Debbie Downer Injects Reality
According to Wikipedia, in the last ten years, approximately 96 people have been killed and 94 wounded by school shootings.
The census in 2000 showed a total of 33.86 million students at the high school level or above. That gives (190/10)/(33.86e6/1e5), which works out to a rate of approximately .056 per 100000 students being killed or injured per year.
Incidentally, that's a little less than the rate given by the NIH for accidental alcohol poisoning deaths in 1996-1998 in the 15-24 age group. Extrapolating from NIH data, this means that, on average, 20.22 students die directly from alcohol poisoning, and 64 die directly or indirectly of alcohol poisoning. In addition, according to researchers at Boston University, among college students in 2001, there were 1349 alcohol-related motor vehicle crash deaths, plus an additional 368 nontraffic alcohol-related injury deaths.
So, as a student, I am statistically more likely to drink myself to death than to be shot by another student. And I'm 140 times more likely to be killed by drunk driving than a school shooting.
But still. University police officers will be walking around with guns. To make us safer, I'm told. If only they could save us from ourselves.
The census in 2000 showed a total of 33.86 million students at the high school level or above. That gives (190/10)/(33.86e6/1e5), which works out to a rate of approximately .056 per 100000 students being killed or injured per year.
Incidentally, that's a little less than the rate given by the NIH for accidental alcohol poisoning deaths in 1996-1998 in the 15-24 age group. Extrapolating from NIH data, this means that, on average, 20.22 students die directly from alcohol poisoning, and 64 die directly or indirectly of alcohol poisoning. In addition, according to researchers at Boston University, among college students in 2001, there were 1349 alcohol-related motor vehicle crash deaths, plus an additional 368 nontraffic alcohol-related injury deaths.
So, as a student, I am statistically more likely to drink myself to death than to be shot by another student. And I'm 140 times more likely to be killed by drunk driving than a school shooting.
But still. University police officers will be walking around with guns. To make us safer, I'm told. If only they could save us from ourselves.