What if I told you that there was a disease in America that has killed over 47,000 people since 2015. In the 79 days since the ball dropped for 2018, there have already been 3,319 deaths and 5,815 people injured or affected by it. I bet I’ve sparked your interest only because you’re now wondering, what is this disease and how do I make sure I don’t die from it, right?

These statistics are all true, I have not made anything up, except for the idea that it is a disease that is killing all of these people. These deaths and injuries are not from a disease, but from mass shootings and gun violence, and these numbers were pulled from gunviolencearchive.org. Sad to say but, I doubt any of you were shocked by that.

Mass shootings and gun violence in the US has become a subject of discussion only when we hear that another shooting has happened, but no one is actually talking about it. I lived in Connecticut growing up, in a small town about an hour from Newtown, CT. You might recognize this town to be the home of Sandy Hook elementary school, where in 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 six and 7-year-old children, and six adult staff members.

Lanza took three guns from his house that morning, two pistols and a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle. Lanza shot and killed his mother first, then headed to the school. He shot an entrance into the locked elementary school and made his way to a kindergarten class. Lanza shot all 14 students in the classroom, then moved to a first-grade class. There he shot the 27-year-old teacher and killed six other students in the room.

The first emergency calls were made around 9:30 that morning. Two minutes and 41 seconds after reports were made, the first officer arrived. Police report that no law enforcement officers took out their weapons at any point. Seeing an officer approaching, Lanza took his own life.

On April 20, 1999, 17-year-old Eric Harris and 18-year-old Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured more than 20 in a mass shooting at Columbine High School, Colorado. The two shooters arrived at their school around 11:10 a.m., and planted two duffel bags each containing a 20-pound propane bomb, set to explode at 11:17 a.m. according to history.com. When the bombs failed to detonate, the two made their way into the library where they shot many of their victims. Shortly after 12 p.m., the two turned their guns on themselves.

In a list titled Deadliest Mass Shootings in Modern US History found on CNN, this shooting at Columbine is ranked the 14th deadliest shooting in the US. The top two deadliest shootings happened only in the past two years.

On October 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock opened fire from a window on the 32nd floor in a room he had in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Paddock sprayed gunfire into the Harvest Music Festival crowd of about 22,000 people. 58 people died in the shooting and almost 500 were injured. Police entered Paddocks room to find him lying dead after killing himself. The only thing found was a paper in his room, containing calculations Paddock had made to determine how far his bullets would drop based on the height of his room and the distance between himself and the venue. Authorities believe he acted alone in this. In killing 58 concertgoers, Paddock holds the number 1 spot on the list for deadliest mass shootings in America.

June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen opened fire at a nightclub in Orlando. Killing 49 people and injuring more than 50, this holds the number 2 spot. Mateen was shot and killed by police, freeing the hostages Mateen held in the nightclub. The third deadliest mass shooting was on April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech, where 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and injured an unknown amount. Cho took his first shots around 7:15 a.m., and by 10 o’clock, he had killed 30 people, left 17 wounded, and took his own life.

On this list, Sandy Hook currently holds the fourth spot for deadliest shootings in America. The list goes all the way back to September 5, 1949, where 28-year old WWII vet Howard Unruh walked down the streets in Camden NJ and killed 13 people in what is known as his “Walk of Death.” Unruh was found insane and was committed to a state mental institution after the shooting. And most recently, on February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz killed 17 adults and children at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

In all of these cases, the shooters were white males who were found to have some form of mental instability. Lanza spent years in counseling with psychiatrists and psychologists. Harris and Klebold were arrested multiple times for setting off small bombs behind the pizza building they worked for. They also created a video titled, “Hitmen for Hire” in which they acted out killing bullies from their high school. Both had run-ins with authorities and the dean of their school was not surprised after the shooting to find out it was those two boys.

Doctors said that Paddock may have been bipolar, and was a germaphobe. He was prescribed medicine for depression and anxiety, but was fearful of medication so he refused to take it.

Mateen was placed on a terrorist watch list by the FBI in 2013 and 2014, but was removed from the database after the FBI closed its investigations on the issue. He also had a history of beating his wife. Cho was known as a loner and had a history of mental health issues. Cruz was known to neighbors to have a dark side, and many people stated they thought Cruz was going to end up in jail for having murdered someone.

These are only some of the commonly known mass shootings, but there is a whole list of some that many do not even know about. In efforts to spread awareness of these events, I encourage you to learn more and to join the discussion.