America and School Shootings

Updated January 2015

I haven't revisited this topic for some time and thought that  it was time to revisit the Everytown.org website, a site that has tracked all school shootings since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 which claimed 20 children and 6 school staff members.

Everytown for Gun Safety is "...a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities. Gun violence touches every town in America. For too long, change has been thwarted by the Washington gun lobby and by leaders who refuse to take common-sense steps that will save lives."  

Three main groups make up the movement:

1.) Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America which was founded to demand action from both federal and state legislators, corporations and educational institutions to establish gun reforms.  It was founded by Shannon Watts one day after the Sandy Hook shooting.

2.) Mayors Against Illegal Guns: a coalition of more than 1000 current and former majors from small towns and big cities throughout America.

3.) Survivors of gun violence

Everytown for Gun Safety claims that more than 3 million people have joined their movement.

Now, let's look at the statistics collected by Everytown which include the following categories:

Discharged Firearm: the shooter discharged a firearm on school property

Injured 1+ Person: the shooter injured at least one person but did not kill anyone

Killed 1+ Person: the shooter killed at least one person

Attempted Suicide: the shooter attempted to commit suicide but was unsuccessful

Committed Suicide: the shooter was successful at committing suicide

Incidents are classified as school shootings when a firearm is discharged either within school buildings or on school or campus grounds.  Incidents in which firearms are brought into school but not fired are not included.

Here is the listing of school shootings since December 14, 2012 in chronological order up to and including the October school shooting in Oregon:

Since the October shootings at Umpqua College in Oregon, there have been an additional 16 school shootings to the end of 2015

Since Sandy Hook, there has been at least one school shooting every week in the United States and a total of 159 school shootings over just under three years. 

In 2013, there were 36 incidents in which a firearm was discharged on school property.  This rose to 61 in 2014 and in 2015, there were 64 incidents.  

Here are some of the key statistics from the 142 school shooting incidents that took place prior to the most recent mass shooting at Umpqua College:

1.) 34 of the incidents resulted in the deaths of more than one person.

2.) 98 of the incidents resulted in injuries to at least one person.

3.) 62 of the incidents took place on college campuses and 80 of the incidents took place in Kindergarten to Grade 12 schools.

4.) 21 of the shooters were successful at committing suicide and 4 attempted to commit suicide but were unsuccessful.

In the Kindergarten to Grade 12 school shootings that took place in the first two years after the Sandy Hook shooting, 70 percent were perpetrated by minors and where it was possible to determine the source of the firearm, 63 percent of the firearms where obtained from the shooter's home.  More than one-third of the school shootings occurred after a confrontation or verbal argument intensified.

A list of United States school shootings that have taken place between 1979 and 2011 was compiled by Jessie Klein in his research for the "Bully Society: School Shootings and the Crisis of Bullying in America's Schools".  If we include the deaths up to and including the Sandy Hook shooting, since 1979, 297 victims have been claimed in school shootings with 32 at Virginia Tech in 2007, 26 at Sandy Hook in 2012 and 13 at Columbine in 1999 (all excluding the shooter or shooters).

It goes without saying that school should be a safe zone for all students and all staff.  While the incidents of major shootings are relatively rare, an average of one school shooting a week in the United States is one too many.

  

School Shootings In America Since Sandy Hook

Updated May 2015

We all remember the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings that took place two years ago on December 14, 2012.  It was the deadliest mass shooting at a grade or high school in United States history with 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shooting 6 adult staff members and 20 children ranging from six to seven years of age.

What is little publicized is the number of school shooting incidents, both fatal and nonfatal as well as suicides and non-intentional shootings, that have taken place since Sandy Hook.  A website, Everytown for Gun Safety, a movement of "Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities" tracks these shootings on its website and in this report.  An incident is classified as a school shooting when a firearm is discharged inside a school building or on the grounds of a school.  Incidents in which firearms were brought to school and not discharged are not included in the statistics.  Current to April 27, 2015, in the two and a half years since Sandy Hook, there have been at least 118 school shootings or nearly one each week.  

Let's focus on what happened in the first two years after Sandy Hook.  Here is a map showing the locations of the school shootings over the first two years after Sandy Hook:

The ninety-five school shootings over the first two years took place in 33 states with 49 taking place in Kindergarten to Grade 12 schools and 46 taking place on college or university campuses.  In 35 of the shootings, the firearm was used after a confrontation or verbal argument intensified.  In 65 of the incidents, the perpetrators intentionally injured or killed another person with a firearm.  Of the 65 incidents that resulted in a casualty, 23 incidents ended up in a least one homicide.  In 16 incidents, the perpetrator attempted to or was successful at committing suicide with 6 perpetrators attempting to commit suicide after using a firearm to either kill or wound another person.

Let's focus on the statistics related to shootings at Kindergarten to Grade schools.  On average, over the past two years, an average of two shootings per month took place at K-12 schools.  Of the 40 incidents where the shooter's age was known, 28 were perpetrated by minor with 10 of the shooters using a gun that they obtained from their own home.  Here are two examples:

1.) On October 21, 2013, 12-year-old Jose Reyes entered Sparks Middle School in Sparks, Nevada with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun that was stored in a locked gun case stored in a kitchen cupboard and shot and wounded another 12-year-old student.  A teacher, Michael Landsberry, intervened and was shot in the chest and killed by Reyes.  The perpetrator then wounded another student in the abdomen and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.  Reyes took the actions because he was bullied by other students, however, police stated that the actions did not rise to the level of bullying described by Nevada law.

2.) On October 24, 2014, 15-year-old Jaylen Fryberg entered the school cafeteria at Marysville Pilchuck High School in Marysville, Washington and fired eight shots from a .40-caliber Beretta handgun, killing four before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot to his head.  Fry berg had lured his victims to lunch in the school cafeteria using a text message.  Two of the casualties were cousins of the perpetrator.  The firearm used in the killings belonged to a family member.

Here is a graph showing the age of the shooters involved in K-12 school shootings over the past two years noting that the age of the shooter could not be determined for 9 of the shootings:

In closing, here is a listing of all shootings and their outcomes at American schools since December 15, 2012:

Considering that schools should be viewed as one of the safest and non-violent havens for American children and young adults, these statistics show that America's 98,817 public schools and 7021 post-secondary institutions are not as safe from gun violence as we would hope.