On average about fifty-six million people die per year, 4,679,452 people die each month, 153,424 people lose their lives every day, 6,392 lives are cut short hourly, 106 people die in the time it takes to tie one’s shoes, and one person dies in the blink of an eye.(World Death Clock). Yet compared to the underestimated 7 billion people on Earth those death rates are insignificant. Now compare the estimated number of people who have died in a mass shooting or massacre, like the one at Virginia Tech in 2007 that killed 33 people (including the gunman); according to USA Today the number of mass shooting deaths in the past seven years, as of December 2013, is about 934 and that’s not including any deaths from before 2006 or after 2013. (Mass Shootins). If we account for that gap by adding another few hundred since the shooting at Columbine, when the data became more readily collected an accessible, the number could be anywhere from one to two thousand. The estimated one to two thousand lives, even if they are human, become specs when put up against the number of people who die on a daily basis, especially so in terms of the amount of lives that are lost every month and year. However, we don’t hear about the millions of other people who died throughout the year. One can only ask, why? Are the other 55 million people less important? Were their deaths just not notable enough, or did no one care about them? There is a story behind every death, so is one form of death more memorable than the others? How does the death of a college student compare to the death of a soldier who died in the line of duty? Most people would agree that the soldiers who die in war are more important to our country and way of life, but we as a society choose to ... ... middle of paper ... ...un. 2013: 12. Social Work Today. Web. 8 May 2014. "Mass shootings toll exceeds 900 in past seven years." USA Today. Gannett, 2 Dec. 2013. Web. 5 May 2014. Muschert, Glenn. "Research in School Shootings." Sociology Compass. N.p., 18 July 2007. Web. 4 May 2014. "Seung-Hui Cho Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 3 May 2014. Toppo, Greg. "10 years later, the real story behind Columbine - USATODAY.com." 10 years later, the real story behind Columbine - USATODAY.com. USA Today, 14 Apr. 2009. Web. 3 May 2014. Wian, Casey, Jim Spellman, and Michael Pearson. "New details emerge in hearing for Colorado theater shooting suspect." CNN Justice. Cable News Network, 8 Jan. 2013. Web. 5 May 2014. "World Death Clock." Medindia. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 May 2014. "Worst U.S. shooting ever kills 33 on Va. campus." msnbc.com. NBC News, 17 Apr. 2007. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Unlike most of the country, I knew about Columbine High School on April 19, 1999. I knew that the Columbine Rebels had a good football team, I remembered how they beat Cherry Creek for the 1999 football championship. I knew what Columbine's building was like from when I was inside it in January for a debate tournament. I had friends that went to CHS. We had gone on a trip to Hawaii together to learn about biology. The rest of the country found out about Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. They didn't hear about their football team, the debate tournament they hosted, or my friends, though; they heard about two angry students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, that went on a killing rampage killing 12 other students, a teacher, and themselves. The nation, the media, the killers, my friends, and me all have their own view of what happened that day. Many people tried to understand how something so terrible could happen, while the killers thought that the killings were a wonderful thing, and still other students were trying to comprehend that this tragedy had actually happened so close to home.
Public mass shootings have increased at an alarming rate over the past three decades and have become a growing concern for the people of the United States. It has appeared that approximately every few months, media outlets report incidences of tragedy involving a sole gunman targeting groups of people with the intent to harm or extinguish life due to various motives. Recent research data indicated that over 80 public mass shootings have occurred in the United States since 1983. Some of the more recent shootings to date are: Marysville-Pilchick High in October 2014; Santa Barbara, California in May 2014; Fort Hood, Texas U.S. Army base in April 2014; Washington Navy Yard in September 2013; Sandy Hook Elementary, Connecticut in December 2012;
On December 14th 2012, just 11 days before Christmas, an awful tragedy happened in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people were shot at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. This awful event left a lot of unanswered questions and rumors about that day. The reason for that is because the shooter killed himself after shooting twenty young children and six adults. This tragedy open the eyes of everyone; made you want to hug your loves one just a little tighter, appreciate what you still have and never take a day for granted. Even our president Barack Obama felt the pain of all those who lost their loved ones in this event. He insured everyone that he will do everything in his power to make sure a tragedy like this will not happen again. However, did you know that there have been over 44 school shootings since the tragedy of Sandy Hook Elementary shooting? I know as a future teacher and mother I want to make sure my children are safe in this world and even at school. I want to be able to make a difference in this issue and have some knowledge to have I can do that. The society should understand what really happen during the Sandy Hook event, the reasons behind why school shootings/violence are rapidly increasing each year, and have some knowledge about what we, as a society, can do to help in order for us to start seeing a decrease of these events.
The history of school shootings has shown an increase in mass school shooting. The very first known school shooting in the United States occurred on July 26, 1764 in present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania. As part of the Pontiac's Rebellion, four Lenape Native Americans entered the school house and started shooting, killing the schoolmaster Enoch Brown and about nine students. Only two students survived the massacre (“History”). Since the 1700s the United States society has changed in many ways. Schools have become more than just one room school houses and each grade has its own teacher. Furthermore, the problem of school shootings has not decreased but rather increased over the years. On the one hand, reports from the Centers for Disease Control showed that in general school violence decreased from 1992 to 200...
School shootings seemed like a new phenomenon, but they occurred for the majority of American history. The first school shooting occurred On July 26, 1764, when a Lenape Indian shot and killed nine children and the school master of the Greencastle, Pennsylvania school (Galvin): as noted in Appendix A. Since 1764, the number of school shootings rose exponentially. In the 1990’s, eighty-six school shootings occurred and between 2000 and 2014, 110 shootings transpired since 2000 (Killam,2008). The development of semiautomatic weapons lead to an increase in deaths. A study conducted in 1990 found through the years of 1986 to 1990; 71 people died, 201 wounded, and 242 people held hostage by school shooters(Galvin). While the area a school serves as one factor in the number of violent acts committed per year, school shootings have not been connected to this. The schools in Chicago dealt with more violent acts, but Sandy Hook Elementary, a small city school had relatively few violent acts committed by students.
Davey, Monica. "Strict Gun Laws in Chicago Can’t Stem Fatal Shots." New York Times30 Jan.
It is a sad time in American history when one can easily recount recent school shootings in their own area. This ease stems from a sharp increase in the number of firearms brought into elementary and middle schools across the country, with an intense focus on the issue beginning after the shooting of 20 children from Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Most school shooters are male, white, and often upper middle class. They are also more, often than not, under some type of mental stress that is causing them to create this type of violence in our communities. In fact, many school shooters are never suspected of doing any harm to their peers and teachers until it is much too late.
Library, CNN. 2013. “25 Deadliest Mass Shootings In U.S. History Fast Facts.” November 22. http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/16/us/20-deadliest-mass-shootings-in-u-s-history-fast-facts/ (November 22, 2013).
(2002). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from Illinois: http://www.illinois.gov/ready/plan/Documents/PreventingSchoolShootingsSecretService.pdf School Violence: Data & Statistics. (2013, February 22). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/schoolviolence/data_stats.html Inc., P. E. (2012). Timeline of Worldwide School and Mass Shootings.
"Shootings Costing U.S. $174 Billion Show Burden of Gun Violence." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.
School shootings have altered American history greatly over the past two decades. From 1997 to 2007, there have been more than 40 school shootings, resulting in over 70 deaths and many more injuries. School shoot-outs have been increasing in number dramatically in the past 20 years. There are no boundaries as to how old the child would be, or how many people they may kill or injure. At Mount Morris Township, Michigan, on February 29th, 2000, there was a 6 year old boy who shot and killed another 6 year old girl at the Buell Elementary School with a .32 caliber pistol. And although many shootings have occurred at High Schools or Middle Schools, having more guns on those campuses would not be a good environment for children to grow up in. However, on a college campus, the pupils attending are not children anymore; the age range is from 17 to mid 20’s. Therefore they understand the consequences associated to the use of weapons and have gained more maturity. In April 16th, 2007, at Blacksburg, Virginia, there was a shooting rampage enacted by Sung-Hui Cho (23 years, from Centreville, VA) who fired over 170 rounds, killing 32 victims, before taking his own life at the Virginia Tech campus. Colleges and Universities would be a much safer place, for student and teacher, if guns were permitted on campus for self-defense purposes.
Ochberg, Frank. “Why Does America Lead the World in School Shootings?” February 28, 2012. 2012
“That could never happen in my school.” This is one of the first thoughts that goes through a students mind when they hear about a school shooting. The fact is though, it can. School shootings can happen at any school at any time. Lack of security is only a small part of the problem. The major issue lies in the low morality of students and warning signs overlooked by administration.
With the media shining so much light upon this topic, it is evident that mass murders in the United States of America are more frequent and deadly. In fact, studies have found that the USA has more mass public shootings than any other country (Christensen). These numbers have only been increasing in the past decades. This is shocking because the USA holds only 5 percent of the world’s population, but as a nation, contributes to 31 percent of mass murders (Christensen). Although these murders continue to be a rare phenomenon, weak gun laws, the need for fame, and issues with societal views are the main causes of the increase in cases.
There are many issues with mass shootings and gun violence that has taken a huge toll on families and communities throughout the US. Just in this year alone there have already been two hundred and ninety-four mass shootings in just two hundred and seventy-four days (U.S. Deaths.) The problem with mass shootings is that there are many, many lives that have been taken too early. According to The Gun Violence Archive, there have been over forty-five thousand incidents that have caused a fatality or an injury to an innocent American (Gun Violence.) When gun violence causes death it’s a tragic thing for the family, but it’s also hard on the community. Many people know