You know, one thing that I would love to look at data for, or just get opinions on, why are most shootings in schools ocurring in the U.S.?
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html
This link has a timeline for the last 12 years in school shootings.
There have been 53 school shootings (K-12; college) in the last 12 years.
11 of them were outside the United States.
Statistically that means that roughly 80% (the exact number is 79.24%) of the school shootings have been in the United States.
Of the 33 shootings in the U.S., 33 were committed by males, 2 were committed by females and the remaining 9 were unknown (at least the website doesn't have the sex listed, or the name).
Why do we think this is?
Me personally, the video games and violence.
Video Games- they have become increasingly violent over the course of the years. Too many of my 3rd graders go home from school and the tv "babysits" them until mom and/or dad comes home.
Violence- this can come from violence in video games, violence in movies. You'd be shocked to know that probably half of my 3rd grade class (and I only have 16 students) have seen Saw. Violence can also be from the area the kids live in. For example, I work in an area that is known for gang activity. We've got gang members at school. It is a very real thing for some of these kids. If you are "breed" to see violence from a young age, it's not going to effect you.
Violence can also be the form of peer violence, bullying. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were the perfect canidates for anti-bullying campaigns. Not that them shooting up the school was an appropriate method for them to deal with the bullying issues, but they were teenagers and teenagers are emotional and don't think rationally, to them shooting up the school, and "getting back" at the bullies, was the last resort.
Now, more recently, we are seeing shooters who aren't quite mentally sane.
I mean as a society, we need to figure out a way to fix this. I find it throughly depressing (the stats that I stated earlier). Even though I work at an elementary school, don't think that the thought of violence doesn't cross my mind every day, but I also realize that I have a job to do and I can't live in fear.
What would some of y'all offer as solutions?