Enough Is Enough: How Students Can Join the Fight for Gun Safety - Hardcover

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Michelle Roehm McCann has worked as a children’s book editor and art director for more than twenty years, as well as writing and compiling several award-winning children’s books of her own. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, two world-rocking kids, and their brilliant cats, Horace and Percy.

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Chapter 1: America’s Gun Violence Epidemic: The Big Picture in Big Pictures

CHAPTER 1AMERICA’S GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC: THE BIG PICTURE IN BIG PICTURES

COLUMBINE… VIRGINIA TECH… SANDY HOOK… AURORA… SAN BERNADINO… ORLANDO… LAS VEGAS… PARKLAND…

We all recognize these names. We know what this list means. It’s a very short list of some of the deadliest mass shootings in recent US history. The sad part is that this list stretches back further than you would think. America’s first mass shooting happened in 1949 when a man strolled around his Camden, New Jersey, neighborhood gunning down thirteen of his neighbors. The sadder part is that, without our action, this list will continue to stretch out into the future, as more mass shootings are added to it.

How bad is gun violence in America today? Take a look at the big picture…



IT’S BAD

100 AMERICANS ARE KILLED BY GUNS EVERY DAY IN AMERICA.1

15,593 AMERICANS WERE KILLED BY GUNS IN ONE YEAR (2017).2

$229 BILLION! THAT’S THE COST OF GUN VIOLENCE IN THE US EACH YEAR.3

MORE AMERICANS HAVE BEEN KILLED BY GUN VIOLENCE SINCE 1968 THAN IN ALL US WARS COMBINED!

US WAR DEATHS SINCE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: 1.2 MILLION

US GUN VIOLENCE DEATHS SINCE 1968: 1.5 MILLION4

DEATHS FROM WARS VS. DEATHS FROM FIREARMS, 1968–2017

FIREARM-RELATED DEATHS 1968–2017 1.5 MILLION

DEATHS IN WARS 1775–2017 1.2 MILLION

REVOLUTION WAR

1775–1783

4,435

WAR OF 1812

1812–1815

2,260

AMERICA INDIAN WARS

AROUND 1817–1898

1,000

MEXICA WAR

1846–1848

13,283

CIVIL WAR

1861–1865

498,332

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

1989–1902

2,446

WORLD WAR I

1917–1918

116,516

WORLD WAR II

1941–1945

405,399

KOREAN WAR

1950–1953

54,246

VIETNAM WAR

1964–1975

90,220

DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM

1990–1991

1,948

GLOBAL WAR IN TERROR

2001–2017

6,949

Source: “National Center for Health Statistics,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, section “Mortality: All Firearm Deaths,” last modified May 3, 2017, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/injury.htm; war casualties come from Department of Veterans Affairs, accessed March 12, 2019, https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/fs_americas_wars.pdf, and iCasualties.org, accessed February 10, 2019, http://icasualties.org.

SCHOOL AND MASS SHOOTINGS ARE GETTING WORSE

THERE HAVE BEEN MORE MASS SHOOTINGS AT US SCHOOLS IN THE LAST EIGHTEEN YEARS THAN IN THE ENTIRE TWENTIETH CENTURY (1900–1999).5

INCREASE OF AMERICANS KILLED IN MASS SCHOOL SHOOTINGS



Source: Antonis Katsiyannis, Denise K. Whitford, and Robin Parks, “Historical Examination of United States Intentional Mass School Shootings in the 20th and 21st Centuries,” Journal of Child and Family Studies, April 19, 2018, https://mijn.bsl.nl/historical-examination-of-united-states-intentional-mass-school-/15708240.

AMERICA HAS A MASS SHOOTING 9 OUT OF 10 DAYS, ON AVERAGE.6

AFTER THE MASSACRE OF CHILDREN AT SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN 2012, POLITICIANS SAID “NEVER AGAIN.” BUT THERE HAVE BEEN 1,977 MASS SHOOTINGS IN AMERICA IN THE 2,272 DAYS SINCE THEN.7 THAT NUMBER KEEPS GOING UP EVERY WEEK. YOU CAN CHECK THE CURRENT GUN DEATH AND INJURY TOLL AT THE GUN VIOLENCE ARCHIVE (GUNVIOLENCEARCHIVE.ORG).

WHAT IS A MASS SHOOTING?

When you read mass shooting in the media, it usually means a shooting where four or more people are injured or killed, not including the shooter. Mass shootings don’t include all the other shootings with fewer than four people.8

AMERICA IS DROWNING IN A SEA OF GUNS

There are 393 million guns in America. That’s more than one gun per man, woman, and child.9

3% of gun owners own more than 50% of those guns.10

NEVER FORGET

All these mass shootings can numb us. We forget that each gun death statistic was a unique individual with friends, family, and a story. Teen journalists across America are helping us remember through sinceparkland.org, a website they’ve created where they are sharing stories about the American kids who have been killed by gun violence.

THE CONCENTRATION OF GUN OWNERSHIP IN AMERICA



Source: Deborah Azrael, Lisa Hepburn, David Hemenway, and Matthew Miller, “The Stock and Flow of US Firearms: Results from the 2015 National Firearms Survey,” Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, February 12, 2019, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.7758/rsf.2017.3.5.02.pdf.

YOUNG PEOPLE (YOU) GET HIT THE HARDEST

1,297 AMERICAN CHILDREN ARE KILLED BY GUNS EACH YEAR. 5,790 MORE ARE INJURED.11

GUN VIOLENCE IS THE #2 KILLER OF YOUNG PEOPLE, NOW KILLING MORE KIDS THAN CAR ACCIDENTS.12

GUN VIOLENCE OVERTAKES CAR ACCIDENTS AS LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH FOR AMERICANS AGES 15–29



Source: “Fatal Injury Reports, National, Regional and State, 1981–2017,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last accessed February 9, 2019, https://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate.html.

150,000+ STUDENTS HAVE EXPERIENCED A SHOOTING AT THEIR SCHOOL SINCE 199713

57% OF TEENS LIVE IN FEAR THAT THERE WILL BE A SHOOTING AT THEIR SCHOOL.14

YOUNG PEOPLE (AGES 15–29) ARE HURT BY GUN VIOLENCE MORE THAN ANY OTHER AGE GROUP. 31% OF ALL GUN DEATHS AND NEARLY 50% OF GUN HOMICIDES ARE YOUNG PEOPLE.15