How many school shootings this week?
howmanyschoolshootingsthisweek.com
howmanyschoolshootingsthisweek.com
https://www.britannica.com/topic/school-shooting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-455.pdf
I ask this in good faith: why does the definition have to be so specific? What is the problem with defining a "school shooting" as "a shooting that happened at a school"?
They are not thinking "drive-by gang shooting at 9pm that happens to be on or near school property". They're not even generally thinking "student kills another student after argument."
Labeling all of these categories (and more) with the same label leads to emotionally-driven political opinions and policies, which are often inappropriate and not proportional to the actual problem.
The definition has to be specific because the words "school shooting" mean different things, mentally and emotionally, to different people. Another commenter posted that "a weapon discharged in a school parking lot, at midnight" would count the same quantity as a Columbine. To me, those two events just aren't of the same gravity.
(to be clear, NO shootings in and around schools, involving children or otherwise, is the correct number of school shootings to have, in my opinion).
I, at least to align the definition with my take on the common thought process, need the definition to include schoolchildren in danger or harmed/worse. It's too ambiguous to include "oops i pulled the trigger aiming at the ground, on a weekend" in the same category as Columbine or similar tragedies.
If we want to get serious about solving the problem, it starts by quantifying the problem. Otherwise it isn't falsifiable, and is unscientific.
Lots of shootings happen in the parking lot at high school football games, one woman got shot outside an early learning center in a domestic dispute and that too is included as a "school shooting". There are many other incidents like these which are not what we know as "school shootings" but are included in some school shooting data sites.
The problem is serious enough and there is no need to add hype to it by using poor source data. All you do is create the opportunity for counter-arguments that have nothing to do with the actual issues.
If a "school shooting" happens outside a school when there are no children actually in school at the time (during vacation for example), how many children are actually affected?
If a shooting happens in a school parking lot at 3:00 am because two people decided to meet there for a drug deal and it went bad, is that really a school shooting?
If you want to go with a simplistic "it happened on school property", then maybe we should be tracking "grocery store shootings", "nail salon shootings" and "corner of 3rd avenue and West Isles street shootings"?
When the term "school shooting" is used it connotes something very serious that has an impact on parents and children alike, society in general has an idea of what is meant by "school shooting" and to ignore that to keep it simple, merely exacerbates the problem and like I said, opens up the opportunity for argument that distracts from the very serious nature of the issues at hand.
Also I'm not sure I would qualify the shooting in Texas as a school shooting. By that I mean in the U.S. the term in my mind means an act of terror targeting a school, however this seemed more like a grudge match where a gun was pulled.
I don't mean to take away from what you've built ExtraE, your effort and creativity are appreciated :)
As for Texas, this tracks school shootings, not mass shootings. A teacher was shot and injured, students barricaded doors, and it was on a school campus. I think that qualifies—- I would be terrified if that happened to me, wouldn’t you?
Well the violence did occur in a school, and the rest of the school reacted the way they were trained to when they hear gunshots. However I think that to share the same category as other events where students show up distinctly with the purpose of indiscriminate violence and bloodshed, is a bit of a stretch. We are simply disagreeing over Diction, therefore we are both correct :D
Also yes I would be beyond terrified I believe, however I'm not sure that relates to your assertion.
Anyway, this is "a shooting at a school" so I think by definition that makes it a school shooting, no?
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2021/10/07/gun-alert-at-kortrij...
Edit: done.
Also perhaps show how many people were killed.