Gun Violence at Schools Has Risen Since the Pandemic
The New York Times
But mass shootings remain a rare occurrence. Only a small fraction of the nation’s nearly 130,000 schools report gun incidents each year.
Gun violence on school grounds has seen a notable uptick in the last four years, according to a review of data collected by the K-12 School Shooting Database.
More than 50 shootings with at least one victim have occurred during school time each year since 2021, according to the database, a research project that tracks all instances in which a gun was fired or brandished on school property. The victims and suspects were not all minors.
They include a Memphis teenager who shot another classmate last month during a dispute in his high school parking lot; a teenage girl in Dallas who was grazed by a bullet in September when a fight broke out across the street from her school; and the attack at Apalachee High School in the same month that killed two students and two teachers in Winder, Ga.
From 2010 and 2019, the annual figure did not exceed 30.
The uptick in school gun violence re-entered the national conversation this week after the authorities said a 15-year-old student opened fire at a Christian school in Madison, Wis., on Monday, killing another student and a teacher.
The shooting, which injured at least six other people, became the latest high-profile attack to terrify children and their families. It came during a period in which overall gun homicides and active shooter incidents also remain above their prepandemic levels.
