Many Americans think of school shootings as mass casualty events involving an adolescent with an assault-style weapon. But a new study says that most recent school shootings orchestrated by teenagers do not fit that image — and they are often related to community violence.

The study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, analyzed 253 school shootings carried out by 262 adolescents in the US between 1990 and 2016.

It found that these adolescents were responsible for only a handful of mass casualty shootings, defined as those involving four or more gunshot fatalities. About half of the shootings analyzed — 119 — involved at least one death. Among the events, seven killed four or more people.

A majority of the shootings analyzed also involved handguns rather than assault rifles or shotguns, and they were often the result of “interpersonal disputes,” according to the researchers from University of South Carolina and University of Florida.

  • pgp@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    So if it’s not a mass shooting, we should be fine with it, that’s the angle?

    • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      An example from the article:

      Sathya, who was not involved in the new study, says it is important to highlight the difference between a mass shooting at a school and a school shooting brought on by community violence because the perpetrators often look different and are committing these acts of violence for different reasons. Therefore, the respective solutions look very different, as well.

      • BURN@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So basically “black people commit more violence” is what this is trying to say.

        What a useless, trashy, racist article

        • interceder270@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Basically, white incels aren’t the main contributors to school shooting statistics.

          Why does acknowledging this upset you?

        • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          From the quote that was provided to you:

          Therefore, the respective solutions look very different, as well.

          There needs to be a distinction so that it can be more appropriately and efficiently prevented.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      We should be angry about the media narrative pushed by some that banning guns that look scary and limiting magazine sizes will do anything.

      This shows that teaching non-violent conflict resolution, and getting the larger community to buy in would eliminate almost all shootings. Students need better interpersonal skills, and they need role models to show what those skills look like.

      • farcaster@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        No matter what you do, there’s always going to be people freaking out and having homicidal urges. People are imperfect that way.

        Maybe that’s why most of the rest of the world doesn’t allow them have tools to easily kill people at a distance.

        • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Maybe that’s why most of the rest of the world doesn’t allow them have tools to easily kill people at a distance.

          Most of it actually does – very few places have total bans on firearms, they just don’t let people buy semi-automatic weapons on a whim.

          It’s gruelling to accurately explain what gun control is to every pro-gun dildo on social media that feels entitled to a personal explanation (that they’ll spit back in your face anyway).

          But its important to remember that the pro-gun community isn’t fighting “no guns for anyone ever”, they’re fighting “you need to pass a background check, prove you know how to safely store and use a firearm and not hit your wife”