Gun violence and school shootings, what does that happen?

Bullying is the leading causal factor in school shootings. Access to firearms by young Americans has led to 948 school shootings in the US since 2012.

This week we had nineteen young children and two adults died in a shooting at a primary school in south Texas, US. Salvador Ramos, a teenager with no criminal story, before the massacre in the school of Texas planned to attack his grandmother leaving a message on the social media. Authorities are still processing what drove the teenager to commit the shooting. This is not the first time that something similar as this unfortunate incidental happens in the USA.

Researchers has shown each of 12 American children die from gun violence and another 32 suffer injuries. (1)An American report about Gun mortality in the US claims the guns are the biggest cause of death among children and adolescents in the country. One in every ten gun deaths is a person under the age of 19. (2) A shooting database (3) shows since 1970, there have been 2,032 school shootings in the United States, and the number is rising. Since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, there have been 948 school shootings. Guns were taken from the house, a friend, or a relative in around 68 percent of gun-related occurrences at schools. 39% of parents falsely assume their children are unaware of where their firearms are kept (4).

1 in 12 children in the US dies from gun violence

In Europe, school shootings are far less common than in the US. However, we had a few cases, for instance, as the cases in Finland. In September 2008, a 22-year-old man opened fire at Kauhajoki's College of Hospitality, murdering ten people before killing himself. The victims' families reported the incident to the European Court of Human Rights in 2012. In 2020, The court has decided that Finland's government failed to protect citizens' right to life, which is guaranteed by Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Finland will now be required to pay €30,000 to each victim's family. In addition, each family will receive €7,000 to cover legal expenses. In 2015, In Barcelona a 13 yeard old student armed with a home-made crossbow and a knife assassinated a teacher at a school. When he arrived at school, he began shooting with the crossbow in a class, killing a teacher and injuring four kids. He was detained, but due to his age, he was not charged.

There are various reasons that have contributed to the prevalence of gun-related violence in schools. The majority reason is the bullying. The shooters are bullying victims and have experienced feelings of humiliation, which led to suicidal or vengeful thoughts. Counselors can help by proactively attempting to identify similar themes among perpetrators and determining preventative methods to reduce gun violence in schools as educators and change agents.

Bullying is the predominant causal factor in school shootings

Experts say we can prevent school shootings. The professor Matthew Mayer,  from the Rutger Graduate School of Education in the US, has been studying school violence and affirms that it is not a good idea to arm teachers. There are some discussion in the US about the age limited for gun owernship. They want to change from 18 to 21. As we mentioned, bullying is one of the causes of the shooting in schools, thus, schools can support the social and emotional needs of students promoting debates about bullying and also offering counseling support. Another important thing is the interaction between students, parents and the staff of the schools. It is crucial the participation of the parents in the daily routine of their kids. Schools also needs to offer training and resources for the school staff to know how to identify any aspect of misbehaviour or misconduct by the students. Thus, it is important to mention that any bullying which is illegal must be reported to the police.

In Barcelona, we have anti-bullying program (1)promoted by the Barcelona football team which designed a methodology adapted to the primary school curriculum to teach how to identify and prevent school bullying. Every school can register and be part of the project (5).

Image on the top: from Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

[1] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2200169

[2] https://efsgv.org/wp-content/uploads/2019CDCdata.pdf

[3] https://www.chds.us/ssdb/data-map/

[4] https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/13788?autologincheck=redirected

[5] https://foundation.fcbarcelona.com/anti-bullying-program-in-schools