Do Something So We Don’t Have More School Shootings

The worry starts with news reports about another school shooting somewhere in America.
I worry about it happening at my children’s schools, in my neighborhood, in my community and in our state.  Like many, I figure the likelihood of it happening is very small and that our kids’ schools do a good job in being safe.
But in my soul of souls, I realize this is pure rationalization.  With 300 million handguns in the United States, with a new law that allows people to take weapons into bars and restaurants in South Carolina, with the constant spin from the gun lobby that guns don’t kill people (people do), it’s going to happen at some time.  Unless something is done.
In fact, it already has happened.
In the 78 weeks since Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., there have been at least 74 school shootings across America, according to Everytown, a movement to end gun violence and build a safer America.
One of those shootings was in Orangeburg at S.C. State University earlier this year.  In January, football player Brandon Robinson, 20, was shot to death after an argument outside a college dorm.  The next day, a 19-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder.
But that wasn’t the first school-related shooting in the Palmetto State.   Three students died and 27 were injured in 1968 in Orangeburg as police fired on students at a segregation protest which is commonly referred to as the Orangeburg Massacre.  In 1994, two men fired 14 shots at an S.C. State campus dorm, injuring three.
In 1988 at Oakland Elementary School in Greenwood, a 19-year-old man opened fire in an incident in which two 8-year-old girls died and eight people were wounded.  In 1994, media reports show a Goose Creek High School student was shot in the head while observing a fistfight.  In 1995, a 16-year-old student at Blackville-Hilda High School shot himself after killing a teacher and wounding another.
The list goes on.  In 2007, a Myrtle Beach student who had a handgun in his pocket shot himself in the leg while at school.  In 2010, a Socastee High School freshman reportedly shot at an on-campus officer. Four years later, four Myrtle Beach High School students skipped school and were in an apartment where one juvenile playing with a .38-caliber revolver apparently accidently shot a friend, who was wounded in the right ear and shoulder.
Unless something is done, things aren’t going to get better.  Unfortunately, that means more school shootings in South Carolina.  Principals know it.  Teachers know it.  Police officers know it.  You know it.
South Carolina is ranked fifth in violent crime, according to data from the FBI.  In 2010, the state had 597.7 instances of violent crime per 100,000 people.  Compare that to Wyoming, which has the fifth-lowest violent crime rate (201.4 instances per 100,000 people).
Would it surprise you that Wyoming has the highest gun ownership of any state at 59.7 percent, but only five gun murders in 2010?  Some 42.3 percent of South Carolinians own guns, but the state, which has eight times more people than Wyoming, had 207 gun deaths in 2010.
Things can be done to thwart bad people with guns and to ensure that people who really want them can get them.  There can be tougher background checks to close loopholes.  There can be more education to prevent deaths and promote responsible gun ownership.  There can be tougher laws to get guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.  And we could reconsider the law that allows people to tote guns in bars and restaurants.
If I were king for a day, I’d get rid of most handguns and go the way of England, France, Australia and other developed countries.  But because that’s not likely to happen, we need to do what we can to curb gun violence instead of continuing to give in to gun culture propaganda perpetuated by the National Rifle Association.
And it wouldn’t hurt if our politicians would stop being cowed by the NRA and start thinking of real ways to make schools and communities safer from gun violence.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report.  You can send your letters to:  brack@statehousereport.com.