America and the norm of school shootings

An artwork of a gun in a students school bag

I remember when the Columbine high school shooting took place I was glued to the news on the television when it first happened. This was a huge incident back in the 90’s as this was not something that happened on a regular basis and it was a tragedy that was unforeseen when two teens by the name of Dylan Klebold and Harris open fire in their high school carrying with them pipe bombs and guns. Their intentions on that day were to take as many lives as possible as they were pushed around and bullied by the popular kids in that school. I remember watching in disbelief as news channels were focusing on the events taking place in the school as it was happening in that very moment when they opened fire in the school. To this date, school shootings have become the new norm in America where students are taught to hide and take precaution on things to do when a school shooting happens instead of improving laws to either ban guns or to control the sales of guns in the country. But the surreal question that we are all wondering is how many school shootings have happened in America since then?

According to an article released by CNN.com they have released an article by Michelle Lou and Christina that states as many as 22 school shootings have taken place in this year alone. From across the country form the state of Georgia to big and popular states such as California and in various schools from elementary schools to college and university campuses.

According to the article released, since there is no proper way of identifying so they have a set of criteria’s that they follow by.

- The shooting must involve at least a singular person being shot (which does not include the shooter)

- The shooting must take place on a school property which is inclusive of buildings, athletic fields, parking lots, stadiums and buses.

- Includes accidental fire of firearms as long as the first two parameters are met however it does not include if the shooter is a law enforcement or security officer.

- It includes injuries sustained by BB guns, since it is considered potentially lethal by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

These are some of the heinous cases of school shooting among the list of places.

May 7th: Highlands Ranch, Colorado – Two Students were charged with murder and attempted murder at STEM School Highlands Ranch after one student was murdered and eight others were injured. One of them had told the police that he was targeting classmates who had bullied him.

May 17th: Jacksonville, Florida – A student was shot during a Spring football game at Terry Parker High School. The victim was rushed to the hospital with critical injuries but the police officers had made a statement saying that he was in stable condition.

July 2nd: Anchorage, Alaska – A 22-year-old shot a teenager at the basketball court of Williwaw Elementary school after a fight took place among a group of people according to authorities. The teenager was transported to the hospital with critical injuries but survived.

In other news abcnews.go.com released an article on the school shootings that have taken place since Columbine. It states that as many as 11 school shootings took place with as many as 32 casualties involved which was from the Virginia Tech shooting alone followed by Sandy hook with as many as 26 causalities which involves children. America has a gun control issue and it needs to be solved as soon as possible to avoid the killing of innocent people especially that of innocent and helpless children.

For future readings

- https://abcnews.go.com/US/11-mass-deadly-school-shootings-happened-columbine/story?id=62494128 - abcnews.com, 11 mass deadly school shootings that happened since Columbine, Meghan Keneally, 19th of April 2019

- dition.cnn.com/2019/05/08/us/school-shootings-us-2019-trnd/index.html?no-st=1565617701 - dilton.cnn.com, There have been 22 school shootings in the US so far this year, Michelle Lou and Christina Walker, 26th of July 2019