Another U.S. School Shooting in the News (Knoxville, Tennessee) - So What Else is New ?

Another school shooting in the U.S. took place, this time at Knoxville Tennessee. A 16 year old boy was shot dead by another student Thursday (Aug. 21, 2008) in a school cafeteria. The suspect was arrested six minutes later.

"This was not a shooting that was a random act," William Roehl, deputy chief of the Knoxville, Tennessee police told reporters.

"Both the suspect and the victim knew each other," Roehl said at a press conference.

"We don't know the particulars as to why it escalated to the situation that occurred today."

Witnesses told the Knoxville News Sentinel that the argument began with shouting and shoving.

The 15-year-old shooter pulled a gun out of his backpack, shot the other boy and then "casually walked away as if nothing had happened," one student told pastor Kevin Perry.

This is the latest is a series of deadly shootings in US schools.

At least 449 people have been killed at US elementary and high schools since 1992, according to a recent report by the National School Safety Center.

Of those, 333 were shot either on campus, at a school event or on the way to or from school.

The 2007 to 2008 school year (which runs from August to June) was relatively free of violence for younger students: only three were killed compared with 20 the year before.

However, there were several shootings at US colleges, including six people killed at Northern Illinois University in February.

The deadliest school shooting in US history was at Virginia Tech University where 33 people were killed on April 16, 2007.

DCRJ's say on this: I've heard that you can purchase a rifle or a handheld gun in the U.S. just like buying chocolates in a convenience store. Nobody could justify that each incident is an isolated case. School shootings in the U.S. occured almost always every year since 1966 and continues to be EVERY YEAR starting in 1995 up to this year 2008. There was an incident in the U.S. (1999) where two boys (Harris and Klebold) donned trenchcoats known as 'the trenchcoat mafia' whose favorite video games were DOOM and QUAKE, killed 13 people and injured 24 others and that infamous shootings became known as the Columbine High School Musical..err Massacre. There's Charles Whitman whose name gained infamy with his shooting at the Austin Tower in University of Texas way back in 1966, that incident now lives as a documentary in the Discovery Channel shown here in the Philippines.

Even though there are thousands of schools in the U.S. I can't help not to worry on my daughter's well-being who is currently studying in the U.S. right now

Here's a list of school shootings in the U.S., it's alarming indeed that every year starting in 1999 there's always a tragic case