On October 14th around 8:25 pm this year, Virginia State University (VSU) Petersburg, was locked down after a campus shooting where one person as injured.

Two hours later VSU Police had tweeted ” Police have cleared the scene.   Officers will remain vigilant.  Campus lockdown has been lifted.”

Americans own nearly half (48%) of the estimated 650 million civilian-owned gun worldwide. This is according to a CNN’ report on July 19, 2017.    Here are yet more facts about gun violence in the U.S. as reported by CNN:

 

  • According to World Health Organization, the US has one of the highest death rates by firearms in the developed world.
  • The gun homicide rates in the U.S. are 25.2 times higher than in other high-income countries
  • Two-thirds of American gun owners say a major reason they own a gun is for their personal protection, according to the Pew Research Center.  However, the majority of America’s gun-related deaths are attributed to self-harm.
  • U.S. holds 31% of global mass shooters even though it makes up less than 5% of the world’s population.

 

In addition to  Donald Trump’s xenophobic immigration policies, is it possible that America’s high publicised rate of gun-related deaths is affecting international student enrollment?