Half a century of school shootings like Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland



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A shootout Tuesday in a school in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, during which one student was killed and eight others injured, made comparisons with the 1999 attack on Columbine High School and the dozens of shootings that have occurred since.

According to a New York Times analysis, this is the fourth shooting in a school in the Denver area and at least one 111th in the country since 1970, the latest in a long series violent episodes that upset the country and traumatized generations. students.

The Times has examined hundreds of episodes in a database of shootings in elementary schools, colleges and high schools, to identify cases where, as in Highlands Ranch and Columbine, assailants had planned their attacks and fired indiscriminately.

Deaths and injuries in active shooter attacks on kindergarten to grade 12 schools since 1970




A member of the shooting champion team was fired

random targets from the windows

d & # 39; a New York High School.

A massacre Stockton,

California, elementary school brought to

First ban on the nation's weapons of assault.

Two students whose one shot a fire

alarm, shot at his classmates while they were running away

Arkansas College.

A shooter Santana High

School outside San Diego

carefully planned his

attack. The students heard

make him veiled threats

before the attack.

A total of 202 people were killed in these attacks and 454 were wounded, including the shooters. In 16 cases, shots were fired but no one was injured.

Last year was particularly violent: 29 people were killed and 48 wounded in three shootings in Parkland, Florida; Health Fe, Tex .; and Benton, Ky.

Shootings of this type are rare in relation to the vast world of gun violence in schools, but they are quite common for lockout exercises and "running, hiding, fighting" exercises to be part of the school. school experience throughout the country. Before Highlands Ranch, there was Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Before Marjory Stoneman Douglas, there was Sandy Hook. Before Sandy Hook, Columbine, and before Columbine, Cleveland Elementary in Stockton, California.

Active shooter attacks on schools every year




The School Shooting Database, compiled by the Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Defense and Homeland Security, is the most complete and detailed of its kind. The researchers sought to document all cases of firearms firing in K-12 schools since 1970 and recorded a total of more than 1,300 cases. The database does not include shootings on college campuses.

The Times analysis identified the 111 cases as defined by F.B.I. for an active shooter scenario, in which an assailant is actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people, on school grounds or inside school buildings. It excluded episodes corresponding to more typical patterns of gun violence, such as targeted attacks, gang shootings and suicides.

Places of attack of active shooters in schools since 1970




These events stunned much of the country and, in the case of the Parkland shooting, prompted a student-led national movement to tighten the country's gun laws. But they represent only a small fraction of episodes of gun violence committed by children in American schools.

Other cases might include a student showing a gun to friends in the hallway, accidentally unloading the weapon from a school resource officer or driving a roadshow. linked to a gang at a school bus stop.

"There are shootings in very rich and very poor counties that are taking place in very diverse and homogenous areas," said David Riedman, co-creator of the database.

Active shooters can attack anywhere, but a demographic analysis shows that they tend to have common traits. The majority of shooters were young white men or boys, many of whom were current or former students from schools where they opened fire.

Most shooters were white boys or young white men




Most shooters

were students or

old students

Most shooters

were students or

old students

Most shooters

were students or

old students

Some shooters followed a now familiar plan. Peter Langman, a psychologist who studies shooters in schools, said young assailants are particularly likely to find inspiration in previous events. "More than anyone, people cite Columbine's killers," Langman said.

This episode intensified the debate over armed violence that divided the country and pushed districts to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to "strengthen" schools against threats.

The shooting of the Highlands Ranch has similarly renewed old questions about access to firearms and how best to protect students from shootings. At a vigil for the victims on Wednesday, the Senegalese senator from Colorado criticized the country's gun laws.

Mr. Riedman, who spent hours browsing information and public records on hundreds of shootings to build the database, said that school safety measures should take into account not only incidents like Columbine, but also the many other ways that guns and schools can cross in America.

"These shootings were carried out by all kinds of people, from students to foreigners," Reidman said. "They have occurred in any part of the country and for almost every reason, making prevention very difficult. There is no simple or simple solution to this problem. "

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