The Strategic Ineffectiveness of Domestic Mass Shootings

A typical goal of mass shooters is to bring attention to a cause or idea, but how effective is this strategy?
Below are figures depicting US search trends relevant to several shooters ideologies, to see if these attacks had any long-term effects on the national conversation.
*All trends are measured using Google analytics, in standard deviations from the previous two-year average

Maj. Nidal Hasan

Michael Page
15

20

August 12:
Page Kills6at
Sikh Temple

13

15

Nov. 5:
Hassan kills13
at Ft. Hood

11
9
7

10

WebSearch
Trends 5
WebSearch
Trends

1
-1 JAN FEB MAR
2012

0
JAN
2009

FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG

SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL
2010

AUG SEP OCT NOV

JUL AUG SEP

OCT NOV DEC

JAN FEB MAR

2013

APR MAY JUN

JUL AUG

-3
-5

-5

Sharia

APR MAY JUN

Mujahideen

Crusades

Iraq War

War in Afghanistan

Taliban

White Supremacy

Skinhead

Neo-Nazism

Hate Rock

Dylan Roof
135

115

95

June 17th: Roof

kills9at
HistoricallyBlack
Church

75

WebSearch
Trends

55

35

15

-5

JAN
2015

FEB

White Supremacy

MAR

Rhodesia

APR

Race war

MAY

Nazism

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEPT

Confederate States of America

OCT

Aryan Race

These figures demonstrate that these recent mass shootings did not have a significant effect on the national conversation, and to the extent they did,
it was relatively short-lived.

Comparison
Compare these attacks to an event that had significant, long-term effect on the National Conversation

Edward Snowden

95

June 20th,
First leaks
go public

75

55
WebSearch
Trends
35

15

-5 JAN FEB MAR

2013

APR MAY JUN

PRISM

JUL

AUG SEP

OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR

2014

APR MAY JUN

United States Na onal SecurityAgency