• sudo22@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This article is using an overly broad definition of school shooting to make the situation appear as if is worsening in America as opposed to improving.

    “The report defines a school shooting as an incident where “a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time of day, or day of week.”” & “Shootings that occurred during the COVID pandemic “on school property during remote instruction” were within that definition, the report noted.”

    This is a redicuilusly broad definition that inflates the numbers of shootings without indicating how many victims there are.

    Using the study referenced in the article you can clearly see a reduction in the average number of deaths of “youth[s] ages 5-18 at school” from 1992 to 2020. Scroll down to the line graph on the study and filter out suicides (the trend line is less clear there and needs a separate discussion).

    The article even sort of acknowledges this downward trend when it says “interpret these data with caution” given that latest figures are “outliers compared to prior years.”"

    I’m not saying this to pretend everything is fine and nothing needs to change. No its the opposite, something IS reducing the number of deaths and we need to isolate what it is and do it more. And its not gun control laws getting tighter. 1994 saw the advant for the American Assault Weapon ban and gun laws were arguably the tightest they’ve ever been in the US. Gun laws in the nation have only loosened since then such as: Permit-less concealled carry is in 26/50 states, all states are now shall issue CCL, and the AWB ended.