Teenager kills at least two people at Wisconsin school

A new school shooting shook American society on Monday. A teenager, according to initial reports, killed two people at a school in Madison, the capital of the Midwestern state of Wisconsin. Then, again according to preliminary data from the investigation, he turned his weapon on himself. The number of victims was initially stated to be at least four, though later reduced to two. Motive remains unknown at this time. The incident also left six injured.

Little has been released on the identity of the victims, but one of them was a teacher at the school, Madison Police Chief Shon F. Barnes explained at an impromptu press conference. The second victim was a student at the school, a teenager like the shooter. “This investigation is still ongoing,” the Madison Police Department added in a statement. “More information will be released as it becomes available.”

The incident occurred at around 11 a.m., on one of the last days of school before the Christmas holidays. Police were immediately on the scene but the school, a religious institution called Abundant Life, has 390 students from kindergarten age to 18-year-olds, according to the school.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin’s representative in Washington, responded shortly after on social media: “My sincere condolences and prayers for all the victims of the tragedy at Abundant Life Christian School. I will continue to closely monitor the situation.” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, said on the same platform: “We are praying for the kids, educators, and entire Abundant Life school community as we await more information and are grateful for the first responders who are working quickly to respond.”

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks mass shootings in the United States, there have been 486 such incidents this year. For a shooting to be considered a mass shooting, according to the FBI, at least four people must be killed, not including the shooter, and they must not be members of the same family.

In the modern history of gun violence in the United States, school shootings constitute one of its most terrible episodes. The massacre at Columbine, Colorado, is often regarded as the beginning of a new era, 25 years ago this April. On that occasion, 15 people were killed in an attack planned for months by two students at the high school. This September, two teachers and two students were killed in a shooting at an educational center in the state of Georgia when a 14-year-old boy opened fire in a town in Apalachee, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Of the 10 deadliest shootings in U.S. history, three occurred at a school or university: Virginia Tech in 2007 (32 dead plus the shooter), Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 (27 plus the shooter) and, in 2022, Uvalde, Texas, (21 and the attacker). That reality has meant that training in shooting drills has become a habit that children in the U.S., from a very early age, have to learn to live with.

This latest episode will likely reopen the recurring debate on the need to increase gun control in the United States, an unsuccessful effort to date in which the defense of the sacrosanct Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms, always ends up prevailing amid the inaction of Washington politicians. Some voices advocate increasing security in schools, installing metal detectors, and even arming teachers, a controversial proposal. Meanwhile, parents across the country can’t help but be concerned every time they send their children to class in the morning, a space that should be safe, but from which there is no guarantee that they will return alive at the end of the day.

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