School Massacres (shootings) By The Numbers

The numbers are simple. 18 kids were shot today because they were kids and 13 black people were killed last week because they were black.

If we zoom out, the numbers are horrifying: 365 shootings since 2000. 352 (mostly children) were killed. 627 injured, most for life. 0 laws were passed to stop them. All attempts were stopped by the NRA.

If these children were killed, if even one of these attacks were perpetrated by some foreign entity or a foreign terrorist group, there would have been war. But because the terror is perpetrated by Americans and the actions would impact a few wealthy Americans, we send hopes and prayers.

One thing that NRA always says is that the only way to stop these shootings is to make sure that Americans are Armed. They certainly are armed.

Gun sales since the 2000’s have taken off.

And so have the school shootings.

So have suicides and homocides by guns.

It can’t be clearer. Guns lead to more death, not less. And yet, here we are, gun legislation across the red belt makes it easier to buy guns. Guns are purchased at higher rates. Americans and American kids are killed. Minorities are targeted and killed by white supremacists. And all along, the gun manufacturers are the only ones who benefit from this blood money.

This is insanity. In any other nation, this collective insanity would require treatment. But we just go right along, as if this inability to look at the numbers, to look at truth, is the normal way to be.

But let’s look behind the numbers. Let’s look at the little boy who loved video games. Let’s look at the father who went to the store to get a cake for his son. Let’s look at a girl who loved to sing. Let’s look at the mom who went to buy some groceries. Let’s look at the grandmother and holocaust survivor who went to pray at a synagogue. Let’s look at a prayer circle of grandmothers gunned down. Let’s look at the soldiers who come home from war and suffer from untreated PTSD.

When you look at all these stories behind the numbers, you start to ask yourself that perhaps it is not stupidity. After 20 years of the same, maybe this is on purpose. State-sanctioned terrorism to keep us all quiet, to enable the white supremacists to enable the hate.

My other gun stories and statistics: