School shootings in the US: Fast facts

Alex Leeds Matthews, CNN
·2 min read
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There have been at least 18 school shootings in the United States so far this year, as of April 18. Four were on college campuses, and 14 were on K-12 school grounds. The incidents left nine people dead and at least 25 others injured, according to CNN’s analysis of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety.

CNN cross checks these reports of school shootings against school and police accounts and media reports. All incidents of gun violence are included if they occurred on school property, from kindergartens through colleges/universities, and at least one person was shot, not including the shooter. School property includes but is not limited to, buildings, fields, parking lots, stadiums and buses. Accidental discharges of firearms are included, as long as at least one person is shot, but not if the sole shooter is law enforcement or school security.

In the first year of the pandemic, when schools were closed, there was a major decline in gun violence incidents on school grounds. Since then, recent years saw a stark increase in school shootings, with 2021, 2022 and 2023 all setting records since at least 2008. There were at least 82 incidents in 2023, but 2022 was one of the deadliest years, with 46 fatalities, according to CNN’s analysis. That year saw the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two educators were killed and more than a dozen others were injured.

Students and educators have engaged in activism around the issue of gun violence, and some educators have quit the profession.

Some states in the south have seen the highest rate of school shootings relative to their populations since 2008, according to CNN’s analysis. Washington, DC had the highest rate — 5 total shootings, more than 0.7 per 100,000 people — while Texas had the most overall with 58 school shootings. Meanwhile, just five states — Montana, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island — had no school shootings in that period, according to CNN’s analysis.

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