Remember, in 2015 the FBI re-defined what constitutes a “mass shooting” event to be an event that results in the death of 4 or more people.
What was the definition before?
Major international agencies define a “massacre” or “mass killing” as the extrajudicial killing of four or more unarmed people. It’s used mainly by international agencies (UN agencies, ICRC, etc.) for official reporting purposes. Arbitrary, but there has to be a cutoff somewhere. Maybe they picked this number guided by the international agencies?
Again, it really is arbitrary. Some guy goes berserk and shoots three family members, not a “mass shooting” but if he shoots four, it is? Three shot in a drug deal gone wrong, not, but four it is? Not all “mass shootings” fit the image that phrase conjures up in most people’s minds, ie some evil nutter who shoots up a public space like a school, store, workplace, etc. Where and how to draw the line?
Where you make the cutoff to define a “mass shooting”?