And people say that school shootings are a bad thing.

[Eagle Road]

His gun didn't help him the other day @walmart

You do realize he was shot from behind, right?

[Riccardo]

Just pointing out the misinformation provided

Obviously there is a difference between an armed lunatic storming a school during school hours and shooting kids/teachers vs some clown committing suicide on school property or getting killed by a gang at midnight. If you're trying to make the claim that it's getting worse, you have to look at consistent data over a longer time period. Where is bloomberg's data of all gun violence on school property over the last 20 years?

[TerpEagle]

Obviously there is a difference between an armed lunatic storming a school during school hours and shooting kids/teachers vs some clown committing suicide on school property or getting killed by a gang at midnight. If you're trying to make the claim that it's getting worse, you have to look at consistent data over a longer time period. Where is bloomberg's data of all gun violence on school property over the last 20 years?

That data shows a trend based on relatively low shooting deaths in the mid to late 2000's.

In 2010, there were 5 non-gang related shootings that resulted in 5 deaths.
In 2011, there were 9 non-gang related shootings that resulted in 7 deaths.
In 2012, there were 12 non-gang related shootings that resulted in 43 deaths.
In 2013, there were 29 non-gang related shootings that resulted in 25 deaths.
In 2014, there have been already 32 (35 was a typo earlier) non-gang related shootings resulting in 18 deaths.

Are you seeing a trend yet? Aside from that fact that discounting gang-related and suicides doesn't mean that guns in schools aren't any less of a problem, this is something getting worse. Not something that's just getting attention by the media and supporters of better gun control.

[Riccardo]

Yeah there's a short-term blip - a trend? Can't tell yet

And your claim that gun violence in schools has become an "epidemic" is also nonsense:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/13/school-violence-security-sandy-hook/3446023/

[T.D-Bag]

Where is next weeks mass shooting going to occur?

Thats the million dollar question.

shot from behind or not, his gun was useless. Maybe because he zeroed in on the male teabagger and neglected to scan his surroundings. If he didn't have the gun he would be alive like the rest of the shoppers.

[TerpEagle]

And your claim that gun violence in schools has become an "epidemic" is also nonsense:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...-hook/3446023/

That article was written based on numbers up to 2011. They even say:

---
Federal data don't yet include 2011-2012 or 2012-13, when 27 died in the Sandy Hook shooting, including gunman Adam Lanza.
---

I'm pretty sure I addressed 2011 and what's happened since.

Here's the US compared to much of the rest of the world with regard to multiple victims in school killings - and this is at the end of 2012.

http://qz.com/37015/how-school-killings-in-the-us-stack-up-against-36-other-countries-put-together/

Obviously, there's a problem here and when over the last 36 months there's nearly a shooting a week and death tolls that far exceed the "lean" years from the Bloomberg/Slate graph it shows a trend rather than just a blip.

[Riccardo]

Well you just don't understand the definition of a trend

Can't help you there. A trend is a steady decline in school gun deaths over a 20 year period from 1992-2012.

[T.D-Bag]

Can't help you there. A trend is a steady decline in school gun deaths over a 20 year period from 1992-2012.

"an NRA funded research center says senseless mass and school shootings are down.." that should be your headline.
as soon as they bring "Bloomberg" and "Soros" into their argument, you know its bunk

[TerpEagle]

Can't help you there. A trend is a steady decline in school gun deaths over a 20 year period from 1992-2012.

If you take that plot and have it cover 1994-2014, the regression will be much flatter.

Not including data after the Newtown shooting, the 21 years covered in that plot show a 1 death per year decrease. But over the last 5 years, an increase of 3.5 deaths per year and over the last 10 years it's nearly flat.

Even including 4 years of relatively little school shooting fatalities, the last 5 full years on that plot show an increasing trend. And you are basing your arguments for things not being that bad on trends that don't incorporate current data.

So over the last 3, 5 and 10 years, things are trending flat to upwards - without including 2013 or 2014 to this point. Or is 21 years the magic number to make this argument count?

Interestingly enough, on an unrelated note of correlation - the Federal Assault Weapons Ban lasted from 1994 to 2004. Using the data on that graph, "qualified" school shooting deaths trended downward at a greater rate than the 21 year total.

2005 through 2013 using that data: Oh ho, it trends back upwards! Can I use those trends or are they unacceptable?

[T.D-Bag]

This is all you need to know about John Lott and his analysis

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_04/gun_policy_fraudster_john_lott036987.php

[Irish George]

Let's be real...

just the fact that we now say "school shootings" as a CATEGORY of crime as opposed to saying "Newtown" or "Columbine" or "Virginia Tech" pretty much tells you which way the needle is pointing as a trend.

[Eagle In Ohio]

The biggest question for this angle

You would obviously screen the soldiers for PTSD and any other mental issues they may have, and there are already people with weapons in the school (School Resource Officers). Someone with real experience in taking down armed assailants would be more capable of stopping a massacre than a teacher who may or may not have ever fired a gun in their lives. Plus it could be a job that a veteran could have into their 50s, which could help keep some of them off the streets.

is who's going to pay for all of the extra security at these schools ? Even if it meant helping to protect our school children, people aren't going to want to pay more taxes.

[SCREAMIN EAGLE]

is who's going to pay for all of the extra security at these schools ? Even if it meant helping to protect our school children, people aren't going to want to pay more taxes.

Fix welfare in this country and you'll have plenty of money to spread around.

[SCREAMIN EAGLE]

There is a more significant root cause to the problem here. The solution shouldn't have to be: let's provide schools with armed guards.

Then what is your solution to teh problem? Nobody wants armed guards at schools but nobody can ever tell you what their solution is . And please don't come up with, "Just ban all guns".

[Eagle In Ohio]

By the time they do that

Fix welfare in this country and you'll have plenty of money to spread around.

We'll have 74 more shootings.