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Gun Violence in Schools: Statistics, Why, And Recommendations
On December 14, 2013, 20-year-old Adam Lanza massacred 20 children and 7 adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School (Barron, 2012). The doors were locked and visitors had to be buzzed in, but Lanza was able to overcome these barriers by shooting his way in. The guns came from her mother's house and she was later found shot dead, apparently by Lanza. After committing the massacre at Sandy Hook, Lanza committed suicide, thus robbing the nation of the possibility of learning why. This essay will examine the history of gun violence in U.S. schools and discuss current professional opinions about why these killings happen and how to stop them.
Historical Perspective
In 2010, Representative Donna Edwards (D-Md) reported that there had been 181 school shootings since the Columbine massacre in 1999. On April 20 of that year, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, 18- and 17-years old, respectively, walked into Columbine High School near Denver, Colorado and killed 12 fellow students and 1 teacher (Lamb, 2008). Their intent, based on what investigators had discovered, were to kill as many...
This plan went awry when propane bombs failed to explode in the school cafeteria. The Columbine massacre stood out historically because of the number killed and the degree of premeditation involved. Over the years since, the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 and the Sandy Hook massacre have been added to the Columbine shooting as reference points against which future shootings will be compared.
The figure of 181 school shootings reported by Rep. Edwards was inaccurate by a third, however. According the figures assembled by Fact Check, there have been 130 school shootings resulting in death and/or injury since Columbine (Farley, Robertson, and Kiely, 2012). A report issued recently by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) reveal how rare a school shooting is compared to other ways children and adolescents can die from gun violence (Brock, 2013). Of all gun-related homicides involving school aged children, less that 1% occur at schools. For example, the risk of being killed by a gun at school was 1 in 2.5 million during the 2009/2010 school year and the vast majority…
References
APA (American Psychological Association). (2013). Recommendations to prevent gun-related violence. Improve and expand school violence prevention efforts. American Psychological Association. Retrieved 20 Sep. 2013 from http://www.apa.org/about/gr/issues/violence/gun-related.aspx.
Barron, James. (2012, Dec. 15). Gunman massacres 20 children at school in Connecticut; 28 dead, including killer. New York Times, A1.
Brock, Stephen E. (2013). Youth gun violence fact sheet. National Association of School Psychologists. Retrieved 20 Sep. 2013 from www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/Youth_Gun_Violence_Fact_Sheet.pdf.
Brooks, David. (2004, Apr. 24). The Columbine killers. New York Times. Retrieved 20 Sep. 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/24/opinion/the-columbine-killers.html.
Farley, Robert, Robertson, Lori, and Kiely, Eugene. (2012, Dec. 21). Gun rhetoric vs. gun facts. FactCheck.org. Retrieved 20 Sep. 2013 from http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs.-gun-facts/.
Lamb, Gina. (2008, Apr. 17). Columbine High School. Times Topics, NYTimes.org. Retrieved 20 Sep. 2013 from http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/columbine_high_school/index.html.
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