This morning, news broke of a school shooting at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky. It came just a day after two other shootings on school grounds. At Italy High School in Texas on Monday, a 16-year-old student reportedly shot and wounded a 15-year-old in the school cafeteria, and just hours later, a 14-year-old was shot in the parking lot outside the NET Charter High School in Louisiana.
According to Everytown research, Monday and Tuesday’s school shootings mean that there have been at least 10 school shootings nationwide in 2018. Since January 2013, there have been at least 283 school shootings across the country — which averages out to one school shooting a week.
Americans know that our children should go to school without the fear of gun violence. Across the country, parents, gun violence survivors, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America volunteers and other gun safety advocates have worked tirelessly to address our gun violence crisis – a crisis with no parallels in other developed countries.
Three more school communities are reeling this week, and as your newsroom plans coverage, I hope you’ll cover this morning’s tragedy not as an isolated event but as the latest painful chapter in a continuing gun violence crisis affecting American students from Texas to Louisiana to Kentucky. For more information on school shootings in the U.S., or to arrange an interview, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
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