Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Gunsmoke and Mirrors: Have there really been 74 school shooting since Newtown?

"Sure, Jimmy, technically it's not a
gun. But we'd still better get the
Hell outta here before they
add us to the list."
I randomly selected and investigated 10 of the alleged "74 school shootings since Newtown"--a claim that has been lighting up the Internet like tracer rounds. I came up with one shooting that actually fits the description of what we think of when we hear "school shooting"--a middle school student shot two other students in school on a school day. Here are the other nine incidents:
20. Two custodians shot by third custodian late at night.
23. Five-year-old brings loaded gun to school in his backpack and it discharges.
27.  A 19-year-old man kills himself in a high school parking lot on a Saturday.
28. Two teenagers get shot outside of their school after a fight broke out. Police say it was part of an ongoing dispute.
33. A football player is shot on a high school campus on a Sunday, presumably by someone from a rival team that they had had an altercation with.
37. Four gangbangers try to rob a teacher in a classroom at 7:00 p.m.
49. A high school girl is shot in the butt by a gang member she is acquainted with while standing in a school parking lot after a basketball game. She is refusing to cooperate.
54. A guy kills another man in his car parked in a school parking lot.
55. After a group of students is accosted by a gang outside an off-campus restaurant at 2:45 a.m., someone fired at the dorm building they lived in.
I don't fault people trying to draw attention to the issue of guns in schools. But generally speaking, you're not doing your cause any favors when you so obviously overstate the problem.


5 comments:

  1. Sounds like school campuses are the problem...

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  2. And another one: Raytown, MD. At about 10:40 am there was a shooting in the parking lot next to the Raytown Success Academy on 350 Highway. There is one person dead and one person in custody. The victim has not been identified, but is described as a black male. At present the police are investigating to determine if the person in custody was the shooter. No students were involved, no students were in danger and no school building was entered.

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  3. Thanks, Flack Op. Violence is unfortunately a part of life in the world. Those who use information such as that you clarify above to push an agenda (for what purpose, I do not know) are using psychological warfare on the rest of us. Thank you for investigating and offering the facts. BTW I notice that none of the "pins" in the map reference any of the relevant details of the incidents.

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  4. lol...media's effect has worked. I always thought school shooting was a shooting at a school, including non-students. I didn't know media had you guys up your standards of "school shooting" to be "students shooting more than one student to death." I really do mean it when I say I blame the media for that. Putting small twists on words twists the mind too (That, we are all guilty of falling for).

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  5. Richmond, VA- Student threatens to shoot ex-girlfriend's current boyfriend and then himself. School goes on lockdown and swat team comes. Student was never even at school and has access to no guns. (I was present during this situation, the ex-girlfriend is a very good friend of mine)

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