There have been too many school shootings — but how many depends on whom you ask

Obviously, a single school shooting is too many, but last month the numbers being thrown around in the media seemed awfully high compared to the media coverage you’d expect.

On Jan. 23, The New York Times reported that a school shooting in Kentucky was the 11th of the year. However, some who looked into the number a little more deeply found, for example, a couple of suicides and one man shooting a pellet gun at a passing school bus.

After Wednesday’s horrific shooting in Florida that left at least 17 dead, the number seemed to vary depending on whom you asked.

Everytown for Gun Safety:

https://twitter.com/bjlutz/status/963881737964187648

ABC News correspondent Mary Bruce says 18.

There have been 18 school shootings, just THIS YEAR. It's only mid-February.

— Mary Bruce (@marykbruce) February 14, 2018

NBC News’ Brian Williams is saying it’s the 12th school shooting this year.

.@BrianWilliams @MSNBC just reported this is the 12th school shooting in America in just the first 45 days of 2018. Appalling

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) February 14, 2018

CBS says 18:

Wednesday's deadly shooting in Parkland, Florida, was the eighteenth school shooting this year. By this time last year, there were seven. https://t.co/PFrimy6L6J pic.twitter.com/ZzpnrKASD6

— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 15, 2018

Which is it? Possibly the 5th, 8th, or 19th.

On a far more serious note, just seen early reports of yet another horrific school shooting in Florida. The 8th school shooting in USA this year, & it's only February 14th.
Of course it's nothing to do with the millions of guns owned in the USA. That would be a silly argument.

— Robert Llewellyn (@bobbyllew) February 14, 2018

I believe this is the 3rd or 4th school shooting that made national news in the past month. We're in mid February. We're in for a rough 2018. You don't know how serious this situation is till it happens in your backyard.#DouglasStrong #DouglasHighSchool #douglasshooting

— Marckley E. (@marck_ley) February 15, 2018

Just by numbers alone, Everytown’s total of 18 seems to be the one most citizens and journalists rely on — though we’re assuming that total includes the pellet gun and other shootings that happened near a school and in several cases harmed no one.

Katy Tur is with Team NBC, so we’re guessing she’s going with 12.

How in the hell did we let it get to this? https://t.co/4FHgTBPjBy

— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) February 14, 2018

https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/963931567939825665

https://twitter.com/dmartosko/status/963925957852712968

Can we get a source for BB guns being counted as a school shooting?

— Bearistotle (@ErrantKoi) February 15, 2018

It’s right here if anyone’s interested, courtesy of HuffPost.

https://t.co/AzmPFztARQ

The organization defines a school shooting as "any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds."

— marilyn maupin (@marilynmaupin) February 15, 2018

Which organization? Why, Everytown for Gun Safety, of course.

If we’re going to have an honest debate about guns, would it be too much to settle on a common definition of “school shooting” first?

* * *

Update:

National Review Online’s Charles C.W. Cooke has had it with people saying there have been 18 school shootings this year:

There haven’t. There have been 3. That’s 3 too many. It is not 18. Go have a look at Everytown’s list, and you’ll see what they are doing.

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) February 15, 2018