Less than a decade after the deaths of 20 children and six Sandy Hook staff members, another brutal gun attack on an American school has shocked the world.
On this occasion, 19 children and two teachers have been killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Tragically, these two incidents are far from isolated or unique.
This map shows all school shootings in the U.S. that have resulted in deaths or serious injuries in the last fifty years.
Click or tap a point to see more information about each incident.
The number of serious injuries or deaths in these incidents has been increasing, rather than declining, in recent years.
Last year was the bloodiest in history, and 2022 will be even worse if the shootings continue at the same pace as this year so far, according to Sky News data from the National Defense and Security Center.
The average age from 1970 to 2015 was just under 35 dead or injured a year.
Since 2016, that average has tripled to more than 112, although schools were closed for part of that time due to coronavirus.
In 2020, children in the United States were more likely to die from gunshot wounds than from any other cause of death.
More gun deaths in states where gun security is weaker
After Sandy Hook in 2012, there were efforts by then-President Barack Obama to reform the gun control law to try to prevent further incidents.
President Joe Biden, Obama’s vice president at the time, has responded to the latest attack by calling on colleagues, “praying” them to take action against armed violence.
The measures proposed ten years ago, related to stricter controls on the backgrounds of people buying guns instead of anything close to an absolute ban, were voted against in the Senate. President Obama said it was a “shameful” day for Washington.
This graph shows how there are more gun deaths in states where there are looser gun control laws, as defined by Everytown Research and Policy, a nonprofit gun control lobby.
How to read the graph above?
Each point represents a state. The points closest to the bottom left show states where there are stronger gun laws and fewer deaths as a proportion of their population. The dots closest to the top right show the states with the weakest gun restrictions and the highest mortality rates. Tap or hover over a point for more information.
How does the US compare to other countries?
The United States is amazing internationally in terms of both the number of weapons in the country and the number of mass shooting incidents.
There are about 400 million civilian weapons in circulation in the United States, which is more than 40% of the world total and is equivalent to 120 firearms per 100 people, according to the Small Arms Survey.
The average for the rest of the world is 6 per 100 people.
Just looking at the number of school shooting incidents, CNN research showed that there were 288 registered in the U.S. between 2009 and 2018.
The country with the next highest number was Mexico, with 8.
Adding all the incidents from the other 26 major countries analyzed during the study, there were 45.
The U.S. population is approximately 1 in 15 of the total countries in the study, but was responsible for 13 out of 15 school shooting incidents.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-purpose unit dedicated to providing transparent Sky News journalism. We collect, analyze, and visualize data to tell stories based on data. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite imagery, social media, and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while showing how our journalism is done.
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