School shootings have claimed more lives than active military duty in the US so far this year
At least 31 people in the United States have been killed in school shootings so far in 2018 while 29 military service members died in the same period of time, according to an analysis of the Department of Defense data. The most recent school shooting unfolded on Friday in Santa Fe High School in Texas claiming 10 lives.
According to the Washington Post, out of the 20 servicemen that were killed so far this year, nine were killed in a plane crash in Georgia earlier this month and seven were killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq in March. At least three other military deaths were not associated with combat or gunfire.
Reports state that more than 50 million students attend public schools in America and the US military consists of roughly 1.3 million people. Considering these figures, the chances of a military member being killed in combat is at least 40 times higher than the likelihood of a public school student being shot to death on campus.
It is unusual for school shooting deaths to surpass military deaths in the US. In 2017, more than six times as many American service members had died than victims of school shootings, according to reports.
According to the Post's analysis, when comparing data at this point in the year to the years before, more people have been killed in school shootings in 2018 than in any other year since 2000.
According to the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, America had 38,658 gun deaths in 2016, including suicides.
The number of school shooting casualties this year was bolstered by the Texas shooting and the Parkland school shooting on February 14.
Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland, Florida, opened fire on the campus with his legally-bought AR-15 rifle, killing 17 people. Most of the victims of the massacre were students and teachers. The Parkland massacre is deemed as the deadliest mass shooting in 2018 so far.
Reports state that without the Texas school shooting and Parkland shooting, the total number of casualties would be have been four deaths in 14 school shooting incidents so far this year.