Why is everyone so caught up with the definition of "school shooting", and why isn't anyone providing any sources to back up their own personal definitions of what it means? The links below are the top 3 results when I googled "school shooting definition", and they all boil down to "a shooting that happened at a school."<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/school-shooting" rel="nofollow">https://www.britannica.com/topic/school-shooting</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting</a><p><a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-455.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-455.pdf</a><p>I ask this in good faith: why does the definition have to be so specific? What is the problem with defining a "school shooting" as "a shooting that happened at a school"?
Only Americans could quibble over what consitiutes the definition of a school shooting. Everyone else just expects to have <i>no</i> events per week that might meet even the broadest definition.
This is extremely misleading. The source data is the problem here, no account is taken about what constitutes a "school shooting". For example, if someone parks in a school parking lot at midnight and discharges a weapon, that is counted as a "school shooting" because it's on school grounds. In reality it's not what anyone considers to be a school shooting, and none of the school children are affected.<p>Lots of shootings happen in the parking lot at high school football games, one woman got shot outside an early learning center in a domestic dispute and that too is included as a "school shooting". There are many other incidents like these which are not what we know as "school shootings" but are included in some school shooting data sites.<p>The problem is serious enough and there is no need to add hype to it by using poor source data. All you do is create the opportunity for counter-arguments that have nothing to do with the actual issues.
I don't know how to feel about something like this. Obviously there is benefit in highlighting systematic issues, however it may also be detrimental to highlight the actions of those who are killing for glory...<p>Also I'm not sure I would qualify the shooting in Texas as a school shooting. By that I mean in the U.S. the term in my mind means an act of terror targeting a school, however this seemed more like a grudge match where a gun was pulled.<p>I don't mean to take away from what you've built ExtraE, your effort and creativity are appreciated :)
This is likely misleading because most school shooting statistics include shootings that are school adjacent and not the tragic story from situations like sandy hook or colombine .
Funny this comes up today. Belgium is now having a gun alert on a school today. Not a shooting, and I hope they stay rare. Even so, someone here commented we're turning into a little USA.<p><a href="https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2021/10/07/gun-alert-at-kortrijk-university/" rel="nofollow">https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2021/10/07/gun-alert-at-kortrij...</a>