Gun Control Controversy: Looking at the Numbers Since Newtown

As of June 11, 2014 reported by Katy Hall and Jan Diehm of HuffPost:
“Clarification: Everytown used the following methodology: Incidents were classified as school shootings when a firearm was discharged inside a school building or on school or campus grounds, as documented in publicly reported news accounts. This includes assaults, homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings. Incidents in which guns were brought into schools but not fired there, or were fired off school grounds after having been possessed in schools, were not included. This list includes incidents meeting the above criteria that were brought to our attention after our School Shootings Analysis was issued on February 10, 2014. Incidents were identified through media reports, so this is likely an undercount of the true total.”

According to the article, All 74 School Shootings Since Newtown, In One Depressing Map, at least 74 school shooting have occurred during the 18 months since Newtown as tallied by Everytown for Gun Safety, a group fighting to pass gun control laws. The longest gap between shootings occurred during summer breaks from mid June to mid August with the most recent being at the beginning of June at a high school in Portland, Oregon where the gunman a student were reported dead. After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012, President Obama pushed for gun reform calling for stricter background checks that garnered great public support, but failed in the senate last year and Congress since has no plans to pass any gun legislation.

Besides the many school shooting in the news it seems every day, there have also been several domestic disputes and random shootings that have occurred as well begging the question: Why is no one doing anything to keep us safe? HuffPost reporter Kim Bellware reported on the 16th of June with the headline, Man Kills His Ex-Wife And Her Boyfriend At High School Reunion, about an Illinois man who shot and killed his ex-wife and her new boyfriend in front of a 100 witness while she was at her high school reunion. Another tragic shooting occurred at a Phoenix church fatally wounding and killing a clergyman. Associated Press reports that on June 11 a homeless ex-convict with a history of violence and drug abuse allegedly killed a clergyman with a handgun retrieved by another priest after he was hit with an iron rod.