Not a Battleground: School Shootings and the Right to a Safe and Protective Environment

Violence is a daily reality for many children, at home, at play and at school. More than 100,000 children die from violence every year, and others suffer the effects well into adulthood. This is a violation of Article 19 of the UNCRC, which stipulates that every child has the right to a safe environment to grow up in, protected from all kinds of violence.
School should be a safe place where young people can grow and develop without fear. School shootings are a very real threat to many children, devastating families, creating a lifetime of trauma for survivors, and affecting millions more children by putting them in a permanent state of alert in their learning environment.
To prevent school shootings, we need a better understanding of the causes, and therefore more academic research, and better data, therefore detailed registration of incidents by national governments.