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Daily News Analysis

Killing children: The murderous nature of American society

Crescent International

Terrified students and a teacher look on as the Columbine shooters go on a killing spree in 1999

Americans not only kill other people by the millions—at least 32 million have been killed since 2001—they also kill their own by the tens of thousands.

In 2022, the non-profit group, Gun Violence Archive recorded 43,789 deaths in 2022 related to gun violence in the US.

Even children are not spared as the latest figures released by Gun Violence Archive (GVA) on December 27 showed.

At least 6,032 children, 17 years or younger, have been killed or injured in 2022 so far, according to GVA data.

The year is not over yet and this number could easily increase, given the violent nature of American society and the propensity of guns.

The GVA figures for 2022 showed that 306 children, 11 years of age and younger, died by gunfire.

Another 668 were injured.

The figure for age bracket 12 to 17, provide an even more horrifying picture: 1,325 deaths and 3,732 injuries due to gunfire.

The is the highest number of gun-related casualties since the GVA started keeping a record in 2014.

The 2022 figures mark a notable increase in number of deaths and injuries since last year when 5,708 casualties were recorded across the US.

So far, there have been 609 mass shootings in the US up to November 2022, according GVA figures.

Will these figures reach 675 by the end of the year, to equal the highest number of shootings recorded in the US?

Schools across the US have also been targeted.

On May 24, 2022, one of the most horrific school mass shootings occurred at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Salvador Ramos, 18, entered the school and barricaded himself in a classroom where he shot and killed 19 students age 7 to 10, and two teachers.

Before arriving at the school for his shooting spree, Ramos had also shot his grandmother.

She was admitted to hospital in critical condition where she died.

Ramos was shot and killed by US Border Patrol agents and UCISD officers after they breached the classroom.

Families of the victims of Uvalde school shooting have since launched a class-action law suit against local and state police, the city and other school and law enforcement officials seeking $27 billion due to delays in confronting the attacker, court documents show.

The law suit filed in Austin, Texas states that law enforcement officials failed to follow active attacker protocol when they waited for 77 minutes before confronting the attacker inside a fourth-grade classroom.

While the most recent school mass shooting, Uvalde was not the most horrific.

It was preceded by such other school shootings as those at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut on December 14, 2012, and the Virginia Tech Shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia, of April 16, 2007.

At the Sandy Hook Elementary School, 20-year-old Adam Lanza arrived with four guns.

He entered a first-grade class where he shot and killed 20 children aged six and seven, along with six adults, including four teachers, the principal, and the school psychologist.

Two other people were injured.

He also shot himself before the police arrived.

In the Virginia Tech Shooting, 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty members in two separate attacks on campus.

He also injured 17 others before committing suicide.

On April 20, 1999, a school shooting and attempting bombing occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado that came to set an example for mass shootings at schools across the US.

The perpetrators were two 12th grade students, Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennett Klebold.

They murdered 12 students and one teacher before they committed suicide.

It was the deadliest high school shooting in US history at the time.

Texas, Florida and California have also recorded multiple school shootings.


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