After the Parkland shooting, the gun control debate isn't fading away
Three of the largest mass shootings in modern American history happened in the past two years, but that doesn't mean Americans are always thinking about gun control.
In fact, data shows that with so many mass shootings taking place, Americans move on to other concerns within several days after each event. But after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida killed 17 people, something different is going on.
The credit may belong to the power of high schoolers to capture national attention in the absence of leadership from high-level officials.
You May Also Like
By taking a look at Google trends, you can get a decent sense of how the gun control debate ebbs and flows after a mass shooting, including after the Feb. 14 Parkland event. The Parkland shooting is already proving to be an exception to the rule.
Parkland is the ninth-largest mass shooting in modern American history. It's one of the largest to have ever happened in a public school, behind Virginia Tech in 2007 and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. And yet Google searches for gun control, which spiked after the February 14th shooting, remain elevated almost a week after the massacre -- which is typically when these conversations drop off.
Nate Silver attributes the rise to young students speaking out after the massacre, who've spoken so eloquently and forcefully in favor of gun control that their speeches have gone viral. They've even managed to get gun control onto Sunday cable news shows.
There may other reasons for the sustained interest, including a holiday weekend during which this topic has managed to dominate the news cycle, and a president who inflames the debate with insulting, seemingly self-destructive tweets.
Either way, here's a look at how Parkland measures up to five of the the largest mass shootings in modern American history, including Las Vegas, the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook and Sutherland Springs.
1. Las Vegas
64-year old Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured over 500 at an outdoor country music festival near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on Oct. 1, 2017. This remains the largest mass shooting in modern American history. Yet, Google Trends shows that it only took a week for searches about gun control to decline to nearly their pre-massacre levels.
Compare that to the first five days after Parkland.
Two weeks after Vegas, it appeared that the gun control debate had disappeared from the internet altogether.
At the time of the Mandalay Bay shooting, there were other issues competing for our national attention, including the Mueller investigation and Hurricane Maria, which struck Puerto Rico on Sept. 20 and also devastated the U.S. Virgin Islands devastated. Still, the precipitous drop-off is noteworthy.
2. Pulse Nightclub Massacre
On June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed and 50 were injured when a gunman opened fire inside the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, making it the second-largest mass shooting in modern American history.
Unlike Vegas, it took about two weeks before the gun control conversation effectively sizzled on the internet.
Pulse was likely able to sustain our interest for longer than Las Vegas for multiple reasons: a less crowded news cycle, which gives people more time to process traumatic events, fewer competing scandals (no Muller investigation), and a president who was actually responsive to the demands of gun control advocates.
On June 20th, the Republican-controlled Senate voted down four gun control measures after Obama and fellow Democrats made a renewed legislative push.
3. Sutherland Springs
Just a month after the Vegas shooting, Devin Patrick Kelley shot 25 people on November 5th, 2017, including a pregnant mother, in a Sutherland Springs, Texas church. This made it the fifth-largest shooting in modern American history, though Google Trends reveals that searches for gun control dropped just as precipitously as they did after Las Vegas -- within about one week.
Almost a week after the shooting, searches for gun control had declined to nearly their pre-massacre levels.
There was a slight bump in traffic two weeks later, but conversation remained relatively muted.
Unlike Parkland, Sutherland Springs didn't feature as many outspoken victims, and took place during a particularly loud and crowded news cycle.
4. Virginia Tech
23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia on April 16th, 2007. The Virginia Tech massacre is the third-largest mass shooting in modern American history, and the largest to have to taken place at a public university.
In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, Google searches for gun control didn't dip quite as severely as they did after the Las Vegas or Sutherland Springs killings, at least in the first week.
After two weeks, however, the conversation had mostly receded to pre-massacre levels.
5. Newtown
At Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, 20-year-old Adam Lanza massacred 20 children, along with an additional eight adults, including his mother and himself.
The massacre attracted international attention, not only because of its size but because so many children -- including kindergarteners -- were involved.
Here's what Google searches looked like one week after the massacre.
Just two weeks in, however, Google searches for gun control had receded to pre-Sandy Hook levels.
It should be noted, though, that while national gun control legislation failed to pass Congress in the wake of Sandy Hook, the state of Connecticut did take steps to restrict certain types of gun sales.
It's a little too early to determine whether Parkland students and their allies will be able to sustain the conversation longer than these previous cases, though results from the first week are promising. So, too, are their plans for a national march next month to build up a wave of activism in favor of gun control measures.
Still, it's easy for national fatigue to set in. There are so many other scandals and crises competing for national attention, and the interest groups lined up in opposition to gun control are powerful and extraordinarily well-funded.
The chances of gun control legislation passing at the national level right now are minimal, at least until a new President and Congress come to power.
But the students at Stoneman Douglas are nonetheless doing everything they can to keep the conversation alive, even when everyone around them wants them to forget.
Topics Activism Gun Control Social Good Politics
Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.
