Toni Bernardi Kelly Abshire MBI 131 13 January 2016

Death: The Ultimate Disease and Why We Can Do Something About It

Pursuant to the U.S. Secret Service, the definition of a school shooting stands as shootings where schools were deliberately chosen for the location of attack. According to surveillance done on behalf of the Encyclopedia of American politics, from 1990 to the present, there have been 143 recorded school shootings in grades K-12 (Ballotpedia). Among these school shootings, there were 260 injuries and 160 fatalities. However, this threat to public health and safety does not merely end after high school graduation. Reported in an article written by Josh Sanburn, in 2015 alone 23 mass shootings at college campuses were recorded in the United States; though the threat does not end there either (Time Inc.). As reported by the Harvard School of Public Health and Northeastern University, the number of mass shootings in and of themselves tripled following 2011 (Harvard T.H. Chan). Furthermore, the average number of days between shootings from 1982 to 2011 was about 200; after 2011 that average dropped to around 64 days. Looking at statistics on the surface have raised serious questions regarding the prevention of this public health and safety hazard, but the exact answer remains unknown. Over the years, in attempt to prevent school/mass shootings, gun control legislation has increased as the threat persists. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of such legislative action is being questioned. Further enlightenment on the efficacy of gun control legislation will be attempted through: an exploration of statistics, gun control legislation circulating in countries around the world, multiple perspectives, and the implementation of recent gun control legislation in the United States.

To fully understand a community health issue, it is first important to look at the statistics. Without factual and reliable data, any person could manipulate results to illustrate false conclusions. However, overall it is imperative to fully understand what the statistics are saying. For example, the Encyclopedia of American Politics reported 143 school shootings in grades K-12 between 1990 and 2016 (Ballotpedia). As funded by the Lucy Burns Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, the Encyclopedia of American Politics works to provide unbiased political information to the public via the publication of numerous articles (About Ballotpedia). For a span of 26 years, on the surface, those numbers do not seem like much considering the thousands of schools across the nation; looking further into these statistics is where the issue truly surfaces. After further analysis of the data, 67 of the 143 school shootings occurred from 1990 to 2010; roughly 47% of school shootings took place over a 20 year time span. On the hand, 76 of the 143 school shootings occurred from 2011 to 2016; roughly 53% of school shootings over a 5 year time span. The average number of school shootings per year went from 3.35 (1990-2010) to 15.2 (2011-2016) in an extremely short period of time. Everytown for Gun Safety support fundan independent, non-partisan organizationreported that between 2013 and 2015, there were at least 160 school shootings recorded in the United States (Everytown). Not only have the average number of school shootings per year since 2011 nearly quadrupled, but the average number of mass shootings per year altogether have nearly tripled (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2015). The Harvard School of Public Health and Northeastern University compiled data to analyze the average time span between mass shootings, to which it was revealed that from 1982 to 2011 the average number of days between incidents was 200; yet following 2011 that number drastically decreased to 64 days. For this analysis in particular, it is important to note that prior to 2013 the threshold to be considered an incident was the killing of four or more individuals. However, in 2013 President Obama signed a federal law reducing the threshold of an incident to the murdering of three or more individuals (Mother Jones). As published in the article summarizing the independent research of Amy Cohen, Deborah Azrael, and Matthew Millerwhich was referred on the Harvard School of Public