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There have been more school shootings in 2021 than any other year since 1999

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A candlelight vigil was held last year for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Seventeen students died in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
Wilfredo Lee
/
AP
A candlelight vigil was held last year for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Seventeen students died in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

On Nov. 30, the deadliest school shooting in three years occurred when a 15-year-old student used a semiautomatic handgun to murder four and injure seven at Oxford High School in Michigan.

An estimated 27,000 students on K-12 campuses across 22 states were exposed to gun violence in 2021, according to a Washington Post database, which shows that there have been more school shootings this year than any other since at least 1999.

What has driven the spike in on-campus gun violence since March 2021? How are students and educators affected by the persistent, even normalized, threat of gun violence at school?

Is enough being done to decrease the amount of gun violence on campuses across the U.S.? Should charges also be considered for parents or administrators who fail to take reasonable actions to prevent such violence?

Guest: John Woodrow Cox, enterprise reporter for The Washington Post and author of "Children Under Fire: An American Crisis"

"The Source" is a live call-in program airing Mondays through Thursdays from 12-1 p.m. Leave a message before the program at (210) 615-8982. During the live show, call 833-877-8255, email thesource@tpr.org or tweet @TPRSource.

*This interview was recorded on Tuesday, December 7.

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