Earlier: More Black on Black Funeral Shootings
Mass shootings in major metropolitan areas in the United States disproportionately affect Black people, and structural racism may play a role, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Surgery https://t.co/vD9lgHrDBJ
— CNN (@CNN) July 19, 2023
From CNN’s news desk:
Structural racism may contribute to mass shootings, study says
By Nicole Chavez, CNN
Updated 2:55 PM EDT, Wed July 19, 2023Mass shootings in major metropolitan areas in the United States disproportionately affect Black people, and structural racism may play a role, according to a study published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Surgery.
Researchers at Tulane University analyzed data relating to the 51 largest metropolitan areas, including demographic and income data as well as reports of mass shootings from 2015 to 2019 compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit organization that tracks gun violence in the US.
Gun Violence Archive is a valuable resource, but it does not track the race of victims, much less the race of perps. So, researchers who work with GVA data and want to know something about race tend to look at the racial demographics of the surrounding neighborhood or metropolitan area.
CNN and the Gun Violence Archive define a mass shooting as a shooting that injured or killed four or more people, not including the shooter.
The study found that in areas with higher Black populations, mass shootings are likelier to occur compared to communities with higher White populations. There are also more Black people injured and killed when mass shootings take place, the findings say. …
Researchers intended to find whether mass shootings are a consequence of structural racism, which they described as “the normalized and legitimized range of policies, practices, and attitudes that routinely produce cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color.”
They correlated the cities’ Black-White segregation index, demographic data, poverty rates, educational attainment and crime rates.
Chicago had the greatest number of mass shootings during that period with 141, which led to 97 deaths and 583 injuries. According to the study, Milwaukee had the highest segregation index, which tracks racial disparities in schools and neighborhoods, while Baltimore had the highest unemployment rate.
Cleveland had the greatest income inequality.
Researchers said the study did not find a link between income and mass shooting events, but further research may be needed to define how income equality and poverty have an influence in mass shootings. …
But they concluded “racial and ethnic minority populations are significantly more likely to be victims of (mass shootings),” systemic inequities lead to a variety of outbreaks of gun violence in the US, and it’s something the public health sphere needs to address.
From the original paper:
While our study focused on the association between factors related to structural racism and mass shootings, statewide firearm legislation cannot be ignored and could be postulated to play a role in MSEs. Interestingly, we noted that Chicago, which had the greatest number of MSEs with a total of 141 events, has a high state firearm legislation grade of an A−. However, there is evidence that demonstrates neighboring state gun laws play a role in a state and city’s gun violence that could be playing a role in Chicago’s high number of MSEs.20 In a study by Jewett et al,21 the authors analyzed 104 mass public shootings, which they defined as those with at least 4 fatalities. These authors found that 49% were committed by White perpetrators compared with 19% by Black perpetrators.21 These data, while important, are difficult to interpret completely because not all cases are resolved with perpetrators identified. In those shootings, reported by Jewett et al,21 the majority of guns were legally purchased high-powered firearms, suggesting that state gun laws could play a role in decreasing the incidence.
Sailer’s Law of Mass Shootings explains this: With more dead than wounded, the perp is likely to be a nonblack who has decided he’s not going home. With more wounded then dead, the perp or perps are likely blacks who figure they’ll go lie low at their grandma’s house until this whole mass shooting thing blows over.
Community gun violence has been linked to structural racism, which has been defined as “the normalized and legitimized range of policies, practices, and attitudes that routinely produce cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color.”5-7 Firearm injuries are more likely to occur in low-income areas, and Black individuals make up the majority of those injured or killed in shootings.8 However, the way in which measures of structural racism correlate with MSEs has not been elucidated. In this study, we sought to examine the association between structural racism and MSEs in metropolitan cities in the United States. Our hypothesis was that MSEs in metropolitan areas would predominately be a consequence of structural racism, affecting cities with a higher Black population.
And what did they find? They found that what drove mass shootings, broadly defined (4 or more dead or wounded) was having a high percentage of blacks in a metropolitan area, which they defined as evidence of “structural racism” rather than as evidence of black shootiness. But their other expected measures of “structural racism” were not significantly related to mass shooting events (MSE).
Linear associations were observed between MSE incidence and each independent variable. … The final model had an R2 of 0.55 (Table 3). Structural racism, as measured by the percentage of the population that is Black, was associated with MSE incidence (β = 0.10; 95% CI, 0.05 to 0.14; P < .001) (Table 3).
But:
Segregation index (β = 0.02, 95% CI, −0.03 to 0.06; P = .53), children in a single-parent household (β = −0.04, 95% CI, −0.11 to 0.04; P = .28), violent crime rate (β = 0.0001; 95% CI, −0.002 to 0.002; P = .74), and Gini coefficient (β = −1.02; 95% CI −11.97 to 9.93; P = .93) were not associated with MSE incidence on linear regression.
Our linear regression showed that cities with a higher Black population are more likely to experience MSEs resulting in more injured and killed individuals than communities with higher White populations. This finding supports that of other studies that used MSE databases and also showed that racial and ethnic minority populations are significantly more likely to be victims of MSEs.12 These findings are consistent with rates of community gun violence, which disproportionately affect Black individuals.5,13 Beard et al8 showed that Black residents in Philadelphia have a firearm assault rate that is 5 times that of their White counterparts. This higher firearm injury rate persists even after correcting for income levels. In fact, the rate of gun violence among the highest income levels in Philadelphia was 15.8 times higher for Black residents than White. The reasons behind these findings are likely multifactorial and need further investigation. A potential explanation may be related to housing policies, as a long history of redlining has resulted in a higher density of Black residents in certain neighborhoods. Results from our study, along with data from Beard et al, suggest the sources of systemic and structural racism that may be associated with MSEs are multifactorial but are rooted in the segregation of neighborhoods or other discriminatory practices related to housing.
FDR redlined blacks onto the tragic dirt and whites onto the magic dirt.
Although our study did not find an association between income and MSEs, prior studies suggest that income inequality contributes to MSE incidence. In a study by Cabrera and Kwon, which used the Stanford Mass Shootings of America data project, the authors demonstrated that inequality or income alone can predict MSEs, and together they interact to suggest a stronger correlation. Interestingly, our study found that the Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, was not associated with MSE incidence on linear regression.
In other words, they mostly just found that the more blacks, the more mass shooting events.
