This devastating map shows every school shooting since 1999—and it will just keep updating
At least 10 people were killed and another 10 wounded in Santa Fe, Texas, today when a teenager unloaded bullets inside yet another American school. According to news reports, a student has been taken into custody for the shooting. The Washington Post, which has been collecting data on school shootings going back to Columbine in 1999, said in a tweet that today’s incident marks the 10th school shooting since the massacre in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead in February.
Developments are still unfolding, but the news has already sparked the normal dichotomy of empty platitudes from lawmakers and vexation from citizens and activists who want action on gun control. Exactly how many school shootings take place each year depends on how you define one–and that definition has been the topic of some debate recently–but there’s no denying the that bloodshed is frequent, pervasive, and all too common.
Esri, a spatial analytics company, has mapped out school shootings since Columbine using the Washington Post’s database. Its interactive map includes statistics such as the number of injuries or fatalities. At last check, today’s shooting in Texas has not yet been added, but a rep from the company says it will likely show up soon. The map pulls WaPo’s data via a live feed and updates automatically when new incidents occur. And sadly, we know they will occur—again and again and again.
The map is embedded below. You can also access it here.
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