There are at least 555 reasons to ask whether American children are safer from gun violence today than they were three years ago, when the unthinkable happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
That’s how many kids under the age of 12 have died from gunshots — both intentional and accidental — since Adam Lanza stormed into the school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012, and shot dead 20 children and six staff members, according to an NBC News analysis.
With 14 reported killed so far, and another 14 or so wounded, Wednesday’s gun attack at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California goes down as one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern American history — and the worst since 27 were killed in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.
Besides Newtown, only four other attacks have ended with larger body counts.
Another aspect that makes the Inland Regional Center shooting unique is the number of attackers. The vast majority of mass shootings have been carried out by lone gunmen; two people are suspected in San Bernardino.
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Students visit a makeshift memorial set up on the campus of Virginia Tech for the students and faculty that lost their lives in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history on April 18, 2007 in Blacksburg, Va. Evan Vucci / AP File
On Dec. 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza — armed with his mother’s guns — stormed into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and murdered 20 children and six adult members of staff. As the nation mourned in the wake of that unthinkable tragedy, many citizens and lawmakers raised their voices to demand stricter gun control laws, President Obama vowed to use his power to curb gun violence. “We’re not doing enough,” he said at a December vigil. “And we will have to change.” Tragically, change has been slow in coming.
According to Slate’s gun deaths tally project, at least 9,901 gun-related deaths in the United States have been reported by the media since the Newtown shooting.
This number, says Slate, is a gross underestimate of the actual number of deaths caused by guns in the last 10 months.
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Jillian Soto uses a phone to get information about her sister, Victoria Soto, a teacher at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, after a gunman killed over two dozen people, including 20 children. Victoria Soto, 27, was among those killed. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
After the horrifying shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school last week, people seem to be asking the same questions: What kind of person could open fire on innocent children? Why do such incidents keep happening? And what can we do to prevent such crimes?
We may never know what spurred the man who killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn., on Friday, and whether he could have been stopped.
But psychologists have created profiles of mass shooters, and many common themes — and even warning signs — emerge.
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Psychologists say that people who commit mass shootings often have a consistent profile.
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