Superficial research in an article about fear of mass shootings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article with superficial research by James Alan Fox at USA Today on January 14, 2026 titled There’s no mass shooting epidemic, but fear epidemic is real | Opinion. He says (as shown above) that:

 

“Although the frequent claims of a ‘mass shooting epidemic’ are more hyperbole than reality, there truly is an epidemic of fear fueled by the extensive media coverage afforded deadly attacks in schools, churches, restaurants and other public settings.

 

Indeed, the percentage of Americans indicating that public mass shootings are a significant source of worry has nearly tripled, from 16% in 2015 to 44% in 2025, based on the Chapman University Survey of American Fears." 

 

The first data point for fear of a random or mass shooting really should be from 2014 rather than 2015, and be 24.7% - which is 51 percent larger than the 16.4% that Prof. Fox uses. So his comparison would just be an increase of 79% rather than a near tripling.

 

 

  

 

 

And those are only two of eleven data points in those Chapman surveys, as is shown above. When you only use ~18% of the available data, you will get a grossly misleading picture of what really is going on.

 

There also is another article by James Alan Fox in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice for July 31, 2023 (Volume 40, number 1) titled Trends in U. S. Mass Shootings: Facts, Fears, and Fatalities. Figure 2 in it is a vertical bar chart showing seven Chapman Survey data points from 2015 to 2022, but it also omits the 2014 data point and instead of listing 47.4% for 2019 (the very highest point!) it repeats the 41.5% from 2018. Also, he reports 28.1% for 2017 when the correct number in the detailed results instead is 30.8%. I discussed this problem in a blog post on October 4, 2017 titled What do the most Americans fear? The fourth Chapman Survey on American Fears, and being innumerate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is fear of a random or mass shooting the greatest fear in the Chapman surveys? No – corrupt government officials are. As shown above in a bar chart, fear of a random or mass shooting ranked from a low of #56 to a high of #22.