A renowned English Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, said in a speech to Parliament, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Common sense is anything but common, but here’s a place to put it to use. If a statistic sounds absurd, chances are it is.

On Friday the 13th, the Fountain Hills Times Independent ran an article with the following statistics: “In 2022 there were 155 school shootings and by August 2023 there had been 198.” This means in 2022 there was almost one school shooting per day and in 2023 there were two a day (based on number of school days in a year). Goodness, it seems your children would be much safer in Ukraine.

Security.org is reporting gun incidents (on K-12 school grounds), not school shootings. Incidents like shooting out a window with a BB gun at night or bringing a gun look-alike to school. Yes, the devil is in the details.

And these statistics really fail the common-sense test. Based on the National Center for Education Statistics, a U.S. government agency, in 2019-2020 there were 25 school-associated violent deaths in the country (only 23 were homicides and they were not all shootings). There were 108 homicides from 2000 to 2021. To compare these numbers, here are some more statistics. There were 3,058 teenagers and 1,184 pre-teens killed in car accidents in 2021 (statistics from Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and NHTSA.Gov). Also 444 people died of lightning strikes from 2006 to 2021 (CDC.gov).

My conclusions would be that the drive to school is much more dangerous than being in school and don’t go outside in a thunder storm. Oh yes, one more thing: schools are one of the safest places your kids can be. Even without making them feel like penitentiaries.