Talk:2024 Fourth of July shootings

Latest comment: 1 day ago by Cameron Dewe in topic Wikipedia is not a news website

Outside scope of WikiProject Firearms

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I have removed the banner for WikiProject Firearms because this article appears to be outside the scope of that WikiProject. That WikiProject is about firearms and includes ... both broad concepts and specific models, ammunition, manufacturers, organizations, legislation, and historical figures such as inventors and notable gunsmiths associated with such firearms. For an article to meet the criminal use inclusion criteria, the specific type(s) firearm used needs to be notable. Articles about merely shooting a firearm does not appear to be part of the inclusion criteria for that WikiProject. Please discuss this if you think I am wrong with this judgement. Please see WP:PROJSCOPE and WP:OVERBANNER for more guidelines. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 23:57, 7 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Wikipedia is not a news website

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Wikipedia is not a news website. This article appears to a collection of routine news reports about shootings across the United States without a common causal factor to tie them together, other than a particular date related to celebrating an American holiday. While the cited LA Times article is used to assert The Fourth of July is historically one of the nation's deadliest days of the year. Actually reading the source reveals that road deaths are the primary reason and that shootings aren’t necessarily part of this fatal trend. I think it is misleading to make such a bold statement in the article without explaining that the shootings do not feature in the underlying research. However, I think that without having that assertion in the article it destroys the reason for having this article in the first place, as one is left with a collection of random shootings with nothing to tie them together. I think it would be more appropriate to write an article about the United States road toll, drownings, of fireworks fatalities on the Fourth of July weekend, rather than shootings, because those causes of death appear to have a heightened risk over this holiday period. For this sort of thing to be notable, one needs sustained coverage over a longer period of time than appears in news coverage for a holiday weekend. It might be better to cover the underlying research about deaths on or about the Fourth of July, or even holidays more generally, over many years, rather than focussing on a single point in time. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 00:49, 8 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Consider this discussion from last year's article for deletion debate. 70.30.36.200 (talk) 18:56, 8 July 2024 (UTC)Reply
Yes! It is also synthesis of published material and can be seen as original research, but that is another problem with the article. What the research says, according to the LA Times article, is that shootings are not part of what makes the Fourth of July deadly; road crashes are. Collecting together all the news reports about shootings on the Fourth of July doesn't make the date notable. Citing the research that the LA Times uses might be more useful in this context. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 22:27, 8 July 2024 (UTC)Reply