Ticking Time Bombs

A tragedy such as this seems to be nearly a monthly event somewhere in the world. Since 1990, more than 77 shootings have occurred at U.S. schools and colleges, leading to the deaths of more than 167 students and teachers/staff. This compares with seven deaths in five such shootings in Canada; 14 in all of Europe, with 91 fatalities; and eight in the rest of the world, with 29 fatalities.

This does not include the recent rash of school killings in China between March and May of 2010. During six individual incidents in China, men burst into schools and stabbed children as young as five years old with meat cleavers or other weapons. The murderers ranged from unemployed farmers to a physician. These figures also do not include the many children who have been casualties of war and radical anti-education fundamentalism in Iraq and Afghanistan.