The FBI has been keeping records on active shootings in America since 2010 according to a report by USA Today and released its latest report for the years 2016 and 2017. An active shooter is defined by the FBI as follows: Someone actively killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. This data is not just mass shootings, which is the killing of three or more people. The data also doesn't include drug and gang-related shootings that appeared targeted.
The report tell us in 2017 there were a record 30 active shooting incidents throughout the nation resulting in the killing of a record 138 people. It was the first time the death toll rose above 90 for a single year (2012) and the worst year since 2010 when the FBI started the record keeping.
The report also stated in 2016 there were 20 active shootings that killed 83 people. In the shootings of 2016 and 2017 all the shooters were men. The attacks for both years were stopped in a variety of ways; 13 of the gunmen committed suicide; 11 were killed by police; 8 were stopped by citizens and 18 were taken into custody by police officers.
President Trump tried to talk tough on domestic shootings during the 2016 campaign and blamed President Obama for the shootings. Trump said he would stop those killings and would not happen on his watch. But the number of shootings and killings did not stop on Trump's watch in 2017 and in fact the FBI report tells us they increased and hit a record level.
So called tough talk is "show off" and unfortunately other people pay the price for a failed leader. PolitiDose has made past commentary about the so called tough talk of Presidents Reagan and Bush 43 and how their tough talk failed.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
