According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, from the 1950’s through July 10th of 2016, 98.4 percent of mass shootings have occurred on gun-free zones

On the heels of the shooting in Fort Lauderdale that took the lives of five people, a new report has surfaced with some breathtaking statistics about where mass shootings take place.

According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, from the 1950’s through July 10th of 2016, 98.4 percent of mass shootings have occurred on gun-free zones, with just 1.6 percent occurring where citizens are allowed to have firearms with them.

The research was actually updated from a previous figure in response to an article written by the gun-control advocacy group Everytown.org, which attempted to dismiss the CPRC’s research, saying “the gun lobby’s claims that so-called “gun-free zones” endanger Americans are inconsistent with evidence.” The CPRC says that Everytown.org used both incomplete information, and used criteria that falls outside of what the FBI considers as qualifications for mass shootings.

The FBI definition of mass public shootings excludes “shootings that resulted from gang or drug violence” or that were part of some other crime.  The FBI also defines “public” places as “includ[ing] commercial areas (divided into malls, businesses open to pedestrian traffic, and businesses closed to pedestrian traffic), educational environments (divided into schools [pre-kindergarten through 12th grade] and IHEs), open spaces, government properties (divided into military and other government properties), houses of worship, and health care facilities.”

The CPRC dismisses claims of “mass shootings” if they do not meet the FBI’s criteria, and gives an entire list of mass shootings that have occurred within the United States. It then debunks Everytown.org’s claims.

While the first part of the discussion here goes through each mass public shooting from 2009 to 2014 discussed in the Bloomberg report, further down in this post we have updated cases up through 2015 and the sources of older cases dating back to 1950.  At the end of the post we have a response to Everytown’s response to our post.  Using the data from 1950 through February 2016 has three mass public shootings in places where general citizens are allowed to have guns — that is just over 1 percent of the shootings over that period.

To see the list for yourself, follow the link here.

Very recently, state lawmakers have begun moving to eliminate gun-free zones in various places, including two bills introduced into the Florida Senate and House that allows for carry within airports and government buildings, as well as one in Kentucky to allow firearms to be carried in schools.

Man Dies After Accidentally Shooting Himself During a Selfie Gone Wrong

This is exactly what we talk about in class.  Accidents are preventable. Manipulating the firearm to the point where you think it is empty when it is not.  Good example of what it pushed in class.  Always treat the gun as if it is LOADED and with RESPECT.  Neither of which this individual followed not to mention the four basic firearm rules.  ATTITUDE, ATTITUDE, ATTITUDE!

A 43-year-old Washington man died Sunday after shooting himself in the face while attempting to take a series of selfies with his girlfriend.

The unnamed man and his girlfriend, who were taking photos of themselves at a residence in Concrete, Washington, decided to use a gun as a prop in their selfie series, according to the Skagit Valley Herald. The girlfriend, who was not harmed during the photo session, reported that the two of them had used the gun in their selfies several times already and that her boyfriend had removed the bullets from the gun and then reloaded the gun multiple times during the day.

But the last time that the man used the gun in a selfie attempt, a bullet apparently remained inside the gun, firing off when the man pulled the trigger, Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Chief of Patrol Chad Clark told the Skagit Valley Herald.

The boyfriend’s death is being investigated as an accidental occurrence, Clark added.

The San Francisco-based data service provider Priceonomics reported that there have been 49 recorded selfie-related deaths since 2014 in addition to this incident. Of those deaths, four of them were linked to guns.

Maryland’s Controversial ‘Gun Fingerprint’ Database Shut Down After 15 Years, $5 Million — Here’s How Many Crimes It Solved

They sit in an old fallout shelter underneath the Maryland State Police headquarters in Pikesville.

More than 300,000 bullet casings — each one photographed and sealed in its own barcoded envelope and then stacked in boxes from the floor to the ceiling.

They’re the voluminous remains of a program launched back in 2000 that created a database of bullet casings from every single gun sold in the state with the hope that the “gun fingerprint” information would lead to forensic breakthroughs and solved crimes.

And after 15 years and $5 million in costs, how many cases has the program cracked?

Zero.

And now the state has scrapped the whole thing, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Maryland passed a law in 2000 that required gun manufacturers to fire every handgun for sale in the state and then deliver the bullet casings to authorities, the Sun noted. And that’s where the “gun fingerprint” database came into play.

While markings etched on a bullet casing can indentify the gun from which it was fired, technological issues doomed the Maryland program.

For one thing, when investigators submitted bullet casings from crime scenes, the computerized imaging program sometimes returned hundreds of matches. The state sued the manufacturer in 2009 for $1.9 million, settling three years later for $390,000, the Sun reported.

Indeed the program has helped investigations somewhat — 26 times since it was launched. But in each instance authorities already knew about the gun, state police told the Sun.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed,” former Democratic Gov. Parris N. Glendening, whose administration was behind the program’s launch, told the paper. “It’s a little unfortunate, in that logic and common sense suggest that it would be a good crime-fighting tool.”

Others disagree. “There’s things that they could have done that would have made sense,” Frank Sloane, owner of Pasadena Gun & Pawn in Anne Arundel County, told the Sun. “This didn’t make any sense.”

After a new gun control law passed in 2013, Maryland gun sales spiked and the “fingerprint” law triggered a huge backlog for the program, which had to hire eight people just to organize almost 60,000 new casings that had come in. By the fall of 2014, state police said the program had solved no crimes, the Sun reported.

“If there was any evidence whatsoever — any evidence — that this was helpful in solving crimes, we wouldn’t have touched it,” state Sen. Bobby Zirkin, a Democrat, told the paper. “The police came in and said it was useless. No one contradicted that.”

Gun manufacturers weren’t happy, complaining for most of the program’s existence that they were firing rounds from brand-new guns for no reason.

“It drove the gun collectors nuts,” Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley told the Sun. “It’s like a car. As soon as you drive it off the lot, it loses value.”

When the ballistic fingerprinting law was repealed effective Oct. 1, bullet casings were no longer required to be sent in — and the General Assembly said state police could sell off its inventory for scrap.

Burglary Suspects Thought They Were Prepared to Handle 13-Year-Old Home Alone — They Didn’t Account for His Mother’s Gun

Police say a 13-year-old boy was home alone in Charleston County, South Carolina, when he went to grab his mother’s gun after he heard two alleged burglars try to break in from the back.

The boy, who police say feared for his life, fired through the door at 28-year-old Ira J. Bennett of North Charleston and 31-year-old Lamar Brown of Summerville. One of them fired back and both escaped inside a car. The boy then fired several more times as the two men drove away.

Neighbors said that around the same time they heard gunshots, they also saw a gray car speed away from the house. Police responded to the scene and recovered a Colt .45 pistol from the area where the suspects allegedly tried to break in, WHNS-TV reported.

Bennett was later arrested and Brown was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital not long after.

Police said that Bennett initially reported that someone had shot at the car while the two men were on the interstate.

Bennett was charged with first-degree burglary and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.

The mother of the 13-year-old said she’s never witnessed any crime in her neighborhood since living there. The family left their home for the night because they didn’t feel safe.