 1
2000- 1
1999- 5

Reuters provided similar statistics, and they tend to favor leftwing persuasions more so than rightwing, and notice how their figures are almost identical to Statista's- [graphics.reuters.com]

So from 1999 to 2021 there have been a little over 2,000 mass shooting fatalities. Now, let's look at a few drug overdose death statistics-

96,779 drug overdose deaths were reported from March 2020 to March 2021.

OD death totals during this period are 36.1% higher than the previous annual high from December 2018 to December 2019 (71,130 deaths).

Preliminary reports indicate the number of drug overdose deaths in America increased 29.6% in 2020.

In January 2021, drug overdose deaths exceeded homicides by 6.7%.

Sources:
[graphics.reuters.com]

[statista.com]

[statista.com]

[drugabusestatistics.org]

[mediabiasfactcheck.com]

Now, with those statistics in mind, which issue would you say is a more immediate concern? I'd say hands down the problem with drugs is a far greater threat to society, and it keeps getting worse. From March 2020 to March 2021 the number of overdose deaths was absolutely astounding, and certainly surpasses the mass shooting body count in the same amount of time (1999-2021).

The point of this post was to question popular mainstream narratives regarding those two issues, based on unbiased statistics. A common theme I hear from the gun control crowd is their concern and sadness over mass shooting deaths and just needless deaths in general, but I must question just how much of that is really concern or if a personal biased agenda is in play somehow? In other words, if mass shooting deaths upset you while you remain mostly indifferent to the staggering number of drug overdose deaths, that tells me the deaths don't really bother you and that most likely a personal agenda has taken hold.

Personally, both mass shootings and lethal drug addictions concern me very much, it's just that I don't believe more laws are the solution to the problems. We already have alot of laws on the books regulating gun ownership and recreational drugs are all but illegal, and yet the laws already in place have not done enough to deter criminals and the violent prone from obtaining weapons or preventing needless drug binges resulting in death. Instead of blaming guns or street drugs (both of which are inanimate objects that require human intervention in order to function) for all the ills in society, we should be asking ourselves why so many of our fellow Americans are so depressed and suicidal and violent prone these days? What is causing all of that misery, misery that has been plaguing our society for a few decades now? I strongly believe that once we get to the root of that problem, we will see those other issues in society largely improve, and the quality of life itself improve vastly. That said, I know that won't be the reality of things as it stands, not for some time yet anyways. It's going to be more of the same old same old tired bs, encouraging more laws that of which haven't worked out well so far and most likely will never improve things for the better semi-permanently, and that us-against-them mentality which does nothing to foster meaningful conversations in which to talk out solutions to the problems we all face in society, which such a mentality only serves to further the divide even more. Personally, I'm bloody sick and tired of all the infighting, so much for "unity", that's a joke and not even a funny one at that.

By the way, the gun control advocates out there do agree with me on the needless/more frivolous laws part regardless of whether or not they are even actively aware of such. They would readily agree that more laws/regulations are not the solution regarding abortion or gay rights, and that banning or heavily regulating something does not make it go away like magic. You can argue all you want that abortion and gun control are two different things, but the concept of seeking to heavily regulate or ban anything is what it is, and any reasonable or rational person would realize that neither of those are going away despite all the laws in the world meant to restrict or ban such. Two different issues perhaps, but no distinction when it comes down to the laws themselves. Laws have not prevented women from getting abortions even when the procedures were illegal and laws have not stopped criminals from obtaining weapons. Same is true with recreational or prescription drugs, the laws aren't helping much to curb overdose deaths, and that problem is only getting worse with each passing day.

If we have any hope whatsoever of rising above our challenges and dilemmas, then we need to stop with the fingerpointing and baseless accusation hurling and all the drama, and work together to find solutions to our collective problems. Evidence would indicate the primary motivations behind most school shootings have been either depression revenge or bullying, the last of which is perhaps the main driving factor behind such violence. There's no shortage of bullying in our society, from kids to adults no one knows how to sling the mud at one another quite like Americans do. It's going to be all too predictable... more pointless laws to restrict and control those "evil" and scary looking guns, while absolutely nothing being done about the bullying or depression epidemic, and then we wonder why nothing changes for the better. Emotions running high and getting the better of some folks is also a sticking point, and the rational among us are all too familiar with the fact that logic and reasoning go out the window when emotions run high and takeover critical thinking. I digress though, that's a whole other topic altogether perhaps for another post...

Nowadays, we seem to have no shortage of enthusiasm for criticism and bullying and belittling others who hold differing views, but yet not enough criticism for said enthusiastic bullying mentality, and the cycle goes on and on with no clear end in sight. The pessimist in me says our society is doomed in due course, the independent observer in me however would like to think that maybe just maybe some day we will learn to rise above our emotions and personal agendas and work together to find solutions to the problems haunting us, like we once did many years ago.