US school shootings peak at record high of 193 last academic year

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The number of school shootings in the United States has been exponentially rising as of late, surging to reach 193 documented incidents during the last academic year. These crimes have left 59 people dead and scores wounded, advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety said Friday in a report.

"Between August 1, 2021, and May 31, 2022, there were 193 incidents of gunfire at preschools and K-12 schools - nearly four times the average during these months in all other years. These incidents left 59 people shot and killed and 138 people shot and wounded," the report read. 

The number of incidents was the highest it had ever recorded since 2013 when Everytown for Gun Safety began tracking gun violence in schools in the United States, the report noted.

The report also revealed that a total of 62 incidents were recorded in the 2020-2021 school year.

According to the group, a total of 848 school shootings have shaken the United States since 2013, which resulted in the death of 188 people and the injury of 392 others. Nearly half the victims of these incidents that took place on school grounds have been students.

The latest school shooting to shake the United States took place in late May when an 18-year-old boy carried out a mass shooting that claimed the lives of at least 21 people at an elementary school in Texas. He used two weapons, which include an AR15-style automatic rifle.

The US House of Representatives passed in late July a bill that, if passed, would ban assault weapons, marking a first in decades in light of a mass shooting epidemic in the country.

The anti-gun legislation was approved by 217 House members and opposed by 213 in the body controlled by a Democratic party majority.

The United States is deeply divided about reforming gun laws despite an erratic episode of gun violence that has seen an escalation in recent months. The bill passed the House floor with the support of two Republicans who joined efforts with their democratic counterparts and backed the measure.

This marks the first ban on assault rifles since 1994 when Congress passed a 10-year ban on the weapons and certain high-capacity magazines. Lawmakers, however, let the ban expire in 2004, sending the sales of arms nationwide skyrocketing.

If passed, the bill would ban the sale, import, manufacture, or transfer of certain semi-automatic rifles, which have long been used in the United States in mass shootings, especially over the latest period, such as in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, and Highland Park, Illinois.

Gunmakers in the United States have seen a tremendous hike in earnings from their sales of AR-15-style rifles, a US House Oversight Committee probe revealed as the country undergoes a mass shooting crisis and while lawmakers call for holding the industry accountable for crimes committed using their products.

"Gun manufacturers collected more than $1 billion from the sale of AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons in the last decade - and sales are increasing as gun deaths and mass shootings rise," a memorandum on the Oversight Committee investigation said. 

Firearm manufacturer Daniel Defense earned more than $120 million in revenue from selling AR-15-Style rifles in 2021, a three-fold increase from the amount it made two years earlier in 2019.

As the #US undergoes a mass shooting crisis and while lawmakers call for holding the industry accountable for crimes committed using their products, gunmakers have seen a tremendous hike in earnings from their sales of AR-15-style rifles, according to data.#GunViolence pic.twitter.com/DWVhXalW0J

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) July 28, 2022