![]() ![]() ![]() Require Background Checks on All Gun Sales.Raise the Age to Purchase Semi-automatic Firearms.Enact and Enforce Secure Firearm Storage Laws.Key recommendations of this report are as follows: In partnership with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA)-two of the largest education-related member organizations collectively representing millions of teachers, school personnel, and administrators-Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund (Everytown) is working to ensure our approach to safer schools is driven by evidence, expertise, and care. Schools may choose to have security personnel to intervene in violent and dangerous situations, but those personnel must have a limited role and be carefully selected and trained in order to limit undue harm to students, particularly students of color who have disproportionately suffered from over-policing. In reality, an untrained, armed teacher introduces risks to student safety on a daily basis. An armed teacher cannot transform into a specially trained law enforcement officer in a moment of extreme duress and confusion. We can’t let risky ideas, like arming teachers, dominate the debate. This report focuses on approaches that have been proven most effective, such as keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them in the first place, fostering safe and trusting school environments, crisis intervention programs, access and lock upgrades, and trauma-informed emergency planning. Without a doubt, schools need to take the necessary steps to be safe places for educators and students. This includes using the billions of dollars available in the recently passed Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to invest in proven solutions to keep schools safe from violence. It’s time for our leaders to adopt a multifaceted approach that provides school communities with the tools they need to prevent school-based gun violence. We need meaningful actions to keep our schools and surrounding communities safe, actions that address what we know about gun violence in America’s schools. The failure to address the root causes of school gun violence from all angles has lasting consequences for millions of American children. Meanwhile, America’s gun violence epidemic, in the form of mass shootings, gun homicides and suicides, and unintentional shootings, has been infecting America’s schools. School year defined as August 1 to May 31. 2 Everytown for Gun Safety collects information on an ongoing basis on all incidents where a gun was discharged in or onto a school’s campus or grounds, using news reports from reputable media sources and verifying these incidents with an independent research firm. From an average of 49 incidents in every school year since 2013, this past school year saw 193 incidents of gunfire on the grounds of preschools and K–12 schools. The worst period for this violence has been in the 2021–2022 school year, which saw nearly quadruple the average number of gunfire incidents since 2013. Our country deserves better.įor the last 20 years, students, educators, and parents have lived with the reality of increasingly frequent school shootings. School is the last place where kids should have to worry about gun violence. 1 “Uvalde School Shooting,” Texas Tribune, accessed August 11, 2022. On May 24, 2022, a gunman shot and killed at least 21 victims-including 19 children and two teachers-and wounded at least 17 others at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a predominantly Latinx community. ![]()
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