In the wake of the massacre in Uvalde, Texas that’s left 19 students and two teachers dead and more injured — plus last November’s shooting in Oxford, Michigan that killed four and injured seven — USAFacts has collected recent data about school shootings in the United States. Here’s what current data has to say about these incidents.
The Center for Homeland Defense and Security maintains a collection of metrics on these incidents: the K–12 School Shooting Database (or K–12 SSDB).
Its numbers show that in the school years between 2000 and 2020, there were 11 to 75 shootings with injuries or deaths at public and private elementary and secondary schools each year. (Due to pandemic school closures, readers should use caution when comparing the 2019–20 school year with earlier years.)
When it comes to 2019–20, however, there were 75 school shootings with casualties, including 27 school shootings with deaths and 48 school shootings with injuries only. There were 37 more reported school shootings without injuries or fatalities that school year.
In 2019–20, most school shootings (with and without injuries or deaths) were at high schools. Sixty-seven high schools had shootings over the school year, as did 32 elementary schools, 11 middle or junior high schools, and two schools of other types.
Thirty-two incidents from 2000 to 2020 occurred during school hours, including 18 when classes were in session, three during lunchtime, and 11 during school dismissal. In 2019–20, another 80 incidents happened at other times.
The K–12 SSDB aims to compile information on school shootings from publicly available sources into a single comprehensive database. It defines school shootings as situations when someone brandishes or fires a gun on school property or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time or day of the week, or motivation.
For more on firearms and shootings in general, see this crime and justice data. Look into the State of the Union in Numbers for charts on numbers on active shooter incidents.
