A new deadly school shooting shook American society this Monday. A teenager, according to first information, killed at least two people at a school in Madison, capital of the Midwestern State of Wisconsin, although initially the authorities spoke of four victims. Then – and, again, according to the preliminary data of the investigation – he committed suicide. The incident also left at least six people injured.
Regarding the dead, the only certainty is that one of them is a teacher at the school, as explained by Madison Police Chief Shon F. Barnes in an impromptu press conference. Barnes defined this Monday as a “very, very sad day” for the community he serves and clarified that some of the victims’ families had not yet been informed. “This investigation remains ongoing,” the Madison Police Department added in a statement. “More information will be released as it becomes available.”
The attack occurred around 11 a.m. on one of the last school days before the Christmas holidays. The police immediately went to the scene. The educational center, a religious school called Abundant Life, welcomes 390 students from kindergarten to 18 years old.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin’s representative in Washington, reacted shortly on social media: “My deepest condolences and prayers for all the victims of the tragedy at Abundant Life Christian School. “I will monitor the situation closely.” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, also went to We are grateful to the police officers who are working quickly to respond [a los acontecimientos]”.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that tracks mass shootings in the United States, there have been 486 incidents of this type this year (in 2023, there were 659). For a shooting to be considered mass, according to the FBI, at least four people must die or be injured, not counting the shooter, and they must also not be members of the same family. In these 12 months, 83 have occurred in educational centers in the United States, which is a historical record since CNN has been keeping track.
In the modern history of gun violence in the United States, events in schools constitute one of its most terrible episodes. The shooting at a school in Columbine, Colorado, is often considered the beginning of a new era, 25 years ago this April. Then, 15 people died in an attack organized for months by two students from the institute. In September, two teachers and two students were killed in a shooting at an educational center in the State of Georgia when a 14-year-old boy opened fire in a town in Apalachee, about 80 kilometers northeast of Atlanta.
Of the 10 deadliest shootings in US history, three occurred at a school or university. They are those of Virginia Tech in 2007 (32 dead plus the murderer), that of Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 (27 plus the shooter) and, in 2022, that of Uvalde, in Texas, (21 and the attacker). This reality has meant that training in shooting drills has become a custom that the children of this country, from a very early age, have to learn to live with.
The last episode, this Monday in Madison, will probably open the recurring debate on the need to increase gun control in the United States, a fruitless effort, in which the defense of the sacrosanct Second Amendment, which guarantees its possession, ends always winning, amid the inaction of Washington politicians. Some voices advocate increasing security in schools, installing metal detection arches and even arming teachers, a controversial proposal. Meanwhile, parents across the country can’t help but feel a chill every time they send their children to class in the morning, a place that should be safe, but from which there is no guarantee that they will return alive at the end of school. day.
