After a decade plus of what seemed like constant mass shootings, things have started to turn around in the 2020s. From having a new mass shooting what seemed like every month, we now have seen a gradual decline in what is typically labeled "mass killings." According to the Associated Press, there has been a 44-percent decline in mass killings in the last two years. However, they then warned this is "not cause for optimism."
In what universe is that not cause for optimism? Sure, gun violence still happens. But we have been sheltered from things like the Las Vegas shooting or large-scale school shootings for some time now. A large chunk of that is attributed to a crackdown on crime by the Trump administration in the last year. So called mass killings are down 24-percent from this time last year. A mass killing being identified as more than four people being killed, in most terms.
There is plenty of cause for optimism that things are finally becoming somewhat normal, or as normal as we could hope for in today's world.
A.W.R. Hawkins of Breitbart says the so called "experts'" opinion really boils down to politics.
"They want to take great news and make it good news, and take good news and make it poor news," he says. "The main thing is they do not want Trump's crackdown on crime to get any credit."
That is the biggest problem with the mainstream media and these self-proclaimed experts. They refuse to give the Trump administration any positive reinforcement for doing things Americans have desperately wanted. People are fed up with crime. They are fed up with criminals not being punished. This administration is taking steps to rectify that and make the country safer. But somehow, as they always do, Democrats are taking that as some weird insult.
So, to fit their narrative of wanting to bash anything positive Trump does, they are fudging their own metrics. They are taking common shootings in random places and playing them up to appear like a mass shooting. When in reality, it is not.
"The most recent what they called a 'mass killing,' was the Stockton, California shooting after Thanksgiving...every outlet is trying to frame that as a mass shooting," says Hawkins. "But there were multiple shooters, and it happened at a two-year-olds birthday party...but they are going to call it a mass shooting anyway, just to up the numbers as much as they can."
Again, typically a mass shooting is described as more than four people being dead with multiple injured. That shooting ended with four people dead, but again, was a centralized family event. It was not some roving gang of thugs deciding to shoot up a large parade. This was an isolated event.
"None of these really fit the template for what the left has historically called a mass shooting," Hawkins says.
He adds this is all part of trying to keep their gun control narrative alive.