American society keeps a lid on the number of deaths from guns and car accidents but not from mass shootings

Abstract

The number of deaths from car accidents and from the unlawful use of guns can be described by logistic growth curves. The annual rates of both have traced completed logistic trajectories following which they have been self-regulated for many decades at what seems to be a homeostatic equilibrium level through legislative actions. Exception constitutes the number of deaths from mass shootings, which has been so far tracing an exponential trajectory. Despite the fact that mass-shooting deaths represent only 0.1 percent of all gun deaths today, they are poised to continue growing exponentially until they become the major cause of gun deaths, short of unprecedented action by society.