Since the earth-shaking Columbine shooting of 1999, more than 25,300 students had gunfire incidents at their school. 94 people were shot and 33 people were killed in 2018. Over 220,000 students have experienced gun violence at school. This number is bananas! What is it about America that there is so much gun violence in schools? Is that there is so much gun violence in America period? The total incidents of gun violence surpassed 50,000, leading to more than 13,000 deaths, according to a nonprofit organization that tracks gun violence.
The Washington Post analyzed 31 of the biggest cities in the country and released some startling statistics; More than 6,200 lockdowns took place and 61 percent of those lockdowns were related to firearms. Sixteen campuses were shut down on an average day. These numbers are probably actually even higher due to The Post only covering 31 cities. The Post also included in their report a striking detail “Many school districts—including in Detroit and Chicago—do not track them and hundreds never make the news, particularly when they happen at urban schools attended primarily by children of color.”
Unfortunately, gun violence today is as American as apple pie or Chevrolet. Did you know that according to The Gun Violence Archive, there are eleven murder-suicides by firearms on average per week in America? That’s more than one a day and that’s one too many if you ask me. Here’s another scary statistic, the ratio of American kids killed by guns versus the number of American kids killed by cancer is 2:1. According to a new analysis at the University of Michigan Injury Prevention,  the United States’ rate of gun death among children is 36.5 times the overall rate that is in other high-income countries. A further look into the American figures shows us that gun violence claims more adolescent lives annually than cancer. The top death among children is car wrecks, but the gap is shrinking between that and gun deaths. Since 2017, vehicular deaths are dropping and gun deaths are on the rise. Gun control is a major issue here in America and is the leading issue that’s getting young people out and voting, but I think we’d all prefer that there were zero gun deaths and kids didn’t vote as much, it’s sad that mass shootings are what wake us up enough to vote.
