According to a quick search I could only find 2 cases of tornadoes hitting US schools in the last 25 years, giving an average of about 1 school tornado hit per 12 years. I believe it’s fair to say that was overblown.
However, in the same 25 years there have been over 400 school shootings in the US, meaning there is an average of about 1 school shooting per month. I’d say that’s a pretty reasonable fear.
Also one is an “act of god” while the other is entirely man-made. Keep the thought and prayers for the one god is actually responsible for.
When people hear “school shootings” they imagine events like Columbine, even when that’s not what’s being counted. Literally every time a gun is fired at a school regardless of circumstances, it’s a school shooting. This includes cases where nobody is injured, the event happens after hours, or the people involved are unaffiliated with the school. Seriously, the NPR article I linked mentions a case where a guy killed himself in the parking lot of a building owned by the school district (that had not had students in it for years). That counted as a school shooting.
The sort of event people imagine IS more common than tornadoes, and even stupid, unrelated incidents that result in injuries is ALSO more common than tornadoes. The fact remains that there are not 400 Columbines a year. The chances of a particular student dying of any violent means on school property is vanishingly small. People worried about their kids getting killed in a school shooting should also worry about meteor and lightning strikes.
Not ridiculous, the odds of either event injuring or killing any particular individual are vanishingly small. A person who worries about school shootings should be positively terrified of climbing ladders or crossing a busy road.
People are really bad at contextualizing risk. Just look at the “stranger danger” scare.
Clearly I wasn’t using the figures in that article because I said it was 400 over 25 years, not 240 in a single year. Even in that article they say they were able to confirm at least 12 shootings in that year, supporting my estimated average of 1 per month.
Also children don’t have to be actually shot to be traumatized by a shooting. The number of children affected by school shootings is thousands of times higher than the number of injuries or deaths.
And when I was a kid we had tornado drills. Schools got hit by tornados, but it was a freak incident that was ultimately an overblown fear.
If only there was some parallel we could draw here…
If only…
According to a quick search I could only find 2 cases of tornadoes hitting US schools in the last 25 years, giving an average of about 1 school tornado hit per 12 years. I believe it’s fair to say that was overblown.
However, in the same 25 years there have been over 400 school shootings in the US, meaning there is an average of about 1 school shooting per month. I’d say that’s a pretty reasonable fear.
Also one is an “act of god” while the other is entirely man-made. Keep the thought and prayers for the one god is actually responsible for.
And that figure is inflated. The School Shootings That Weren’t https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/08/27/640323347/the-school-shootings-that-werent
When people hear “school shootings” they imagine events like Columbine, even when that’s not what’s being counted. Literally every time a gun is fired at a school regardless of circumstances, it’s a school shooting. This includes cases where nobody is injured, the event happens after hours, or the people involved are unaffiliated with the school. Seriously, the NPR article I linked mentions a case where a guy killed himself in the parking lot of a building owned by the school district (that had not had students in it for years). That counted as a school shooting.
The sort of event people imagine IS more common than tornadoes, and even stupid, unrelated incidents that result in injuries is ALSO more common than tornadoes. The fact remains that there are not 400 Columbines a year. The chances of a particular student dying of any violent means on school property is vanishingly small. People worried about their kids getting killed in a school shooting should also worry about meteor and lightning strikes.
It’s insane that a gun is even fired off in school that often. What circumstances could make that OK
It isn’t OK, every single case is a crime.
There was a newsworthy incident where a cop managed to pull off a negligent discharge. Nobody got hurt, but guess what? Still a school shooting.
The children have nothing to fear because it’s actually illegal for bullets to miss their intended target.
So what? Still proves that your comparison to tornado drills is, well, utterly ridiculous and without merit…
Not ridiculous, the odds of either event injuring or killing any particular individual are vanishingly small. A person who worries about school shootings should be positively terrified of climbing ladders or crossing a busy road.
People are really bad at contextualizing risk. Just look at the “stranger danger” scare.
Clearly I wasn’t using the figures in that article because I said it was 400 over 25 years, not 240 in a single year. Even in that article they say they were able to confirm at least 12 shootings in that year, supporting my estimated average of 1 per month.
Also children don’t have to be actually shot to be traumatized by a shooting. The number of children affected by school shootings is thousands of times higher than the number of injuries or deaths.