Bringing this topic up in the context of the latest school shooting in Wisconsin
Article with some data for 2024: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-17/us-school-shootings-2024-in-numbers/104734714
Not a parent, but I’ll speak for my Asian-American parents.
The policy is: “You must go to school even if you have Covid, either you are buried or your are at school.” (meaning: if you aren’t dead, you have to go to school)
“Classmates have bullet wounds? That’s your internship for being a doctor!” (/s they didn’t actually say this part, obviously, but it’s implied)
Edit: I’m no longer in school, my college plans are on pause due to depression.
I worry about it every time I hear about another shooting. So basically constantly.
I try to tell myself that it’s unlikely, or we live in a place it couldn’t possibly happen…which is all BS and I know it.
I just have to hope it’s something I’ll never have to deal with. If I was truly that concerned, I’d have to home school, and that’s just not going to happen. So it’s basically a low level of constant dread, and it’s disgusting that this is where we’re at here, because no one wants to face the facts and actually do anything about problem.
My child is 3. I’m terrified to send him. I’m scared of shootings, and I’m afraid of bullying like I faced (we’re autistic). But I also don’t want to cower in fear and homeschool him because he needs socialization, and it’s not feasible for us because I’m a single parent
I wanted to comment that car crashes are probably a more common death cause for children than school shootings, and while this might still be true, apparently gun related deaths are the largest cause of death among US children with motor vehicle crashes coming in close second. Really sad considering both causes have pretty easy fixes if the government is willing to do something about it.
As long as people are pointing their guns at each other instead of billionaires the government has no reason to care.
Remember this. The job of the government isn’t to keep YOU safe. It’s to keep the people in order. They are there to prevent civil disorder. And most importantly they are there to insulate the rich from the poor.
Working as designed.
The vast majority of those gun related deaths are accidents with parents’ guns at home. School shootings are obviously much more prevalent here than elsewhere but they are still exceedingly rare, with perceived frequency amplified by the level of news coverage and the size of the country. I have two kids and feel strongly that parents spending any real thought worrying about school shootings (on a personal level, I mean, not a political one) is wasting their time. The cumulative effect of it probably makes schools worse
The vast majority of those gun related deaths are accidents with parents’ guns at home.
That really depend on the age of the child in question. According to the statistics as they get older it really tilts to suicide and criminal / gang violence.
The biggest step parents can take to prevent all of it though is pretty simple; secure your firearms so that children cannot access them.
Just being in the regions of multiple mass shootings over my life does change what I do with my family. If we go to an event we usually go at opening and leave early. Went to a Xmas tree lighting with 60k others and kept to the outside as the middle had nowhere to go.
