In the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting on Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Eric Holcomb ordered flags across the state to be lowered until Feb. 19 in respect for the victims, according to a press release.
Businesses and Indiana residents have also been asked to lower their flags.
Leaders from across the state of Indiana have expressed sympathies, prayers and condolences to the wounded, the 17 people who died and the families of those affected.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, and Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana, both released statements via Twitter.
Chuck Carney, IU's Director of Media Relations said, while the University doesn't have a formal statement at this time, the situation obviously concerns IU. Carney said students could familiarize themselves with IU's procedure for an active shooter or aggressor situation via the Protect IU website.
There have been 293 school shootings since 2013, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group lobbying for an end to gun violence. Not all of these shootings resulted in death or injury, merely a gun being fired on school property.
There have been 17 school shootings this year as of Feb. 16, including the Parkland, Florida, shooting, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. As this figure refers to any time a gun is fired on school property, some of these incidents do not fall within the category of mass shootings. For more information about those incidents, click here.
Dominick Jean
Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that the statistic about 17 shootings taking place in the U.S. this year includes incidents which may not have taken place during school hours and where people may not have been harmed. Our original article also stated there were 18 mass shootings in the U.S., according to Everytown for Gun Safety, but one shooting was removed from Everytown for Gun Safety's website after the Washington Post published a report citing inconsistencies in the statistic, according to an article in the Post.
