10 scary statistics to use for your National School Walkout Day posters

In response to the devastating school shooting in Parkland, Florida, organizers behind the youth arm of the Women’s March are planning a national school walkout for Wednesday, March 14th. The event is being organized to protest the continued negligence of government officials with regard to common-sense gun control measures.

So many of our elected representatives have long tried to sidestep the issue of gun control, claiming there is nothing that can be done or trying to refocus the conversation by stigmatizing mental health issues — and students across the nation have decided enough is enough. The National School Walkout on March 14th will last for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 individuals who died in the Parkland shooting.

Are you planning to participate in the National School Walkout? Here are some very real statistics about gun violence in America to use for your protest signs or talking points.

1188 in 18 years

The Washington Post estimates that there have been at least 188 shootings on school and university campuses since 2000. In addition to the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, “there have been shootings at elementary schools in seven other states” during that 18-year-period, The Post reported.

2300 million

That’s how many guns Americans are estimated to own, according to The Post. It averages out to roughly one gun per person.

317,012

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has calculated that an average of 17,012 children and teens are injured by guns every year in the U.S. Of those 17,012, roughly 2,647 will die from gun violence.

4It’s a gun issue, not a mental health issue

Each year, mass shootings by a person who could be considered mentally ill make up just 1% of all deaths from gun violence.

546

That’s the average number of children injured by gun violence every day in America, as calculated by the Brady Campaign.

6We’re No. 1

And that’s not a good thing. It means the U.S. has the highest number of mass shootings of any nation in the world.

7$54 million

According to The Los Angeles Times, the National Rifle Association (and its affiliate, the NRA Institute for Legislative Action) donated a whopping $54 million to political candidates during the 2016 election cycle. More than $30 million of that was spent in support of President Donald Trump.

8Nine per second

That’s how fast the semi-automatic gun used in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting could fire bullets. Shooter Stephen Paddock modified a semi-automatic rifle to make it faster and more efficient, using a legal implement called a bump stock.

956,755

That’s how many people in the U.S. were killed by guns between 2014 and 2017. The number includes 2,710 children under the age of 12.

10One per month

In 2015 and 2016, at least one school shooting took place every month in the U.S., according to The Week.

These statistics are a sobering reminder of the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S. And they’re exactly why National School Walkout Day is happening.

The 2018 National School Walkout will take place in several locations across the country. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.