Schools Relatively Safe

Letter to Santa Barbara Unified School District Board Members:

Regarding the concern expressed by Laura Capps about school shootings in the Independent article of March 1, school board members should all know that such concerns are unwarranted. Authoritative data covering the past four years show that on average, only 35 students and others die each year from gun violence in our schools. Think of it as three deaths per month in all our schools out of the roughly 50 million children in school. This is trivial compared to the more than 1,300 children in the U.S. that die from gun violence every year.

It is safe to conclude that school is by far the safest place for children to be, provided the campus is gun-free. Armed defenders on campus only guarantee more deaths in schools.