There have not been 44 school shootings in 2019

Once again, CNN is at it with its distorted statistics. This time they’re claiming there have been 44 school shootings in 2019. As much as I want to see guns taken out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them, exaggerating these numbers is disingenuous at best. At worst, it’s causing a panic among school-age children and their parents who are frightened into believing that a shooting is imminent at their school. It’s one thing to be prepared, it’s another to live in a constant state of fear. 

Again, we have to take a look at CNN”s criteria for what they consider a school shooting…

• The shooting must involve at least one person being shot (not including the shooter).
• The shooting must occur on school property, which includes but is not limited to buildings, athletic fields, parking lots, stadiums and buses.
• We included accidental discharge of a firearm as long as the first two parameters are met, except in instances where the sole shooter is law enforcement or a security officer.
• We included injuries sustained from BB guns, since the Consumer Product Safety Commission has identified them as potentially lethal.

Again, these are very broad and misleading definitions of school shootings. When numbers like this are exaggerated it not only seems to make the problem more routine but it gives gun supporters more ammunition, pun intended, to shoot down these statistics.

From the list that CNN provides, I only consider four instances to be what most people would consider a school shooting. Those would be the shootings at UNCC, STEM School Highlands Ranch, Ridgway High School, and more recently Saugus High School. These shootings resulted in the deaths of five people and many more injured.

So what were the other shootings? A large percentage of them were shootings that took place at school sporting events. Others stemmed from fights that didn’t happen on campus. There were also a number of accidental discharges that resulted in fatalities.

Should we be concerned about all 44 shootings? Absolutely. Gun violence is such a pronounced problem in our society yet there are still those who just ignore reality and think that the proliferation of guns isn’t part of the problem. However, if we call everything a school shooting then nothing is a school shooting and we become even more numb to them when another one happens.