Eighteen.
That’s the number repeated across airwaves and on websites after Wednesday’s deadly Florida school shooting, as it was called the 18th one in the United States in 2018.
That statistic lumped the Parkland, Fla., incident, where a student armed with an AR-15 killed 17 people, with one Minnesota incident. On Feb. 5, a third-grader pushed the trigger on a Maplewood officer’s holstered gun, striking the floor. No one was hurt.
“This incident at Harmony [Learning Center] shouldn’t be counted as a school shooting,” Maplewood Police Cmdr. Dave Kvam said Thursday, adding that school shootings should be defined as deadly, intentional criminal acts. “It’s misleading … and probably leads people to believe the issue is greater than it is.”
The Violence Project’s Jill Peterson and James Densley both commented in this article, discussing the importance of separating deadly and accidental gun incidents.
Source: Star Tribune
Author: Kelly Smith