Mass Shootings in Oregon: Background information when reading Numb to This

Mass Shootings in Oregon

This article relates to Numb to This

Kindra Neely's debut graphic memoir for young adults, Numb to This, documents her experiences as a survivor of the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in October of 2015. This was Oregon's deadliest mass shooting, resulting in 10 fatalities (including the gunman) and seven further casualties.

The incident is part of a larger pattern of gun violence in the state. Between 2014 and August of 2022, Oregon experienced a total of 22 mass shootings. Considering that 14 of those occurred since December of 2020, the rate of mass shootings seems to be accelerating in recent years. There is no single easy explanation for why this is, but the state (in line with several others) has seen a dramatic spike in gun sales since the outbreak of COVID-19. Firearm background checks are up by as much as 45% from 2019 to 2020, but the total numbers are harder to track due to the Charleston Loophole, which allows dealers to finish a sale without a completed background check on a buyer if the check takes longer than three business days. The data on these sales is not tracked.

More guns in circulation and a greater number of mass shootings have, unsurprisingly, resulted in more shooting deaths. In 2014, 88 people were fatally shot in Oregon. Since then, numbers have risen fairly consistently year by year, with annual gun deaths in the state projected to hit 210 by the end of 2022.

Mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, are defined as incidents in which at least four people are shot (not including the perpetrator). It's not just mass shootings that are rising in Oregon; gun fatalities, in general, are up in the state. The state's largest city, Portland, recorded 276 shooting incidents between January and August of 2019, and experienced 893 over the same period of months in 2022. The link between mental health (along with a lack of sufficient support and resources for many) and gun fatalities is impossible to ignore, especially as 80% of all gun-related deaths in Oregon are listed as suicide.

Of course, it is important to consider all of these statistics within the context of the United States as a whole, a nation with a long history of gun violence that has seen a 65% rise in mass shootings nationwide since 2013. On the Giffords Law Center's annual A-F rating system, Oregon is currently graded C+ for the strength of its gun laws, falling within the low end of the "Strong Law States" category. This matters, as while states with strong gun laws have seen a considerable 33% rise in mass shootings since 2013, an alarming 91% rise has occurred in states with weak gun laws.

The heartache of shootings doesn't end with deaths and physical wounds. Throughout her memoir, Neely shines a light on an important and often overlooked factor to consider when discussing the impact of mass shootings: their lasting effect on the mental well-being of those who survive.

Snyder Hall at Umpqua Community College in Oregon in 2011, scene of the Umpqua Community College shooting on October 1, 2015.
Photo by Gordon Friedman (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Filed under Society and Politics

This article relates to Numb to This. It first ran in the October 19, 2022 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.