According to the
National School Safety Center, there were approximately fifteen 'school-associated deaths' caused by
violent crime--including
guns--during the 1999-2000 school year. That number is unchanged from the 1998-1999 school year, when fifteen students were killed by
guns, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By comparison, fifteen high school football players died during regular season and playoff games in 1999, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Why no calls for 'reasonable' football control laws? Why no saturated media coverage as dead football players are carried off the field in stretchers? Why no class-action lawsuits against Spalding for manufacturing cheap Saturday Night Special footballs? Doing so would be no more silly than attacking the right to bear arms, which is a civil right explicitly protected in the Constitution.