Many Americans think of school shootings as mass casualty events involving an adolescent with an assault-style weapon. But a new study says that most recent school shootings orchestrated by teenagers do not fit that image — and they are often related to community violence.

The study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, analyzed 253 school shootings carried out by 262 adolescents in the US between 1990 and 2016.

It found that these adolescents were responsible for only a handful of mass casualty shootings, defined as those involving four or more gunshot fatalities. About half of the shootings analyzed — 119 — involved at least one death. Among the events, seven killed four or more people.

A majority of the shootings analyzed also involved handguns rather than assault rifles or shotguns, and they were often the result of “interpersonal disputes,” according to the researchers from University of South Carolina and University of Florida.

  • interceder270@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    How about changing a community’s culture so bang-bang shooty-shooty isn’t the first response to checks notes disrespect.

    • farcaster@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Or we could just not have more guns than people, like everywhere else in the rest of the first world. But “fuck you I’ve got mine” is the unofficial motto of the United States of America after all.

      • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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        10 months ago

        More like fuck you I barley have shit and I’m not giving up my ability to protect myself from anyone that might be coming for it.

        • farcaster@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Killing someone to prevent them from stealing your stuff may well land you in prison. Guns cause a lot of misery in this country.

          I get it btw. But still. I think we’d all be better off with fewer guns :\

          • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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            10 months ago

            I should probably clarify that I don’t actually own a gun. My previous comment is just the attitude I typically see from people who do. I don’t live in an area with a high crime rate that would necessitate one and I’d be far more likely to use it on myself before I was ever in a self defense situation. That being said if I still lived in the town I grew up where there were break ins every few weeks many of which included assaults I would have one for sure.

          • interceder270@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I get it btw.

            Get what? That if you can’t fight and don’t own a gun then you’re at the mercy of the police you hate to protect you?

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      changing a community’s culture

      It’s never worked in the past; but so much of America’s culture is predicated on winning the lottery, so sure you go ahead.

      • interceder270@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s never worked in the past

        That’s objectively false, but you’re too far down your tribalistic rabbit hole to understand that.