Washington Post Blasted Over Page Printing Names of Mass Shooting Victims

In a 12-page print section, The Washington Post on Sunday decided to list all the names of the victims killed in mass shootings since 1966, which came to 1,196.

According to a separate WaPo database where mass shootings are tracked, the paper defines mass shootings as an instance where four or more people are killed by one, or in some cases, two shooters. This definition excludes gang violence, robberies, and domestic shootings within private homes.

Eleven hundred ninety-six.

That’s the number of names on this page. People who were doing ordinary things until they were shot to death by killers bent on mass fatalities.

In today’s Washington Post, a special 12-page print section lists every mass shooting victim since 1966. pic.twitter.com/kgXDJq8bMY
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 11, 2019

The pace of the deadliest public mass shootings has accelerated significantly in recent years. The 423 people represented here died between the Sandy Hook massacre and last weekend’s attack in Dayton, Ohio.

They accounted for more than a third of the 1,196 killed since 1966. pic.twitter.com/04mkucWlM6
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 11, 2019

The Post’s executive editor, Martin Baron, said the “section is dedicated to them and to their families and friends. Our purpose is to ensure that none of us forgets what all of us, as a nation, have lost.”

But many on social media criticized the section for making the problem appear to be much bigger than it is.

This is virulent innumeracy: trying to make a comparatively rare event look much bigger than it is by the way you print it out.

Figure out how many of these pages it would take to print the names of everybody struck by lightning since 1966. https://t.co/d39heZHW0a
— Robert Tracinski (@Tracinski) August 12, 2019

More people die per year by accidental interaction with lawnmower blades than mass shootings. Yes, I actually looked this up. This is a moral panic.
— Phil (@philllosoraptor) August 11, 2019

That's 1,196 across 53 years?

Did you know there were 70,237 opioid deaths in 2017 alone?

Also, I wonder what the # would be of people who saved their own lives with a firearm during this 53 year time period.

Interested in digging into that? ??
— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) August 11, 2019

But the media tells me there's THOUSANDS of these, about 40k this year alone.

Oh wait that's suicides involving guns, my bad.

1,200 in 54 years in a country with more guns that people is nothing, its a non issue, its such a tiny % its hard to even calculate it.
— Lucille (@EvelynF24687915) August 12, 2019

22 deaths per year on average from "mass shootings" out of let's round down to 300,000,000 people in the U.S., equates to... 0.00000733333% of the population per year killed in "mass shootings."
— Aldous Huxley's Ghost™ (@AF632) August 11, 2019

Others thought gang violence that plagues inner cities ought to be given consideration.

Frankly, while all violentbdeath is horrific, I’m more disturbed at the widespread, chronic murders in poor neighborhoods by various sociopaths who terrorize grandmas, mothers, young men, old men and kids. Admittedly, it’s not as sexy but each heartbreak is just as ghastly.
— Lady Bee (@ChurnDashSlash) August 11, 2019

Do Chicago next please. They are at 26 mass for the year.
— Kambree Kawahine Koa (@KamVTV) August 11, 2019

I was just thinking how awesome it is to have an objective media that in no way has a biased agenda.

Also, Chicago would like a word, as they feel underrepresented in this piece.
— Nuclear Herbs (@NuclearHerbs) August 11, 2019

Chicago took just 2 years time to exceeded this number - 2016 -2017.

Where is the list of those 1,445 victims?
— IronJawedAngel (@AngelJawed) August 11, 2019

Some also called on the Post to do abortion next:

Now do abortion.
— Mindy Robinson ???? (@iheartmindy) August 11, 2019

Now do the 65 million since Roe V Wade.
— ..... (@marshallsheldon) August 11, 2019

Absolutely terrible to see anyone killed. Is next week's edition going to have the faces of the million's that were aborted during the same timeframe? pic.twitter.com/5DpkeqJBxO
— Eric Loiselle (@AmalgamArt) August 11, 2019

Good people with guns also help stop mass shootings, which some users also pointed out: