Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

5-MINUTE EXPERT:

Another year, more shootings: An overview of gun violence in the U.S.

Parkland

John McCall / South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP

Students released from a lockdown are overcome with emotion following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018.

All gun-related incidences in 2018 so far

• 7,401 gun-related incidences

• 2,043 gun-related deaths

• 395 teens killed or injured

• 77 children (ages 0-11) killed or injured

Four months removed from the worst mass shooting in modern American history—which struck Las Vegas on Oct. 1—Parkland, Florida, is reeling after a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

A day later, Clark County School District Police sent out alerts to parents outlining the training, drills and precautions occurring at local schools, and encouraging students to report suspicious activities. Capt. Ken Young noted that the School District was in the process of implementing “a system that will allow staff members to initiate hard lockdowns for the entire school from their classroom.”

CNN reports that the Parkland, Florida, massacre in which 17 students and staff lost their lives, was the eighth school shooting of the year. The network’s parameters dictate the gunfire must go off on school grounds, because of violence such as domestic, gang affiliation and fights.

This includes the late January shooting in a Benton, Kentucky, high school, where a teenage student opened fire, shooting 16 people, killing two students.

2018 school-related shootings

Depending on your news outlet of choice, 2018’s total number of school shootings varies based on the way a source defines a school shooting. There have been about 17 total incidences of firing a weapon on or near school property as of press time. However, some occurrences were after hours, unintentional firings, suicide attempts or otherwise. Not all events have been what we think of as intentional school shootings.

4 years of mass shootings

The definition of mass shooting has conflicting standards. According to the FBI, a mass shooting is when four or more victims have been slain in a single event at one location. Gun Violence Archive—an online database that uses media, authorities and “commercial sources”— defines mass shootings as incidents in which four or more people are wounded by gunfire. By the archive’s definition and current data, there were 33 incidents across the U.S. from Jan. 1 to Feb. 18, leaving 60 dead and another 139 wounded, including the shooters. Here’s a look at mass shootings from 2014 to 2018, and the number of individuals killed.

What's being done?

Following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, survivors called for gun regulation, launching the #neveragain movement and the “March for Our Lives” event in Washington, D.C., which will take place March 24 at 10 a.m. Celebrities such as George and Amal Clooney have committed to marching with students and have donated $500,000 to the cause. The rally hopes to inspire legislation that will help prevent gun violence in the future. President Donald Trump recently stated he is “open” to discussing tighter gun restrictions.

Lowlights of the past 2 1/2 years

• Oct. 1, 2015: 10 killed, 7 injured at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, OR. Student Chris Harper Mercer, 26, shot an assistant professor and students, then turned the gun on himself.

• Dec. 2, 2015: 16 killed, 17+ injured in San Bernardino, CA. Couple Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik fired into a gathering of county employees. They were later killed in a shootout with police.

• June 12, 2016: 50 killed, 53 injured at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL. Omar Mateen, 29, opened fire inside an LGBT nightclub. He was shot and killed by police.

• Oct. 1, 2017: 59 killed, 520+ injured at Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas. Stephen Paddock, 64, fired onto a crowd from the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot.

• Nov. 5, 2017: 27 killed, 20 injured at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Spring, TX. Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, opened fire during Sunday service and died of a self-inflicted gunshot.

• Feb. 14: 17 killed, 15 injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. Nikolas Jacob Cruz, 19, is accused of shooting into classrooms and was taken into custody shortly after leaving the scene, having temporarily escaped by blending in with fleeing students.

This story originally appeared in the Las Vegas Weekly.