Now when I hear "we're sending our thoughts & prayers", I want to just throw up because the words ring hollow after almost 25 years of this. I understand the intent and the sincerity. But thoughts and prayers won't bring back the dead and do little to soothe the emotional pain and horrible loss to the families. We've been sending thoughts & prayers and filling the air with empty rhetoric since Columbine in 1999 and where has it gotten us? The shootings go on... and on... and on. It's a pathetic, sad and scary state of affairs when mass shootings, especially in schools become the norm and a part of our culture. But look around. Isn't that where we are?
The Washington Post reported that at least 554 children, educators, and school staff have been killed or injured in US school shootings since the 1999 Columbine High massacre. .
According to The Washington Post, the shootings all together have left 185 people dead and another 369 injured.
One of the deadliest attacks happened on Tuesday — an elementary shooting in Uvalde, Texas. At least 19 children and two adults have died from the assault, as of Tuesday night.
The Post wrote that 331 schools have suffered from such attacks since the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 when two students killed 13 people and injured 20 others.
The frequency of shootings has also surged recently, with 34 incidents in 2021 — the highest in any year since 1999, The Post reported.
Overall, an estimated 311,000 schoolchildren in the US have been affected by shootings or were exposed to gun violence at their school since the 1999 Columbine shooting, per The Post.
The outlet aggregated these numbers by analyzing news reports, open-source databases, law enforcement reports, and calls to schools and police departments, it said.
Its findings only count gunfire incidents that happened on campus immediately before, during, or just after classes, and do not include shootings at colleges or universities. It also excluded shootings after hours or accidental discharges where no one was hurt.
[
www.insider.com]