Mass shootings, economy ranked as most significant news events of 2018

The 2018 data comes after yet another grim drumbeat of gun violence in schools, places of worship, and watering holes throughout the year.

Dec. 17, 2018 / 6:23 AM EST
By Carrie Dann

WASHINGTON — In a year marked by a thriving U.S. economy, Americans named the nation’s improving economic outlook as the single most important event to them personally during 2018, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. But a much darker theme also continued to permeate the American psyche: another year of deadly mass shootings.

According to the new poll, more than a third of American adults — 35 percent — said that mass shootings, like those at a Florida high school and a Pittsburgh synagogue this year, were either the first or second most important events of 2018. Nineteen percent named mass shootings as the single most important news event in their lives over the past year.

That’s compared with 33 percent who called the improving economy one of the top two most important events to them this year, with 25 percent calling it the single most significant event of 2018.

Other events that ranked either first or second on Americans’ lists: The separations of migrant families and the number of immigrants seeking asylum at the southern border (28 percent total), natural disasters including recent hurricanes and fires (26 percent), a record number of women and people of color being elected to Congress (19 percent), tariff and trade negotiations with importers like China (20 percent), the Mueller investigation (12 percent) and the MeToo movement to expose sexual harassment (nine percent.)

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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/mass-shootings-economy-ranked-most-significant-news-events-2018-n948201?cid=public-rss_20181217