THE SQUIZ
Through to the first half of July, there have been at least 330 mass shootings in the US this year. That’s defined as 4 or more people being killed or injured. And there have been at least 24 acts of gun violence on school grounds while students were there. Since the Columbine High massacre in 1999 when 12 students and one teacher were gunned down by a pair of 12th-grade students, more than 311,000 school kids across America have experienced gun violence at school. This level of gun violence, for the most part, is an American phenomenon, and recent gun control laws secured by the Biden administration have been described as the minimum reforms required. And as a company spruiks bullet-resistant steel enclosures for classrooms, 2 high profile cases were front and centre yesterday.

IS ONE ABOUT UVALDE?
It is, and it’s the most detailed look so far at what happened on 24 May at Robb Elementary School in the Texas town. There’s a lot of blame to go around – it starts with local police, which made mistakes, and goes up to state and federal agencies, which failed to take charge. According to the report written by an investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives, there were 376 local, state and federal law enforcement officers at the scene that day. But their “hesitant and haphazard response” saw 72 minutes elapse from their arrival to when officers entered and killed the shooter. “There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making,” the report says. Still, many parents are scathing with one saying that police “have blood on their hands.” Nineteen students and 2 teachers died, and several investigations continue.

AND THE OTHER CASE?
The sentencing trial for the gunman who killed 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, more than 4 years ago began overnight. Nikolas Cruz is now 23yo – he pleaded guilty, so the only question is whether he gets a life sentence in prison or is put to death. It’s taken nearly 3 months to lock in a jury for the trial that’s expected to go on for months. The jury must be unanimous in deciding to impose the death penalty, and if that can’t be reached, he will be sentenced to life. Cruz was a former student who said he hated “everyone and everything” – he was expelled from the school a year earlier. The sentencing trial has been delayed because of the pandemic and legal manoeuvring.