School shootings…

….a big topic that is weighing heavy on my mind.

While I know that the media has tons of statistics and data on the topic. I decided to “google” it for myself. Trusting “google” and “wikipedia” I found myself absolutely shocked at the data on ‘school shootings’ that have taken place and recorded since the 18th century!! That’s right folks… the 18th century!!!

LET THAT SINK IN…. 18th CENTURY!!

So, big shocker folks….school shootings are NOT new. It’s been going on for a very long time. This data covers K-12 public schools, private schools, colleges and universities.

Now, not to make light of the current shootings but take a moment and read about some stats that I found “shocking”:

• 18th century – 1 shooting
  • Greencastle, PA – July, 26, 1764 – 10 deaths and 2 injuries – American Indians entered a schoolhouse
• 19th century – 28 shootings
  • 31 deaths between 1840 to 1890
  • Interesting records (something to think about is in red):
    • Aug 16, 1856 – Florence, AL – The schoolmaster had a tame sparrow and had warned the students not to harm it, threatening death. One of the boys stepped on the bird and killed it; he was afraid to return to school but did so. After lessons, the master took the boy into a private room and strangled him to death. The boy’s father went to the school and shot the schoolmaster dead.
    • Feb 6, 1864 – Ashland Co, OH – George W. Longfelt, the school teacher of the Pyfer’s School House, killed student Alfred Desem and fled.
    • Feb 11, 1873 – Wisconsin – Chris Foote shot the school mistress for whipping his son.
• 20th century – 226 shootings
  • 254 deaths between 1903 to 1999 – (74 at an elementary school injured by bomb-blast not firearm)
  • Interesting records (something to think about is in red):
    • Feb 24, 1903 – Inman, SC – Edward Foster, a 17-year-old student at Inman High School, was fatally wounded by his teacher Reuben Pitts after jerking a rod from Pitts’ hands to avoid punishment. According to the teacher, Foster struck the pistol Pitts had drawn, and caused it to fire. Pitts was acquitted of murder on grounds of self-defense.
    • Aug 16, 1910 – Lexington, KY – A general fight broke out during school board elections. Lewis Napier was killed, and several other persons were hurt. Several were arrested.
    • Jan 9, 1919 – Monroe, MO – While school was in session, Hugh Claggett shot through the school house’s front door while on his way home from work. No one was hurt, and he was fined $20.
    • Feb 17, 1922 – Valdosta, GA – ohn Glover broke into the school house, where he killed a girl and fatally wounded a boy. A mob tracked and killed Glover 7 miles (11 km) away in Indianola, now Naylor, Georgia.
    • Aug 1, 1966 – Austin, TX – University of Texas massacre: 25-year-old engineering student, Charles Whitman, got onto the observation deck at the University of Texas-Austin, from where he killed seventeen people and wounded thirty-one during a 96-minute shooting rampage. He had earlier murdered his wife and mother at their homes. It was the deadliest shooting on a U.S. college campus until the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007.
    • Apr 26, 1978 – Dallas, TX – 38-year-old Woodrow Porter, a janitor at Paul Dunbar Elementary School, was killed by the 56-year-old grandmother of an 8-year-old who was allegedly spanked by Porter earlier.
    • Mar 19, 1982 – Las Vegas, NV – 17-year-old Valley High School student, Patrick Lizotte, killed his teacher Clarence Pigott and wounded two students.
    • May 20, 1988 – Winnetka, IL – 30-year-old Laurie Dann, killed 8-year-old Nick Corwin, inside Hubbard Woods School. Five additional students were wounded. Dann later committed suicide after taking hostages in a nearby home.
    • Apr 15, 1993 – Acushnet, MA – 44-year-old David Taber entered Ford Middle School and took three hostages. He killed school nurse Carol Day. He was found not guilty of the murder by reason of insanity.
    • Dec 1, 1997 – Heath High School shooting: Three students were killed and five wounded by 14-year-old Michael Carneal, as they participated in a prayer circle. Carneal was sentenced to life in prison.
    • Jan 8, 1999 – ***SAME YEAR AS COLUMBINE*** – Carrollton, GA 15-year-old Andrea Garrett was found dead, and 17-year-old Jeff Miller seriously wounded in the girls’ restroom at Central Carrollton County High School, after a suicide pact because Garrett’s mother had previously forbidden her to see Miller.
• 21st century – 204 shootings
  • 278 deaths between 2000 – 2017
  • Interesting records (something to think about is in red):
    • May 6, 2000 – Lake Worth, FL – 13-year-old honor student, Nathaniel Brazill, was sent home for throwing water balloons, but returned to his Lake Worth Middle School with a family pistol. He fatally shot teacher Barry Grunow, a popular teacher, he was Brazill’s favorite.
    • Apr 24, 2003 – Red Lion, PA – 14-year-old student James Sheets, entered Red Lion Area Junior High School armed with his stepfather’s pistols. He killed the school’s principal, Eugene Segro, before killing himself.
    • Aug 30, 2006 – Hillsborough, NC – After shooting and killing his father, teenager Alvaro Castillo went to his high school, where he wounded two students. He was reportedly obsessed with the Columbine shootings and had written an email to the current Columbine high school principal before committing his own crime.
    • Feb 8, 2008 – Baton Rouge, LA – Latina Williams, a 23-year-old nursing student at Louisiana Technical College killed two classmates and herself in a second floor classroom.
    • Feb 5, 2010 – Madison, AL – 14-year-old student, Hammad Memon, killed 14-year-old Todd Brown at Discovery Middle School as classes were changing. The shooting was possibly related to gang activity. In May 2013, Memon pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to thirty years of prison. After Memon is released from prison, he is likely to be deported to his native Pakistan.
    • Aug 23, 2013 – Sardis, MS – 15-year-old student, Roderick Bobo, was killed during a football game at North Panola High School in what was termed a gang-related shooting. Two others were injured in the shooting. Three men were charged as being responsible for the crime.
    • Oct 3, 2014 – Fairburn, GA – After a homecoming football game, a fatal shooting of 17-year-old Kristofer Hunter, occurred in the Langston Hughes High School parking lot. The assailant, 18-year-old Eric Dana Johnson Jr., turned himself in a week later.
    • Apr 13, 2015 – Goldsboro, NC – A faculty member was killed with a rifle in the school library of Wayne Community College. The suspected 20-year-old gunman, Kenneth Stancil, was arrested in Florida the next day. As of January 2017, Stancil, an admitted Neo-Nazi is being investigated for a hate crime.

Why is it happening? Why is it in the spotlight ? Why does it consume our lives?

I cannot answer any of those questions with any authority. I can state my opinion.

This act of violence has gone on for centuries. Oddly enough, in the earlier centuries history reads as if guns were carried to and from school; yet fewer shootings occurred (or maybe not recorded). Now, guns are banned from schools, yet more shootings are occurring (how many aren’t recorded). I know of 2 incidents in Lexington, KY where guns were discovered on school grounds carried by students and didn’t see those posted in these stats.

It makes no sense. There’s not a magic solution. I can tell you that BLAMING A FIREARM IS NOT A SOLUTION. Folks, plain and simple. The media, including social media which is full of the ‘wanna be news crews’, have desensitized society as a whole. Be patient and entertain a few things about today’s society and violence – with or without firearms:

• Hollywood works hard to make violent movies;
• Video games are violent and very realistic;
• Live broadcasts that bystanders record hoping for a ‘viral video’;
• Litigious society that lurks all around us;
• Society is hung up on themselves.

What does all of that mean?

Simply put, violence is all around us and for fear of being sued or harmed, we don’t step up and help anyone or attempt to prevent harm anymore. Be honest, I know this describes me… driving down the road, as a passenger, I observe MANY drivers texting and attempting to drive. I get upset and scream at them behind the closed windows of my car. I hide, though I want to just scream at them. Why? Because I’m afraid of running across that one person that might have a gun or use their car and the rage to cause me harm. I also think of the potential danger to all the other drivers. The texting becomes less of a fear. I just pray we make our way far enough away from them and our safety is my concern. I become selfish. I cower because of the fear of another person’s rage.

Rage is filling our world. We even have catchy names like “road rage”, “rage texting”, “bike rage”, “phone rage” or “shopping rage”. Folks, you can stick any fancy name on it you want to but the fact remains – it all revolves around selfishness. The behavior that we have so quickly named a “rage” is actually just plain selfish behavior. Add to that, everyone’s quickness to get angry over simple things. The anger stems from being told that we are all equal and we are all winners. A society that has been built on the falsehood of equality for everyone which simply cannot be achieved. Kids are told that they are all winners in everything they do. The minute they hear otherwise from a brave individual who likes to ‘tell the truth’ (i.e. avoid political correctness) the anger turns into a rage. We have become an instantaneous society, hung up on the NOW and we get angry if we don’t get it NOW. When are we going to forget the “political correctness” and stand up to those with all this rage?