School Shootings Since 1850

I didn't know school shootings went back this far but they do. There have been some minor fluctuations on the amount(s) of shootings between the years since record keeping began, however, there has been a steady up-ward trend in the amount of shootings per year since record keeping began. Here's a partial list:

1920's-15 school shootings
1930's-12 school shootings
1940's-10 school shootings
1950's-19 school shootings
1960's-17 school shootings
1970's-24 school shootings
1980's-33 school shootings
1990's-46 school shootings
2000's-50 school shootings
2010's-104 school shootings

See the full list here:
en.wikipedia.org...

What's scariest about this list is that in the 2010's, our current time, we've already done twice as many shootings at 104 as the decade with the second most school shootings of the 1990's at 50, and we're barely halfway through the 2010's. This is alarming to say the least. What says ATS?

en.wikipedia.org...

More kids on antidepressant drugs
The correlation is pretty clear.

not bad numbers per capita, though....
surprised about the history....

Those are very interesting statistics. At this rate imagine how 2030 will look. I'm curious why the steady increase since the 20's. I think desensitization is the main factor.

a reply to: GBP/JPY

the history of these sorts of things go back to the Middle Ages.

A few years ago, I ran across mention of an attack at a school in Scotland, though I can't remember the date.

My thinking has lead me to the thought that one of the causalities is times of change and turmoil. It's not the only cause, but it's a major one.

Add to that a growing reliance on drugs to deal with "problems" that time usually solves and you've recipe for horrific issues.

a reply to: skunkape23

Not the only reason, but certainly a major one.

originally posted by: skunkape23
More kids on antidepressant drugs
The correlation is pretty clear.

Actually the statistics blatantly go against this idea.

There have been about 20 mass killings / mass shootings a year (I would have to double check) in the USA since the 1970s and its held pretty steady. You get two or three in a row due to the supposed copy cat effect, but generally speaking since the onset of psychiatry there hasn't been a massive increase despite a huge increase in the number of pills taken in the United States.

USA is poster child for two things:
1. Psychiatry isn't causing mass shootings
2. Psychiatry isn't stopping mass shootings

Take your own conclusions from that.

What if we make schools "Gun Free" zones? That'll stop it!

Oh, wait...

a reply to: bigal7997

If only Bangladesh had guns... It would save on the continual messy machete hackings.


This is no where near accurate. I wrote an article 10 years ago about this and there were at least 119 shootings I found that never found mass media. So my point would be is simply - you don't know the stats that don't yet exist.

a reply to: Pinke

Psychiatry today is a joke. It is nothing more than a racket to dope out as many people as legally possible. There is another variable however that goes hand in hand with the increase of chemically unstable brains as a result of doping and that is the ever increasing glamour of violent behavior in media.

it was in the 1950's when middle america started filling their homes with tv's. And although they were not watching Sons of Anarchy or 24, they were watching a hell of a lot of westerns and old school gangster flicks. As you see the decades that began increasing also happened to be adding much more content view able by the general population. Plus drugs hit hard in the seventies and eighties and destroyed wonderful productive communities literally overnight, the effects of which are being translated still into today through the violent behaviors and acts which continue to increase.

Regardless, violent crime is still at record lows for the US.

a reply to: Pinke
Have you ever taken an Adderal or a Ritalin pill?
I have. There is no way I would give that crap to a kid.

a reply to: skunkape23

Those medicines and others are given to children and teenagers outside of the US to, in some cases in larger amounts than in the US, explain the missing school shootings.

Its a social and mental problem mixed with easy access to guns, not caused by the drugs, the drugs are just an excuse you made up and that claim has been seen here on ATS numerous times, it's ridicules.

I do agree though, that to many people who needs more professional attention is instead given medicine they don't need.

originally posted by: Legman
a reply to: bigal7997

So my point would be is simply - you don't know the stats that don't yet exist.

So we don't know whether the sun will come up tomorrow until it does.

If you have other numbers that contradict the OP's then give them. The gun free school act originally passed in 1990, and that year the school shootings roughly doubled, then roughly doubled again the next decade, then roughly doubled again in the first 5 years of this decade if you believe the OP's info. Seems like that law had the opposite effect of its intent...

originally posted by: DYepes
a reply to: Pinke

Psychiatry today is a joke. It is nothing more than a racket to dope out as many people as legally possible.

Lot of mainstream psychiatrists would agree with you that the field has problems. Although I don't think research into the area needs to be stopped, there is also no defence of psychiatry in my post.

There is another variable however that goes hand in hand with the increase of chemically unstable brains as a result of doping and that is the ever increasing glamour of violent behavior in media.

America is kind of unique amongst its peers in having high television and entertainment coverage and high violence. Many countries have had high levels of violence with little access to these resources. That's changing now, but the data is still there to show that violence didn't spread with entertainment.


I agree that violence is generally on the way down ... but you also said its on the way up? How do you mean? Or did I misunderstand?

Two points.

1. The US health system is notoriously poor in mental health, mainly because there's no money in it. Goal seems to be the way the US manages people with mental health issues.
2. You can reduce school shootings by reducing access to firearms. This seems to be such a noxious subject that it's best left for another thread!

originally posted by: skunkape23
a reply to: Pinke
Have you ever taken an Adderal or a Ritalin pill?
I have. There is no way I would give that crap to a kid.

This emotive and misleading question has completely nothing to do with anything I've said in this thread what so ever.

The evidence for mass shootings being caused directly by psychiatry being inconclusive does not equal that I would give pills to children nor does it invite a discussion about my experiences with Adderal or Ritalin. It doesn't even mean that I think psychiatry is in a good place.

Please don't fill in my opinions with concrete from your own mind when responding to me. You're welcome to ask what they are though.

Thanks.

a reply to: lostbook

One thing's for sure among all those shootings, 100% verifiable........the weapon did not load itself and pull it's own trigger.

An unstable human did all of that, now what caused the human in each instant to snap is still up for debate.

ATS members interesting study.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

Which no one has claimed or insinuated, so completely pointless towards the topic, and it doesn't change the fact that having unstable people with easy access to guns is stupid.

a reply to: Mianeye

Since I was addressing the OP, and in particular the comment "what says ATS".....I'm part of ATS, and I will address what I consider the elephant in the room when it comes to shootings in the USA.

And since I did address it, i'll take it one step further and lets pretend you clicked your fingers and all guns in the USA vanished for the moment - still have unstable humans - do you reckon they will find an alternative to kill? - I do, but this is my opinion.

So, let's address the unstable humans that pull the trigger (since clicking the fingers didn't work), I don't have the answer in this regard and so far in the history of school shootings in the USA no-one does so I'm all ears in this regard.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

do you reckon they will find an alternative to kill? - I do, but this is my opinion.

As these alternative exist along side the gun today in the US and outside, but are not used as widespread as guns, it is just an assumption based on the unknown.

The thread you linked to was based on the "guns kill people" comments that was used by some people and media, but is completely retarded as every one knows it's said knowing there are people behind.

Bombs don't drop by them self, but still "bombs kill people", just to give an equal example.

To me it's shows the insecurity of the gun pro, and their lack of arguments, they then pick something they can ridicule to justify the need to own guns, and show how stupid the anti gun crowd argument is.