School shootings are at an increased rated in USA. Can you imagine that your kid has gone to school and you come to know that there is a shootout at your kids school, and there might be a probability that your kid is injured or is killed in it. Imagine the mental condition of the parents. We cannot imagine right. But, this is the brutal truth for the children and parents living in the USA. In this country you never know when a kid or a hijacker comes in with a gun and holds the kids captive. Let us know in detail about the statistical data of shootouts in the USA from the year 1999 to till date.
Analysis of School shootings in USA
After 1999, there has been a rise in the cases of shootings at school. This may be a single kid bringing the gun to kill his enemy or a mass shoot out by more kids. The first mass shootout was seen in 1999, where on April 20, 1999 Columbine high school, in Columbia, Louisiana so a mass shooting of 13 people and after that the perpetrators themselves committed suicide. The worst was at the Buell elementary school, in Mount Morris, Michigan, when a 6 year old brought a .32 caliber to the school and shot down a fellow student, a girl, after telling her that he did not like her and a 15 year old girl kid a boy just because he did not reply to her romantic advances.
There have been other instances of school shootings covered where on December 14, 2012 a 20 year old shot down and killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut. From the 26 members killed 20 were the school children aged between six and seven years old and six were adult staff members.
Another major shootout was observed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Feb 14 2018 where a 19 year old opened fire on students and staff killing 17 people, and injuring another 17 of them. Another shootout just occured two days back on 24th May 2022 where the gunman opened fire at the Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen young children and two adults lost their lives in this shootout. The 18 year old suspect had a handgun, an AR15 semi automatic rifle and high capacity magazines.
All the kids who act in this rash manner are under the age of 18 years or are even younger than that. The kids’ minds are really impressionable and we need to think that, from where do these kids get the idea of being so violent. Is it from the video games that they play or from their own surroundings? This is a thought that everyone should have and should be fast enough to find the solution to it.
According to the Washington post more than 3,11,000 students have observed shootings at school since the year of 1999 and at least 185 children and other people have been killed and 369 wounded. While the school shootings still continue to happen, there were 42 such incidents reported in 2021, and till now 24 such incidents have happened in 2022.This is an alarming figure and should raise the red flags of concern in the parents as well as the school authorities minds and prompt them to find the solution to it.
The source of the gun
In the cases where the source of the gun was determined, more than 85% of shooters had taken the gun from their own house. This shows the negligence of the adults. The adults should be aware of what their children are up to and what they are carrying in their backpacks to the school. This also shows us the importance of hiding a gun in plain sight at home, of which the kids are even not aware of. This type of storage is called the hidden gun storage. You can hide your furniture in plain sight under the bed, under a coffee table, behind the wall art and many other places. The parents should have the idea of hiding their guns in a place where a child cannot reach it and even more than that the parents should be friendly with their kids, notice the change in behavior of the kids and if needed take the kid to a therapist to solve his or her problems, and not let him get frustrated to this extent.
So, let us all help the next generation by taking the right decision of keeping the firearm at a safe place, where the kids do not have access and helping the kids with their behavior, to solve their issues to make USA schools a safer place for kids and teenagers.
