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Four years after the Parkland massacre, a record number of school shootings in the United States is registered

2022-02-13T17:48:12.232Z


In 2021, more than 1,500 children were killed and more than 4,000 were injured by firearms in and out of school zones. "Without concrete action, more students and teachers will be shot, more communities will be traumatized," warn experts.


Four years after the Parkland high school massacre, the United States records a record for shootings in school spaces in the country, according to data from two organizations that track these episodes.

In the first half of the school year, between August 1 and December 31 of last year, there were

136 firearms incidents

on school grounds across the country, according to the group Everytown for Gun Safety. 

The figure is the highest recorded on average in a five-month period of the academic year since 2013, when the organization began the count.

These shootings left a balance of 26 dead and 96 wounded, the report states, adding that the majority of those who unleashed the shots, three out of four, obtained the weapon at home.

This has been by far the most violent first half of the school year in recent history

,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, which is part of Everytown. 

[Government Reaches Million Dollar Settlement With Relatives Of Parkland Shooting Victims]

Youth attend a vigil for the victims of a school shooting at LakePoint Community Church in Oxford, Mich., on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021.Paul Sancya/AP

Fifteen-year-old Jahmari Rice is one such victim: She was shot to death last week on her lunch break in a Minnesota school shooting.

“We are losing our babies,” Jahmari's father, Cortez Rice, said through tears Wednesday at his son's funeral, according to USA Today. 

His son loved sports and dreamed of playing football in the NFL.

Our babies should not have to go through this.

We shouldn't have to go through this

," he stated. 

New Everytown report focuses on shootings at K-12 schools, colleges and universities, including unintentional shootings, fights escalating to use of firearms, gun violence on school grounds, shootings at events sports and random and more.

The report comes days before the fourth anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

On Valentine's Day 2018, a former student entered the school's freshman building, firing more than 100 rounds over the course of six minutes, killing 17 students and staff members and injuring 17 others.

[“It was horrible,” says mother after learning of Arlington, Texas school shooting]

Sari Kaufman, a survivor of the massacre, told the EFE agency that "too often, legislators see the pain and trauma of survivors and do nothing."

Kaufman, 19, is now studying political science at Yale University and plans to continue advocating for gun control.

Two suspects arrested in shooting outside Richfield, Minnesota school

Feb. 2, 202200:21

Specialists also point out that without concrete measures, violent situations like these will continue to occur in school spaces.

“Without meaningful action from all levels of government, more students and teachers will be shot, more communities will be traumatized, and more children will spend their days worrying about gun violence,” Watts said.

The confessed author of the massacre in Parkland, the young Nikolas Cruz, pleaded guilty last year and awaits sentencing in a jail in South Florida.

The young man was 19 years old when he entered his old school armed with a rifle and carried out the massacre, an act for which he faces life in prison or the death penalty.

Cruz, who was expelled from the center for misconduct, has been detained since the attack and has had trouble in prison, where he got into a fight with a guard.

Data from another research group reveals trends similar to that indicated by Everytown, such as the so-called K-12 School Shooting Database.

This report indicates that there have been at least 190 incidents of shootings at K-12 schools since August.

During that time period, 171 people were killed or injured on school property;

the youngest was six years old. 

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The database, housed at the Naval Postgraduate School's Homeland Security and Defense Center, documents every instance in which a gun is brandished or fired or a bullet strikes school property for any reason.

"The number of incidents in this time period alone is four to eight times more than the full years in the database between 1970 and 2017," lead researcher David Riedman told USA Today. 

This year's incidents

have occurred across the country, in urban, suburban and rural areas

, with no specific region having a higher concentration of incidents.

"This is truly a national problem," Riedman said.

Gun violence has generally increased in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic.

More people died in the country from gun-related injuries in 2020 than in any other year on record, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than half were deaths by suicide.

[Survivors of Michigan shooting demand $100 million from school]

Children and adolescents have been particularly affected.

In 2020,

the number of children shot to death increased by more than a third

from the previous year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that uses a combination of police statistics and media reports.

Commotion in Los Angeles after the death of a 12-year-old boy in a shooting near a school

Dec 8, 202101:43

The increase has been maintained.

In 2021, more than 1,500 children were killed and more than 4,000 injured, according to the count.

And so far in 2022, more minors have been shot than in the same period last year.

Kaufman, a Parkland survivor, said she is planning an event on her college campus on Feb. 15 to commemorate her classmates and “talk about the importance of continuing to pass laws” to prevent future shootings.

Providing education on how to safely store firearms and giving clear guidelines for schools that choose to hold active shooter drills are key to reducing shootings, according to Everytown.

The group released initial school safety recommendations for the Joe Biden Administration earlier this year.

The recommendations also "direct the Justice Department to enforce laws that prevent underage students from purchasing firearms and continue to call for Congressional action to close loopholes in the background check law."

[The gun used in the Michigan school shooting was purchased a few days ago by the father of the young man arrested]

It was a Christmas present: four days before the Michigan shooting, the suspect's parents bought him the gun

Dec. 3, 202102:18

Everytown estimates that about half of gun owners do not store their guns safely, and

at least 5.4 million children live in a household with at least one unlocked, loaded firearm

[Parkland Massacre: Letters from Nikolas Cruz to a young woman revealed.

These are her confessions]

About 80% of people involved in mass shootings at K-12 schools stole firearms from family members, according to a recent report by the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-02-13

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