On Tuesday, after news broke of a gunman taking the life of a teenager at a high school in Oregon, President Obama spoke out on Tumblr about the increasing frequency of shootings that are taking place in American schools. In the question and answer session, Obama pointed the finger at Congress for failing to enact important legislations to curb access to guns and tighten regulations for obtaining and owning firearms.
According to data compiled of school shootings in the last 18 months, 75% of the guns used were purchased legally. In looking back over the past 30 years, assault weapons and/or high capacity magazines have been used in more than 50% of the mass shootings taking place within this time period.
The President went on to lament our status as one of the most violent developed nations.
The research supports Obama’s statement: 74 schools shootings have taken place in the United States since December of 2012, when the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School occurred. This averages about one school shooting per week.
Sadly, most of the incidences that qualify as mass shootings (four or more people killed or wounded) go unreported by the media, implying that our perspective on the frequency of such occurrences is a conservative estimate. President Obama says that “we should be ashamed” that school and mass shootings are “becoming the norm”, and hopes that future attempts to move gun regulation measures through Congress will be successful.