The statistics meant a bit more than a fallacy based on an emotional appeal and actually prove that much of our fear of violence is a reaction to media coverage. Whatever has been done to prevent/reduce violence in the past has, apparently, worked. There are more students in schools now than in the past and, while there have been periods of higher activity, as a whole, there is a decrease.
Akin to the skydiving incidents discussions where, because of certain safety/training measures, incidents due to a specific reason decrease, the same could be said for school violence. Not the best analogy, no, but then again, we eventually want to look at past incidents (school and/or skydiving, your choice) and try to learn from them--especially when what has changed in the past seems to work.
Obviously more still needs to be done, of course, but at least there has been a start.
