In the two years since the horrific mass killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Georgia has had more school-shooting incidents than any other state, according to a report released Wednesday by gun control advocates.
The report by Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense counted 12 incidents in Georgia schools and colleges since the Sandy Hook tragedy on Dec. 14, 2012. A mentally ill gunman shot and killed 20 students and six adults at the Connecticut elementary school, an incident that renewed the national debate about gun control. The report said there have been at least 95 school shootings nationwide since Sandy Hook.
Georgia school shootings in the report included the fatal shooting in October of a 17-year-old Fulton County student in the Langston Hughes High School parking lot after a football game.
Seven of the 12 incidents detailed in the report on Wednesday were at Georgia colleges; four were at high schools or middle schools; and one was at an elementary school. The organizations behind the report said they relied on news accounts to compile the list of 95 incidents. The report included a range of shooting incidents: discharging a weapon on the campus or school grounds, suicide or attempted suicide, aggravated assault (in which one person shot another, who survived) and homicide.
Those involved in putting together the report called for stronger federal legislation to keep firearms from convicted criminals and the mentally ill.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will take a closer look at the report in an upcoming article.
The shootings, some were discharging weapons with no injuries, listed at Georgia schools included:
- Jan. 31, 2013, Price Middle School
- Feb. 1, 2013, Morehouse College
- Feb. 27, 2013, Henry W. Grady High School
- Aug. 20, 2013, Ronald E. McNair Academy
- Sept. 21, 2013, Savannah State University
- March 30, 2014, Savannah State University
- May 4, 2014, Paine College, Augusta
- May 5, 2014, Paine College, Augusta
- Sept. 5, 2014, Savannah State University
- Oct. 3, 2014, Langston Hughes High in Fairburn
Everytown.org also supplied the AJC with a list of states ranked by shooting incidents:
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