Here’s a brief news quiz.

Last week, a shooter opened fire at a Catholic church where students were celebrating Mass to mark the first day of school.

In what city did this happen? What was the name of the school? How many children were killed and wounded?

The correct answers: The shooting occurred in Minneapolis, at the Annunciation Catholic School, and that two students were killed and 17 injured.

If you struggled to remember those details, you’re not alone. So frequent are these awful events that they fade quickly into the background, swallowed by the ceaseless torrent of news and information Americans absorb each day. Even those adept readers who remembered the details of last week’s shooting aren’t likely to remember the two which preceded it this year. (Those would be May 7 at Thurston High School in Redford, Michigan, and April 15 at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in Dallas.)

Education Week maintains a database with the strictest standards for school shootings, only counting those that took place on school property or at school-related events, during school hours, and that involve deaths or injuries to students or personnel. It counts eight such incidents of violence in 2025. Even with those very narrow parameters, the news outlet tallied 39 such shootings in 2024, 38 in 2023 and 51 in 2022.

Since Education Week launched its database in 2018, 229 total shootings killed 144 people and injured 409 others. Those numbers don’t include the trauma endured by students and staff in these terrible incidents; the Washington Post estimates that more than 300,000 children have experienced a shooting during school hours since the 1999 violence at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Our region has not escaped this uniquely American epidemic. In 2023, a 6-year-old student shot and wounded his teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, a case that drew fleeting national attention. And during the last academic year, three area students were shot— two fatally — in separate incidents while waiting at bus stops before the school day.

That is not an exhaustive list. There have been plenty — far too many — shootings around secondary schools and colleges that might not qualify under the Education Week standards but were painful for our communities nonetheless.

We must refuse to merely accept that this is our reality. Every time a shooting such as Minneapolis happens, it should prompt deep and serious introspection about how we can prevent such violence in the future.

That should begin with the certainty that it’s far too easy to obtain a firearm in a country awash with them. If we valued the lives of those killed in places such as Columbine, Uvalde or Parkland, this nation would have made gun control a priority long ago. Even the horror at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 didn’t lead to meaningful change. That’s a choice, and we could choose a different path.

Yes, there is a mental health crisis in America and more resources should be provided to make care more accessible and affordable, especially among our youth. But, again, it’s easy access to powerful weapons that makes a combustible combination for those in crisis.

Finally, it’s long past time to treat gun violence as a public health crisis as well as a criminal justice problem. It’s critical to address the trauma these incidents inflict and how a community is affected, and build partnerships that can work to improve lives and change outcomes.

Gun violence is the leading cause of death for Virginians aged 1-17, which includes homicides, suicides and accidents. The commonwealth loses scores of young people every year, and each incident is a tragedy that will forever shape the lives of survivors.

We must not look away from these events or allow them to fade into memory. There is more that can be done and each time this happens — in Minnesota or every other state in the union, including Virginia — is a reminder of our complacency.

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