More than 311,000 students impacted by school gun violence, analysis shows
Thus far this year, the analysis shows there have been at two dozen acts of gun violence on K-12 campuses during the school day.
Posted — UpdatedThe news that has become all too common in our country - another mass shooting. It’s shocking to many, but sadly, no longer surprising.
"I've been out here doing this for years," said Beth Putz, an educator who has been advocating for gun control since she was an early-career teacher in 1999.
From a concert in Las Vegas to a night club in Orlando and schools in Parkland to Sandy Hook – nearly half of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings have taken place in the last five years.
While the federal government doesn’t track school shootings anywhere, there has been data compiled examining how many students have been affected by gun violence at school.
"This is still where we are," said Putz. "We are still out there doing this - moms, teachers holding signs."
Putz began working in schools when the Columbine High School shooting occurred in 1999. There were more than 1800 kids in the school that day when 13 were killed and another 20 injured.
They’ve taken place at 331 schools and at least 185 children, teachers and other people inside the schools have been killed during the attacks and nearly 385 have been injured, according to the data collected by the Post.
There isn’t any sort of federal database tracking this information looking at school shootings. But the federal government has been following public shootings like those that have occurred in Buffalo or Aurora.
A report released Monday – on day before the massacre in Uvalde - revealed that there has been an escalating pattern of these events with active shooters happening in the United State. The FBI report shows that in 2021, there were 61 active shooter attacks killing 103 people and injuring 130 others — a 52 percent increase since 2020 and 97 percent increase from 2017.
The number of events that occurred and lives lost last year is the highest annual total since 2017 when 143 people were killed, and hundreds more were wounded. The bureau noted that numbers were higher that year due to the sniper attack on the Las Vegas Strip in October 2017.
While school shootings are rare, there were 42 in 2021 -- also more of those last year than any other year since Columbine, the Washington Post's analysis found.
Thus far this year, the report shows there have been at two dozen acts of gun violence on K-12 campuses during the school day.
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