12 Things You Need To Know About Gun Violence
6. School Shooting Numbers Are Skewed
Though “School Shooting” brings to mind an event like Columbine or recent news, there are many organizations “tracking” these shootings and listing them online. They produce interesting and questionable memes about “74 shootings since Newtown” while sticking to the broadest possible definitions to boost their numbers.
“Everytown for Gun Safety” is one such organization:
“Everytown identifies a school shooting as any instance in which a firearm was discharged within a school building or on school grounds, sourced to multiple news reports per incident. Therefore, the data isn’t limited to mass shootings like Newtown—it includes assaults, homicides, suicides and even accidental shootings.” (Quote from the Washington Post)
School shootings do not equal mass shootings.
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