Staggering shooting statistics

Americans are still reeling after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida that killed 17 people and injured 15 more. While the event was one of the world’s deadliest school massacres, there are dozens of school shootings that have occurred throughout the years. Below are statistics of school and mass shootings that have occurred within the United states over the last 14 months.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit organization dedicated to tracking school and mass shootings, a school shooting is defined as, “an episode on the property of an elementary school, secondary school or college campus.” They also must, “occur during school hours or during extracurricular activities.” Using that definition, there have been 239 school shootings since 2013, with 88 school shootings between 2017 and 2018. Of the 239 shootings, 16 can be classified as mass shootings.   

Mass shootings are defined as a shooting where four or more people are killed or injured. In 2017 alone, there were 345 recorded mass shootings resulting in 14,000 deaths and over 29,000 people were injured. Two of the deadliest five mass shootings in American history occurred last year. Some of the most memorialized incidents include the Las Vegas shooting which killed 58 people and injured more than 500 and the Texas church shooting that killed 26 churchgoers. Less than two months into 2018  there have already been 46 mass shootings that have claimed the lives of 93 people.  

School and mass shootings have always been a dark part of America’s history, but until the early 2000s they didn’t have the publicity. That all changed with the Columbine high school shooting that took place on April 20, 1999. Two teens killed 13 people and wounded over 20. Columbine was the event that brought national attention to the issues of school and mass shootings. This coming April students across the nation are planning to walk out of school in order to honor the victims of the Columbine and Florida school shootings as well as to advocate for stronger gun control legislation.

The number of shootings are on the rise, with less time passing between each new event. More and more people are starting to come together to try to put an end to this trend before additional innocent lives are taken away.