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.

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

      He also accidentally admitted that private gun ownership does nothing to prevent violent crime, given that “violent crime rates are comparable” between America and countries that don’t let insane death cults write their laws.

      He tried to walk it back saying “actually the other countries are worse” but a quick look at the figures show they’re all within a few percent for things like rape and assault, until you get to America with its 400% higher homicide rate.

      Some of that isn’t even well hidden, with “robbery” being included in his list of violent crimes, despite the low number of people killed during property thefts in Australia and the U.K.