Gun violence in K-12 Schools: The Hidden Costs of Inaction
No student or educator in America should have to fear for their safety while in their school or community. Unfortunately, school shootings and the threat of gun violence have shattered that sense of security for far too long. Since 2012, there have been more than 2,654 mass shootings in the US—attacks in which four or more people are shot, excluding the shooter.
Clearly, our response to gun violence has been far from adequate, and when we fail to address this problem, we promote the idea that it is both normal and unavoidable. If we don’t make a change, the children who are growing up today will think of tragedies like the ones that happened in Sandy Hook, Charleston, San Bernardino, and all the other places as normal. Our inaction today is making it impossible to come up with solutions in the future. We can’t be complicit in numbing our country to gun violence anymore.
K-12 Schools cannot afford gun violence. According to the US Secret Service, 33,000 people are shot in the country each year — which averages out to more than ten shootings every day. Schools have enough difficulty trying to keep these issues under control without having to worry about the extra costs associated with gun violence. Rather than trying to get rid of all guns completely, it would make more sense to focus on keeping those who already have them secured. This would still allow those who have not yet acquired a firearm access to one if they choose to do so, without putting everyone at risk.
In the past few years, there has been a great deal of media attention on gun violence in k-12 schools. Little has been said, however, about the hidden costs of inaction. Here are some staggering data to consider when considering the costs of inaction.
– In an average year, gun violence in America kills 40,000 people, wounds twice as many, and has an economic consequence to our nation of $557 billion. Without a doubt, the human cost of gun violence—the people who are taken from us and the survivors whose lives are forever altered—is the most devastating.
– This staggering $557 billion figure is five times the nation’s budget for the Department of Education, which funds preschool through college for millions of Americans. If shooting tragedies were prevented from occurring in the first place, the vast funds spent in the aftermath of gun violence could be directed toward beneficial and productive investments such as educating the next generation.
– This $557 billion problem represents the lifetime costs associated with gun violence, including three types of costs: immediate costs starting at the scene of a shooting, such as police investigations and medical treatment; subsequent costs, such as treatment, long-term physical and mental health care, earnings lost to disability or death, and criminal justice costs; and cost estimates of quality of life lost over a victim’s life span for pain and suffering of victims and their families.
– The damage caused by gun violence, of course, is not limited to the individual who was shot. Educators are among the millions of Americans whose lives are forever changed by gun violence, in their schools, and in their towns. When a person’s life is cut short or altered in this way, the trajectory of their family’s life changes forever as well. And the high cost that society bears extends far beyond medical bills.
Gun violence in America has reached epidemic proportions.
School shootings now happen on average once a week, but the emotional damage that students and teachers experience on a daily basis is often ignored. This emotional damage can be just as dangerous as the physical damage a bullet can cause. Now more than ever, it is time to adopt gun violence prevention measures —which have the potential to save lives and make school communities feel safe again.
