It’s sad because every time we go on the internet these days, there seems to be a tragic story about another gunman and another shooting. Seeing the articles, pictures, and videos of the stories isn’t something I would like to see when I open up my CNN app on my phone, trying to catch up on the news. As President Obama mentioned in his last statement regarding the Oregon college shooting: “We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.”
America is one of the only advanced countries in the world to have such terrifying facts about its past in regards to shootings. Ever since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, one of the deadliest shootings on campus, there have been at least 990 mass shootings, with shooters killing at least 1,249 people and wounding 3,576 more. Sandy Hook occurred in 2012. It has been only 3 years. These counts come from the Mass Shootings Tracker, a database that has tracked down shootings since 2012. Another statistic taken from UN data compiled by the Guardian’s Simon Rogers, shows that the US had 29.7 firearm homicides per 1 million people in 2012, while Switzerland had 7.7, Canada had 5.1, and Germany had 1.9. Giving numerical statistics will only show facts about guns and shootings, but they don’t show the feelings Americans have come to face regarding these violence and shootings. Following President Obama’s speech, he also mentioned: “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine. The conversation in the aftermath of it. We’ve become numb to this.”
Have we become numb? This is a list of the past mass school shootings for us to recollect and remember. One that hits very close to home, the Isla Vista shooting, is included as well.
Virginia Tech: April 16, 2007
Gunman Seung-Hui Cho, 23, kills two people in a dormitory on the Blacksburg, Va., campus. A few hours later, Cho enters an academic building and kills 30 more people and himself. It remains the deadliest U.S. shooting to date.
Northern Illinois University: February 14, 2008
Shooter Steven Kazmierczak, 27, enters a lecture hall on the university campus in DeKalb, Ill., and kills five students and wounds 18 others before taking his own life.
University of Central Arkansas: October 26, 2008
Two students, Ryan Henderson, 18, and Chavares Block, 19, are killed in a shooting carried out by four men at the Conway, Ark., campus.
Chardon High School: February 27, 2012
Three students are killed after T.J. Lane, 17, opens fire inside the cafeteria of the Chardon, Ohio, school.
Sandy Hook Elementary School: December 14, 2012
Adam Lanza, 20, shoots and kills his mother, Nancy, in their home before driving to Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. He then kills 26 people at the school, 20 of whom are first-graders, before shooting and killing himself.
Santa Monica College: June 7, 2013
Gunman John Zawahri, 23, kills his father and brother and sets their home on fire before going to the college campus in Santa Monica, Calif.. There, he randomly shoots at cars, killing three more and wounding others before he is killed by police.
Sparks Middle School: October 21, 2013
Jose Reyes, a middle school student, shot and killed a teacher and injured two students in Sparks, Nev., before taking his own life.
Arapahoe High School: December 13, 2013
Karl Pierson, 18, shoots student Claire Davis, 17, in the head at point-blank range in their school in Littleton, Colo. Pierson then kills himself. Davis is hospitalized and dies eight days later. The incident occurred in the same town where the 1999 Columbine school shooting took place.
University of California, Santa Barbara: May 23, 2014
Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara, before committing suicide in Isla Vista.
Seattle Pacific University: June 5, 2014
Aaron R. Ybarra, 26, is taken into custody after a shooting on the campus of Seattle Pacific University that leaves one man in his 20s dead and three others injured. The call to 911 comes in at 3:23 p.m. from Otto Miller Hall, after the shooter is pepper-sprayed and pinned down by a student guard.
Florida State University: November 20, 2014
A least three people are injured after being shot at the Florida State University library before campus police shoot and kill the gunman, according to Tallahassee police.
Wisconsin Lutheran High School: January 15, 2015
Three people, including a 15 year old boy, were injured in a shooting in a school parking lot following a high school basketball game. Michael Riley, 37, was charged for the shooting.
Frederick High School, Frederick MD.: February 4, 2015
Two teenage students were shot outside Frederick High School while a boys basketball game went on inside. One victim was shot in the leg and the other in the back; the boys were only 14 and 15 years old. Two men, ages 19 and 21, were arrested and charged for the shooting.
Wayne Community College, Goldsboro NC.: April 13, 2015
A faculty member named Ron Lane, 44, was shot in the head and killed on campus by a former work-study student. A 23-year-old shooter was charged and claimed that Lane deserved to die because he was gay.
Wichita State University: August 8, 2015
A 23-year-old student was shot and killed outside a campus dorm building. Two suspects were arrested on first degree murder. The shooting was apparently not a random act.
Umpqua Community College: October 1, 2015
Nine people, including 5 between ages 18 and 20 years old, were shot and killed on the Umpqua Community College campus by 26-year-old Christopher Harper-Mercer. Nine other people wre injured in the mass shooting. Harper-Mercer, who shot and killed himself, reportedly brought six guns with him to campus.
Northern Arizona University: October 9, 2015
A Northern Arizona University student was killed and three other students were injured in a shooting on campus. The shooting happened outside a dormitory and the shooter was an 18 year old freshman was charged with first account murder three accounts felony aggravated assault.
Texas Southern University: October 9, 2015
An 18-year-old student was killed and another was injured in a shooting on the campus housing complex. Police arrested two suspects in connection with the shooting.
Note: I left out a lot of shootings that occured between the Virgina Tech shooting till now. There were many more school shootings and off-campus related shootings.
This was what Obama was talking about. Writing this article left me in awe on how frequent these shootings were on campuses. Campuses that were viewed by students to be a safe haven – a place of education and a communty that was secure. Hopefully this is a reminder of how much of a problem this is in this country, and will bring us to enact a change about it. Our prayers go out to any family members or friends who have lost someone.