Another school shooting was in the news in the US soon after we arrived in Arizona. Ho hum. I learned an interesting thing about the US when we arrived. According to the World Population review the total number of school shootings per country from 2009 to 2018 are telling. They tell us a lot about the United States.  The US leads globally in school shootings by a very wide margin.  It had 288 during that time. Its nearest competitor in this dubious category is Mexico at 8 per year. The US has 36 times as many as Mexico, commonly perceived as a very violent country.  South Africa comes in third at 6 per year, Nigeria and Pakistan both at 4 and Brazil, Canada and France each at 2.  Canada has more than most but is far behind the US. Azerbaijan, China, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, Russia and Turkey each average 1. No other country averages more than 1.

I have heard people say this means Americans  love their guns more than their children.

Yet, things seem to be getting worse. I learned that 2021, 2022, and 2023 were the three years with the highest number of school shootings in the US.

What does this tell us about the United States? I think it tells us a lot and none of it is very pleasant.