Interestingly, the DOJ version also causes mass killings that made minimal firearm involvement to be on the list.
It's why the 7th deadliest "school shooting" was in the mid-18th century, and only one person was actually shot, with the rest killed by melee weapons.
It's important in the sense that if it's "just gang shit" then people think it's less random, and so they have some agency to avoid it, which makes it less scary. They're also not in social groups even close to gangs, so it's not something that would ever happen to them.
That may be true based on stats which can always be manipulated. But it sure doesn't feel safer. There was a time when you had no fear riding the subway. Now you are taking your life in your hands just standing on the platform