School Shootings the Media Won’t Talk About
On January 4th, the first day back at school after the holidays, a 17 year old student at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa opened fire in the school. He killed a 6th grader and injured 7 others before turning the gun on himself.
The news media flocked to the press conference to cover the event. As the police began to give the details on the shooting, they lauded a 7 minute response time and indicated the shooter used a revolver and shotgun. As soon as that news was released I posted on the Boondocks Facebook Page that “the media will quickly bury the story because the shooter used a shotgun and revolver, instead of an AR-15. “
Some may argue that the media dropped the story because only 1 person died, but on January 14th, the 56 year old principal who was heralded a hero for helping to save the lives of his students also died. I bet you didn’t hear about that either.
This isn’t the first time the media has ignored an Active Shooter Event because it didn’t check their demographic or “weapons used” boxes. In May of 2018, just 3 months after the Parkland school shooting, a 17 year old student of Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas killed 10 and wounded 13 more. This was the 3rd deadliest high school shooting behind Parkland and Columbine. However, because the school shooter at Santa Fe used a shotgun and a revolver, the media virtually ignored it. A few weeks later in Noblesville Indiana, a heroic teacher trained in how to stop a mass shooting saved the lives of countless students in his class, yet it never made the news. This is just another example of the media attempting to push an anti-gun narrative.
If the goal is to save lives, then we need to learn from past events and to study what worked and what didn’t. We covered this extensively in our 2022 Blog article “How to Reduce Mass Shootings” after the Uvalde school shooting.
The media left Perry, Iowa as soon as they realized the story would not help their cause. Without the national spotlight, the victims, the families and the community were left to pick up the pieces on their own, and they will need all the prayers and support they can get.
The truth is it is highly unlikely the police will arrive in time to make a difference in the number of deaths. If they do arrive, there is no guarantee they will have the training or leadership to take effective action. Take a few minutes to read the article linked HERE on the multiple failures in Uvalde. During an event like this, you should be prepared to be ON YOUR OWN. If you are in charge of a school, church, business or organization, I encourage you to take advantage of our Unarmed Active Shooter or our many Church Security Training options. If you are an individual, I urge you to get advanced training and carry your gun. You might just be the only option to save the lives of your kids, coworkers or church members.
