19 children, 2 adults killed in Texas elementary school shooting – 3 essential reads on America’s relentless gun violence
By Matt Williams
At least 19 children and two adults were killed when a teenage gunman shot them at a Texas elementary school on May 24, 2022 – the latest mass shooting in a country in which such incidents have become common. A lot remains unknown about the attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a small, predominantly Latino town in South Texas. Police have not as yet revealed a possible motive behind the attack, in which the 18-year-old went classroom to classroom dressed in body armor and carrying two military-style rifles, according to reports. The frequency of school shootings in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the last few years. The Conversation aggregated stories from their recent archives to explain the history of mass shootings in the U.S. and why the government has failed to take action on gun control. Rebeccah Sokol, assistant professor of social work at Wayne State University, along with University of Michigan scholars Patrick Carter and Marc A. Zimmerman shared their research about how the lack of substantive regulation has led to an ever-increasing number of firearms in the hands of U.S. residents. “Since the onset of the public health crisis, firearm sales have spiked. Many of these firearms have ended up in households with teenage children, increasing the risk of accidental or intentional injury or fatalities, or death by suicide,” the scholars wrote. “Most school shooters obtain the firearm from home. And the number of guns within reach of high school-age teenagers has increased during the pandemic.”