Mass Shootings Across America
Mass shootings in America are happening far, far too often. It seems like every few days we hear about another one happening at a school, a church, a nightclub. All places where the people there are just going about their lives, getting an education, having fun with friends. And then their life gets cut short because they were unlucky enough to be there when someone decided to open fire.
Experts are scrambling to find answers and a way to lessen the number of attacks. If we provided better access to mental health facilities, or even tried to reduce the stigma that seems to surround getting treatment for your mental health, would it help? Would the people that are behind these shootings actually seek out the help that is being offered? We have so many questions and unfortunately not enough answers.
The recent mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, CA was the 307th mass shooting in 2018. We were only 311 days into the year at that point. That is almost one mass shooting per day for the year. A complete list of the mass shootings this year has been compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, and can be found here. The deadliest ones can be seen below.
2018 has been the deadliest year for mass shootings by far. Between the years 2008 and 2017 there was a total of 204 mass shooting situations. This means that 2018 has had 50% more mass shootings in one year alone then compared to the 10 previous years altogether! These are some scary stats, hopefully 2019 doesn’t see the same giant increase in them. Below is a breakdown of the number of active shooter situations by state.
Many organizations and schools are now putting together active shooter plans in case the situations arises. Do you know what to do if someone starts opening fire near you? The 3 options you have include: Evade, Shelter and Barricade, or Fight and Counter-attack (which is the last resort if the first two aren’t possible).
What do you think our government needs to do to lessen these devastating tragedies that are occurring across our country?