Many Americans think of school shootings as mass casualty events involving an adolescent with an assault-style weapon. But a new study says that most recent school shootings orchestrated by teenagers do not fit that image — and they are often related to community violence.

The study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, analyzed 253 school shootings carried out by 262 adolescents in the US between 1990 and 2016.

It found that these adolescents were responsible for only a handful of mass casualty shootings, defined as those involving four or more gunshot fatalities. About half of the shootings analyzed — 119 — involved at least one death. Among the events, seven killed four or more people.

A majority of the shootings analyzed also involved handguns rather than assault rifles or shotguns, and they were often the result of “interpersonal disputes,” according to the researchers from University of South Carolina and University of Florida.

    • gregorum@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      But that doesn’t remove the impetus for violence. Preventing school violence requires more than simply removing the weapons for violence.

      • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Sure, but there’s still a difference between school violence with guns and school violence with fists

        • gregorum@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Typically, the opportunity to get a gun. But the violence that motivates either is typically the same. That’s why school violence prevention is, itself, typically the same, regardless of how it may end.

          • farcaster@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            “My son got beat up in school today”

            “My son got shot and killed in school today”

            It’s the guns. It’s always been the guns. And that’s why this country is uniquely dealing with this problem. It’s not hard to see it, unless you don’t want to.

            • gregorum@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Stopping violence before either of those things happens is the point. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather neither of those happen. 

              Taking the nihilist and defeatist attitude that one of those must happen, and therefore we must settle for it with half-measures meant only to prevent the other is bullshit. 

              • farcaster@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                Restricting access to guns is specifically achievable (see also: most of the rest of the world) and would save many lives.

                In tandem, sure let’s work on preventing violence in general. I’m all in favor, but achieving this semi-utopian goal seems far more challenging.

                • gregorum@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  Nobody said it wouldn’t be difficult, but it’s better than putting up with a bullied child— or a dead one.

                  Schools should be safe spaces for children to learn, not battlefields to navigate.

                  • farcaster@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    1
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Then restrict gun ownership. It’s the most rational action which can be taken to stop American classrooms being stained by blood.

                    But… I know I am just venting. I know this isn’t going to happen. Millions of Americans are demonstrably fine with other people losing their little girl or boy, their small bodies torn apart by bullets, just so they can have a gun for whatever reason. It’s just the way it is, sadly.

    • Occamsrazer@lemdro.id
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      It might partially solve for it, by reducing severity of these acts, but guns are really just a means to violence. There are plenty of other ways to enact violence if that’s what you want to do.

      • gregorum@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The fact that guns are easy to get, easy to use, and are a means to extreme, and usually fatal violence is a huge factor to consider in the increase in the violence they contribute to.  Not all weapons are created equal, and the type of weapon they are cannot be weighed equally to other weapons when calculating how each type of weapon contributes to violence. And especially considering the fact that most lethal violence that is committed is committed with a gun. 

    • interceder270@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      No, that’s just a distraction the ruling class throws at us to prevent us from addressing the real issue: the disparity in wealth.

          • farcaster@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I know. It’s still way better than the US. Because guns are a bigger factor than wealth disparity, mental health care, social homogeneity, or anything else which is typically pointed to by people who value their access to guns more than other’s lives.

        • gregorum@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Are you asserting that school shootings are caused by wealth inequality? Do you have any data to back that up? 

          • farcaster@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            No the person I’m replying to is.

            While it may be a factor, I’m pointing out America is by no means unique in having these problems, such as wealth inequality. In fact all the problems so often touted as the cause for gun violence are not unique to America. The main exception is the incredible proliferation of guns and the lax regulations surrounding them.

            But many Americans love their guns, as long as they don’t have to pay the price in blood for it, they’ll continue blaming other factors…