The numbers are staggering when we compare the number of school-related shootings per decade. I found data on school shootings on Wikipedia. I was surprised to find 9 incidents of school-related shootings in the 1890s. I expected barely any if any. Of course, this still pales compared to the
17 incidents in the 1950s (14 deaths),
18 incidents in the 1960s (44 deaths),
30 incidents in the 1970s (37 deaths),
39 incidents in the 1980s (49 deaths),
62 incidents in the 1990s (88 deaths),
63 incidents in the 2000s (107 deaths), and
148 incidents so far in the 2010s (161 deaths)
with three more years to go in this decade.
One could argue about the accuracy of the information during the early decades, but the numbers are staggering from just the last six decades, which I imagine are more accurate. One could also argue the population grew dramatically. Well, I took that into consideration and decided to figure out the “rate” of school-related gun deaths per 10,000,0000 U.S. population for each decade. Here’s what I found. Can anyone help me make sense of the ups and downs of these rates?
