thesis about school shootings

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection

An Examination of US School Mass Shootings, 2017–2022: Findings and Implications

Antonis katsiyannis.

1 Department of Education and Human Development, College of Education, Clemson University, 101 Gantt Circle, Room 407 C, Clemson, SC 29634 USA

Luke J. Rapa

2 Department of Education and Human Development, College of Education, Clemson University, 101 Gantt Circle, Room 409 F, Clemson, SC 29634 USA

Denise K. Whitford

3 Steven C. Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education, Purdue University, 100 N. University Street, BRNG 5154, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2098 USA

Samantha N. Scott

4 Department of Education and Human Development, College of Education, Clemson University, 101 Gantt Circle, Room G01A, Clemson, SC 29634 USA

Gun violence in the USA is a pressing social and public health issue. As rates of gun violence continue to rise, deaths resulting from such violence rise as well. School shootings, in particular, are at their highest recorded levels. In this study, we examined rates of intentional firearm deaths, mass shootings, and school mass shootings in the USA using data from the past 5 years, 2017–2022, to assess trends and reappraise prior examination of this issue.

Extant data regarding shooting deaths from 2017 through 2020 were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the web-based injury statistics query and reporting system (WISQARS), and, for school shootings in particular (2017–2022), from Everytown Research & Policy.

The number of intentional firearm deaths and the crude death rates increased from 2017 to 2020 in all age categories; crude death rates rose from 4.47 in 2017 to 5.88 in 2020. School shootings made a sharp decline in 2020—understandably so, given the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent government or locally mandated school shutdowns—but rose again sharply in 2021.

Conclusions

Recent data suggest continued upward trends in school shootings, school mass shootings, and related deaths over the past 5 years. Notably, gun violence disproportionately affects boys, especially Black boys, with much higher gun deaths per capita for this group than for any other group of youth. Implications for policy and practice are provided.

On May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old man killed 19 students and two teachers and wounded 17 individuals at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, using an AR-15-style rifle. Outside the school, he fired shots for about 5 min before entering the school through an unlocked side door and locked himself inside two adjoining classrooms killing 19 students and two teachers. He was in the school for over an hour (78 min) before being shot dead by the US Border Patrol Tactical Unit, though police officers were on the school premises (Sandoval, 2022 ).

The Robb Elementary School mass shooting, the second deadliest school mass shooting in American history, is the latest calamity in a long list of tragedies occurring on public school campuses in the USA. Regrettably, these tragedies are both a reflection and an outgrowth of the broader reality of gun violence in this country. In 2021, gun violence claimed 45,027 lives (including 20,937 suicides), with 313 children aged 0–11 killed and 750 injured, along with 1247 youth aged 12–17 killed and 3385 injured (Gun Violence Archive, 2022a ). Mass shootings in the USA have steadily increased in recent years, rising from 269 in 2013 to 611 in 2020. Mass shootings are typically defined as incidents in which four or more people are killed (Katsiyannis et al., 2018a ). However, the Gun Violence Archive considers mass shootings to be incidents in which four or more people are injured (Gun Violence Archive, 2022b ). Regardless of these distinctions in definition, in 2020, there were 19,384 gun murders, representing a 34% increase from the year before, a 49% increase over a 5-year period, and a 75% increase over a 10-year period (Pew Research Center, 2022 ). Regarding school-based shootings, to date in 2022, there have been at least 95 incidents of gunfire on school premises, resulting in 40 deaths and 76 injuries (Everytown Research & Policy, 2022b ). Over the past few decades, school shootings in the USA have become relatively commonplace: there were more in 2021 than in any year since 1999, with the median age of perpetrators being 16 (Washington Post, 2022 ; see also, Katsiyannis et al., 2018a ). Additionally, analysis of Everytown’s Gunfire on School Grounds dataset and related studies point to several key observations to be considered in addressing this challenge. For example, 58% of perpetrators had a connection to the school, 70% were White males, 73 to 80% obtained guns from home or relatives or friends, and 100% exhibited warning signs or showed behavior that was of cause for concern; also, in 77% of school shootings, at least one person knew about the shooter’s plan before the shooting events occurred (Everytown Research & Policy, 2021a ).

The USA has had 57 times as many school shootings as all other major industrialized nations combined (Rowhani-Rahbar & Moe, 2019 ). Guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the USA, with children ages 5–14 being 21 times and adolescents and young adults ages 15–24 being 23 times more likely to be killed with guns compared to other high-income countries. Furthermore, Black children and teens are 14 times and Latinx children and teens are three times more likely than White children to die by guns (Everytown Research & Policy, 2021b ). Children exposed to violence, crime, and abuse face a host of adverse challenges, including abuse of drugs and alcohol, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, school failure, and involvement in criminal activity (Cabral et al., 2021 ; Everytown Research and Policy, 2022b ; Finkelhor et al., 2013 ).

Yet, despite gun violence being considered a pressing social and public health issue, federal legislation passed in 1996 has resulted in restricting funding for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The law stated that no funding earmarked for injury prevention and control may be used to advocate or promote firearm control (Kellermann & Rivara, 2013 ). More recently, in June 2022, the US Supreme Court struck down legislation restricting gun possession and open carry rights (New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 2021 ), broadening gun rights and increasing the risk of gun violence in public spaces. Nonetheless, according to Everytown Research & Policy ( 2022a ), states with strong gun laws experience fewer deaths per capita. In the aggregate, states with weaker gun laws (i.e., laws that are more permissive) experience 20.0 gun deaths per 100,000 residents versus 7.4 per 100,000 in states with stronger laws. The association between gun law strength and per capita death is stark (see Table ​ Table1 1 ).

Gun law strength and gun law deaths per 100,000 residents

Accounting for the top eight and the bottom eight states in gun law strength, gun law strength and gun deaths per 100,000 are correlated at r  =  − 0.85. Stronger gun laws are thus meaningfully linked with fewer deaths per capita. Data obtained from Everytown Research & Policy ( 2022a )

Notwithstanding the publicity involving gun shootings in schools, particularly mass shootings, violence in schools has been steadily declining. For example, in 2020, students aged 12–18 experienced 285,400 victimizations at school and 380,900 victimizations away from school; an annual decrease of 60% for school victimizations (from 2019 to 2020) (Irwin et al., 2022 ). Similarly, youth arrests in general in 2019 were at their lowest level since at least 1980; between 2010 and 2019, the number of juvenile arrests fell by 58%. Yet, arrests for murder increased by 10% (Puzzanchera, 2021 ).

In response to school violence in general, and school shootings in particular, schools have increasingly relied on increased security measures, school resource officers (SROs), and zero tolerance policies (including exclusionary and aversive measures) in their attempts to curb violence and enhance school safety. In 2019–2020, public schools reported controlled access (97%), the use of security cameras (91%), and badges or picture IDs (77%) to promote safety. In addition, high schools (84%), middle schools (81%), and elementary schools (55%) reported the presence of SROs (Irwin et al., 2022 ). Research, however, has indicated that the presence of SROs has not resulted in a reduction of school shooting severity, despite their increased prevalence. Rather, the type of firearm utilized in school shootings has been closely associated with the number of deaths and injuries (Lemieux, 2014 ; Livingston et al., 2019 ), suggesting implications for reconsideration of the kinds of firearms to which individuals have access.

Zero tolerance policies, though originally intended to curtail gun violence in schools, have expanded to cover a host of incidents (e.g., threats, bullying). Notwithstanding these intentions, these policies are generally ineffective in preventing school violence, including school shootings (American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force, 2008 ; Losinski et al., 2014 ), and have exacerbated the prevalence of youths’ interactions with law enforcement in schools. From the 2015–2016 to the 2017–2018 school years, there was a 5% increase in school-related arrests and a 12% increase in referrals to law enforcement (U.S. Department of Education, 2021 ); in 2017–18, about 230,000 students were referred to law enforcement and over 50,000 were arrested (The Center for Public Integrity, 2021 ). Law enforcement referrals have been a persistent concern aiding the school-to-prison pipeline, often involving non-criminal offenses and disproportionally affecting students from non-White backgrounds as well as students with disabilities (Chan et al., 2021 ; The Center for Public Integrity, 2021 ).

The consequences of these policies are thus far-reaching, with not only legal ramifications, but social-emotional and academic ones as well. For example, in 2017–2018, students missed 11,205,797 school days due to out-of-school suspensions during that school year (U.S. Department of Education, 2021 ), there were 96,492 corporal punishment incidents, and 101,990 students were physically restrained, mechanically restrained, or secluded (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, 2020 ). Such exclusionary and punitive measures have long-lasting consequences for the involved students, including academic underachievement, dropout, delinquency, and post-traumatic stress (e.g., Cholewa et al., 2018 ). Moreover, these consequences disproportionally affect culturally and linguistically diverse students and students with disabilities (Skiba et al., 2014 ; U.S. General Accountability Office, 2018 ), often resulting in great societal costs (Rumberger & Losen, 2017 ).

In the USA, mass killings involving guns occur approximately every 2 weeks, while school shootings occur every 4 weeks (Towers et al., 2015 ). Given the apparent and continued rise in gun violence, mass shootings, and school mass shootings, we aimed in this paper to reexamine rates of intentional firearm deaths, mass shootings, and school mass shootings in the USA using data from the past 5 years, 2017–2022, reappraising our analyses given the time that had passed since our earlier examination of the issue (Katsiyannis et al., 2018a , b ).

As noted in Katsiyannis et al., ( 2018a , b ), gun violence, mass shootings, and school shootings have been a part of the American way of life for generations. Such shootings have grown exponentially in both frequency and mortality rate since the 1980s. Using the same criteria applied in our previous work (Katsiyannis et al., 2018a , b ), we evaluated the frequency of shootings, mass shootings, and school mass school shootings from January 2017 through mid-July 2022. Extant data regarding shooting deaths from 2017 through 2020 were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, utilizing the web-based injury statistics query and reporting system (WISQARS), and for school shootings from 2017 to 2022 from Everytown Research & Policy ( https://everytownresearch.org ), an independent non-profit organization that researches and communicates with policymakers and the public about gun violence in the USA. Intentional firearm death data were classified by age, as outlined in Katsiyannis et al., ( 2018a , b ), and the crude rate was calculated by dividing the number of deaths times 100,000, by the total population for each individual category.

The number of intentional firearm deaths and the crude death rates increased from 2017 to 2020 in all age categories. In absolute terms, the number of deaths rose from 14,496 in 2017 to 19,308 in 2020. In accord with this rise in the absolute number of deaths, crude death rates rose from 4.47 in 2017 to 5.88 in 2020. Table ​ Table2 2 provides the crude death rate in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, the most current years with data available. Figure  1 provides the raw number of deaths across the same time period.

Intentional firearm deaths across the USA (2017–2020)

Data obtained from WISQARS (2022)

Intentional firearm deaths across the USA (2017–2020). Note. Data obtained from WISQARS (2022)

As expected, in 2020, the number of fatal firearm injuries increased sharply from age 0–11 years, roughly elementary school age, to age 12–18 years, roughly middle school and high school age. Table ​ Table3 3 provides the crude death rates of children in 2020 who die from firearms. Males outnumbered females in every category of firearm deaths, including homicide, police violence, suicide, and accidental shootings, as well as for undetermined reasons for firearm discharge. Black males drastically surpassed all other children in the number of firearm deaths (2.91 per 100,000 0–11-year-olds; 57.10 per 100,000 12–18-year-olds). Also, notable is the high number of Black children 12–18 years killed by guns (32.37 per 100,000), followed by American Indian and Alaska Native children (18.87 per 100,000), in comparison to White children (12.40 per 100,000 children), Hispanic/Latinx children (8.16 per 100,000), and Asian and Pacific Islander children (2.95 per 100,000). A disproportionate number of gun deaths were also seen for Black girls relative to other girls (1.52 per 100,000 0–11-year-olds; 7.01 per 100,000 12–18-year-olds).

Fatal firearm injuries for children age 0–18 across the USA in 2020

  AN Alaska Native; – indicates 20 or fewer cases

Mass shootings and mass shooting deaths increased from 2017 to 2019, decreased in 2020, and then increased again in 2021. School shootings made a sharp decline in 2020—understandably so, given the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent government or locally mandated school shutdowns—but rose again sharply in 2021. Current rates reveal a continued increase, with numbers at the beginning of 2022 already exceeding those of 2017. School mass shooting counts were relatively low between 2017 through 2022, with four total during that time frame. Figure  2 provides raw numbers for mass shootings, school shootings, and school mass shootings from 2017 through 2022. Importantly, figures from the recent Uvalde, TX, school mass shooting at Robb Elementary School had not yet been recorded in the relevant databases at the time of this writing. With those deaths accounted for, 2022 is already the deadliest year for school mass shootings in the past 5 years.

Mass shootings, school shootings, and mass school shootings across the USA (2017–2022). Note. Data obtained from Everytown Research and Policy. Overlap present between all three categories

Gun violence in the USA, particularly mass shootings on the grounds of public schools, continues to be a pressing social and public health issue. Recent data suggest continued upward trends in school shootings, school mass shootings, and related deaths over the past 5 years—patterns that disturbingly mirror general gun violence and intentional shooting deaths in the USA across the same time period. The impacts on our nation’s youth are profound. Notably, gun violence disproportionately affects boys, especially Black boys, with much higher gun deaths per capita for this group than for any other group of youth. Likewise, Black girls are disproportionately affected compared to girls from other ethnic/racial groups. Moreover, while the COVID-19 pandemic and school shutdowns tempered gun violence in schools at least somewhat during the 2020 school year—including school shootings and school mass shootings—trend data show that gun violence rates are still continuing to rise. Indeed, gun violence deaths resulting from school shootings are at their highest recorded levels ever (Irwin et al., 2022 ).

Implications for Schools: Curbing School Violence

In recent years, the implementation of Multi-Tier Systems and Supports (MTSS), including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Response to Intervention (RTI), has resulted in improved school climate and student engagement as well as improved academic and behavioral outcomes (Elrod et al., 2022 ; Santiago-Rosario et al., 2022 ; National Center for Learning Disabilities, n.d.). Such approaches have implications for reducing school violence as well. PBIS uses a tiered framework intended to improve student behavioral and academic outcomes; it creates positive learning environments through the implementation of evidence-based instructional and behavioral interventions, guided by data-based decision-making and allocation of students across three tiers. In Tier 1, schools provide universal supports to all students in a proactive manner; in Tier 2, supports are aimed to students who need additional academic, behavioral, or social-emotional intervention; and in Tier 3, supports are provided in an intensive and individualized manner (Lewis et al., 2010 ). The implementation of PBIS has resulted in an improved school climate, fewer office referrals, and reductions in out-of-school suspensions (Bradshaw et al., 2010 ; Elrod et al.,  2010 , 2022 ; Gage et al., 2018a , 2018b ; Horner et al., 2010 ; Noltemeyer et al., 2019 ). Likewise, RTI aims to improve instructional outcomes through high-quality instruction and universal screening for students to identify learning challenges and similarly allocates students across three tiers. In Tier 1, schools implement high-quality classroom instruction, screening, and group interventions; in Tier 2, schools implement targeted interventions; and in Tier 3, schools implement intensive interventions and comprehensive evaluation (National Center for Learning Disabilities, n.d ). RTI implementation has resulted in improved academic outcomes (e.g., reading, writing) (Arrimada et al., 2022 ; Balu et al., 2015 ; Siegel, 2020 ) and enhanced school climate and student behavior.

In order to support students’ well-being, enhance school climate, and support reductions in behavioral issues and school violence, schools should consider the implementation of MTSS, reducing reliance on exclusionary and aversive measures such as zero tolerance policies, seclusion and restraints, corporal punishment, or school-based law enforcement referrals and arrests (see Gage et al., in press ). Such approaches and policies are less effective than the use of MTSS, exacerbate inequities and enhance disproportionality (particularly for youth of color and students with disabilities), and have not been shown to reduce violence in schools.

Implications for Students: Ensuring Physical Safety and Supporting Mental Health

Students should not have to attend school and fear becoming victims of violence in general, no less gun violence in particular. Schools must ensure the physical safety of their students. Yet, as the substantial number of school shootings continues to rise in the USA, so too does concern about the adverse impacts of violence and gun violence on students’ mental health and well-being. Students are frequently exposed to unavoidable and frightening images and stories of school violence (Child Development Institute, n.d. ) and are subject to active shooter drills that may not actually be effective and, in some cases, may actually induce trauma (Jetelina, 2022 ; National Association of School Psychologists & National Association of School Resources Officers, 2021 ; Wang et al., 2020 ). In turn, students struggle to process and understand why these events happen and, more importantly, how they can be prevented (National Association of School Psychologists, 2015 ). School personnel should be prepared to support the mental health needs of students, both in light of the prevalence of school gun violence and in the aftermath of school mass shootings.

Research provides evidence that traumatic events, such as school mass shootings, can and do have mental health consequences for victims and members of affected communities, leading to an increase in post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression, and other psychological systems (Lowe & Galea, 2017 ). At the same time, high media attention to such events indirectly exposes and heightens feelings of fear, anxiety, and vulnerability in students—even if they did not attend the school where the shooting occurred (Schonfeld & Demaria, 2020 ). Students of all ages may experience adjustment difficulties and engage in avoidance behaviors (Schonfeld & Demaria, 2020 ). As a result, school personnel may underestimate a student’s distress after a shooting and overestimate their resilience. In addition, an adult’s difficulty adjusting in the wake of trauma may also threaten a student’s sense of well-being because they may believe their teachers cannot provide them with the protection they need to remain safe in school (Schonfeld & Demaria, 2020 ).

These traumatic events have resounding consequences for youth development and well-being. However, schools continue to struggle to meet the demands of student mental health needs as they lack adequate funding for resources, student support services, and staff to provide the level of support needed for many students (Katsiyannis et al., 2018a ). Despite these limiting factors, children and youth continue to look to adults for information and guidance on how to react to adverse events. An effective response can significantly decrease the likelihood of further trauma; therefore, all school personnel must be prepared to talk with students about their fears, to help them feel safe and establish a sense of normalcy and security in the wake of tragedy (National Association of School Psychologists, 2016 ). Research suggests a number of strategies can be utilized by educators, school leaders, counselors, and other mental health professionals to support the students and staff they serve.

Recommendations for Educators

The National Association of School Psychologists ( 2016 ) recommends the following practices for educators to follow in response to school mass shootings. Although a complex topic to address, the issue needs to be acknowledged. In particular, educators should designate time to talk with their students about the event, and should reassure students that they are safe while validating their fears, feelings, and concerns. Recognizing and stressing to students that all feelings are okay when a tragedy occurs is essential. It is important to note that some students do not wish to express their emotions verbally. Other developmentally appropriate outlets, such as drawing, writing, reading books, and imaginative play, can be utilized. Educators should also provide developmentally appropriate explanations of the issue and events throughout their conversations. At the elementary level, students need brief, simple answers that are balanced with reassurances that schools are safe and that adults are there to protect them. In the secondary grades, students may be more vocal in asking questions about whether they are truly safe and what protocols are in place to protect them at school. To address these questions, educators can provide information related to the efforts of school and community leaders to ensure school safety. Educators should also review safety procedures and help students to identify at least one adult in the building to whom they can go if they feel threatened or at risk. Limiting exposure to media and social media is also important, as developmentally inappropriate information can cause anxiety or confusion. Educators should also maintain a normal routine by keeping a regular school schedule.

Recommendations for School Leaders

Superintendents, principals, and other school administrative personnel are looked upon to provide leadership and comfort to staff, students, and parents during a tragedy. Reassurance can be provided by reiterating safety measures and student supports that are in place in their district and school (The National Association of School Psychologists, 2015 ). The NASP recommends the following practices for school leaders regarding addressing student mental health needs directly. First, school leaders should be a visible, welcoming presence by greeting students and visiting classrooms. School leaders should also communicate with the school community, including parents and students, about their efforts to maintain safe and caring schools through clear behavioral expectations, positive behavior interventions and supports, and crisis planning preparedness. This can include the development of press releases for broad dissemination within the school community. School leaders should also provide crisis training and professional development for staff, based upon assessments of needs and targeted toward identified knowledge or skill gaps. They should also ensure the implementation of violence prevention programs and curricula in school and review school safety policies and procedures to ensure that all safety issues are adequately covered in current school crisis plans and emergency response procedures.

Recommendations for Counselors and Mental Health Professionals

School counselors offer critical assistance to their buildings’ populations as they experience crises or respond to emergencies (American School Counselor Association, 2019 ; Brown, 2020 ). Two models that stand out in the literature utilized by counselors in the wake of violent events are the Preparation, Action, Recovery (PAR) model and the Prevent and prepare; Reaffirm; Evaluate; provide interventions and Respond (PREPaRE) model. PREPaRE is the only comprehensive, nationally available training curriculum created by educators for educators (The National Association of School Psychologists, n.d. ). Although beneficial, neither the PAR nor PREPaRE model directly addresses school counselors’ responses to school shootings when their school is directly affected (Brown, 2020 ). This led to the development of the School Counselor’s Response to School Shootings-Framework of Recommendations (SCRSS-FR) model, which includes six stages, each of which has corresponding components for school counselors who have lived through a school mass shooting. Each of these models provides the necessary training to school-employed mental health professionals on how to best fill the roles and responsibilities generated by their membership on school crisis response teams (The National Association of School Psychologists, n.d. ).

Other Implications: Federal and State Policy

Recent events at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, prompted the US Congress to pass landmark legislation intended to curb gun violence, enhancing background checks for prospective gun buyers who are under 21 years of age as well as allowing examination of juvenile records beginning at age 16, including health records related to prospective gun buyers’ mental health. Additionally, this legislation provides funding that will allow states to implement “red flag laws” and other intervention programs while also strengthening laws related to the purchase and trafficking of guns (Cochrane, 2022 ). Yet, additional legislation reducing or eliminating access to assault rifles and other guns with large capacity magazines, weapons that might easily be deemed “weapons of mass destruction,” is still needed (Interdisciplinary Group on Preventing School & Community Violence, 2022 ; see also Flannery et al., 2021 ). In 2019, the US Congress started to appropriate research funding to support research on gun violence, with $25 million in equal shares provided on an annual basis from both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health (Roubein, 2022 ; Wan, 2019 ). Additional research is, of course, still needed.

Despite legislative progress, and while advancements in gun legislation are meaningful and have the potential to aid in the reduction of gun violence in the USA, school shootings and school mass shootings are something schools and students will contend with in the months and years ahead. This reality has serious implications for schools and for students, points that need serious consideration. Therefore, it is imperative that gun violence is framed as a pressing national public health issue deserving attention, with drastic steps needed to curb access to assault rifles and guns with high-capacity magazines, based on extensive and targeted research. As noted, Congress, after many years of inaction, has started to appropriate funds to address this issue. However, the level of funding is still minimal in light of the pressing challenge that gun violence presents. Furthermore, the messaging of conservative media, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and republican legislators framing access to all and any weapons—including assault rifles—as a constitutional right under the second amendment bears scrutiny. Indeed, the second amendment denotes that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Security of the nation is arguably the intent of the amendment, an intent that is clearly violated as evidenced in the ever-increasing death toll associated with gun violence in the USA.

Whereas federal legislation would be preferable, the possibility of banning assault weapons is remote (in light of recent Congressional action). Similarly, state action has been severely curtailed in light of the US Supreme Court’s decision regarding New York state law. However, data on gun fatalities and injuries, the correspondence of gun violence to laws regulating access across the world and states, and failed security measures such as armed guards posted in schools (e.g., Robb Elementary School) must be consistently emphasized. Additionally, the widespread sense of immunity for gun manufacturers should be tested in the same manner that tobacco manufacturers and opioid pharmaceuticals have been. The success against such tobacco and opioid manufacturers, once unthinkable, is a powerful precedent to consider for how the threat of gun violence against public health might be addressed.

Author Contribution

AK conceived of and designed the study and led the writing of the manuscript. LJR collaborated on the study design, contributed to the writing of the study, and contributed to the editing of the final manuscript. DKW analyzed the data and wrote up the results. SNS contributed to the writing of the study.

Declarations

The authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

• American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force Are zero tolerance policies effective in the schools? An evidentiary review and recommendations. The American Psychologist. 2008; 63 (9):852–862. doi: 10.1037/0003-066x.63.9.852. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• American School Counselor Association (2019). ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs (4th edn.). Alexandria, VA: Author.
• Arrimada M, Torrance M, Fidalgo R. Response to intervention in first-grade writing instruction: A large-scale feasibility study. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 2022; 35 (4):943–969. doi: 10.1007/s11145-021-10211-z. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Balu, R., Zhu, P., Doolittle, F., Schiller, E., Jenkins, J., & Gersten, R. (2015). Evaluation of response to intervention practices for elementary school reading (NCEE 2016–4000). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
• Bradshaw CP, Mitchell MM, Leaf PJ. Examining the effects of schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports on student outcomes: Results from a randomized controlled effectiveness trial in elementary schools. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. 2010; 12 (3):133–148. doi: 10.1177/1098300709334798. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Brown CH. School counselors’ response to school shootings: Framework of recommendations. Journal of Educational Research and Practice. 2020; 10 (1):18. doi: 10.5590/jerap.2020.10.1.18. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cabral, M., Kim, B., Rossin-Slater, M., Schnell, M., & Schwandt, H. (2021). Trauma at school: The impacts of shootings on students’ human capital and economic outcomes. A working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from  https://www.nber.org/papers/w28311
• Chan P, Katsiyannis A, Yell M. Handcuffed in school: Legal and practice considerations. Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders. 2021; 5 (3):339–350. doi: 10.1007/s41252-021-00213-x. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Child Development Institute. (n.d.). How to talk to kids about violence. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from  https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/how-to-be-a-parent/communication/talk-to-kids-violence/
• Cholewa B, Hull MF, Babcock CR, Smith AD. Predictors and academic outcomes associated with in-school suspension. School Psychology Quarterly. 2018; 33 (2):191–199. doi: 10.1037/spq0000213. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cochrane, E. (2022). Congress passes bipartisan gun legislation, clearing it for Biden. The New York Times. Retrieved July 27, 2022 from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/us/politics/gun-control-bill-congress.html
• Elrod BG, Rice KG, Bradshaw CP, Mitchell MM, Leaf PJ. Examining the effects of schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports on student outcomes: Results from a randomized controlled effectiveness trial in elementary schools. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. 2010; 12 (3):133–148. doi: 10.1177/1098300709334798. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Elrod BG, Rice KG, Meyers J. PBIS fidelity, school climate, and student discipline: A longitudinal study of secondary schools. Psychology in the Schools. 2022; 59 (2):376–397. doi: 10.1002/pits.22614. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Everytown Research & Policy. (2021a). Keeping our schools safe: A plan for preventing mass shootings and ending all gun violence in American schools. Retrieved July 17, 2022, from https://everytownresearch.org/report/preventing-gun-violence-in-american-schools/
• Everytown Research & Policy. (2021b). The impact of gun violence on children and teens. Retrieved, June 21, 2022, from https://everytownresearch.org/report/the-impact-of-gun-violence-on-children-and-teens/
• Everytown Research & Policy. (2022a). Gun law rankings. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/
• Everytown Research & Policy. (2022b). Gunfire on school grounds in the United States. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://everytownresearch.org/maps/gunfire-on-school-grounds/
• Finkelhor D, Turner HA, Shattuck AM, Hamby SL. Violence, crime, and abuse exposure in a national sample of children and youth: An update. JAMA Pediatrics. 2013; 167 (7):614–621. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.42. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Flannery, D. J., Fox, J. A., Wallace, L., Mulvey, E., & Modzeleski, W. (2021). Guns, school shooters, and school safety: What we know and directions for change. School Psychology Review, 50 (2-3), 237–253.
• Gage NA, Lee A, Grasley-Boy N, Peshak GH. The impact of school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports on school suspensions: A statewide quasi-experimental analysis. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. 2018; 20 (4):217–226. doi: 10.1177/1098300718768204. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gage, N. A., Rapa, L. J., Whitford, D. K., & Katsiyannis, A. (Eds.) (in press). Disproportionality and social justice in education . Springer
• Gage N, Whitford DK, Katsiyannis A. A review of schoolwide positive behavior interventions and supports as a framework for reducing disciplinary exclusions. The Journal of Special Education. 2018; 52 :142–151. doi: 10.1272/74060629214686796178874678. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gun Violence Archive. (2022a). Gun violence archives 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/past-tolls
• Gun Violence Archive. (2022b). Charts and maps. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from  https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
• Horner RH, Sugai G, Anderson CM. Examining the evidence base for schoolwide positive behavior support. Focus on Exceptional Children. 2010; 42 (8):1–14. doi: 10.17161/fec.v42i18.6906. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Interdisciplinary Group on Preventing School and Community Violence. (2022). Call for action to prevent gun violence in the United States of America. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from https://www.dropbox.com/s/006naaah5be23qk/2022%20Call%20To%20Action%20Press%20Release%20and%20Statement%20COMBINED%205-27-22.pdf?dl=0
• Irwin, V., Wang, K., Cui, J., & Thompson, A. (2022). Report on indicators of school crime and safety: 2021 (NCES 2022–092/NCJ 304625). National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, DC. Retrieved July 21, 2022 from https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2022092
• Jetelina, K. (2022). Firearms: What you can do right now. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/firearms-what-you-can-do-right-now
• Katsiyannis A, Whitford D, Ennis R. Historical examination of United States school mass shootings in the 20 th and 21 st centuries: Implications for students, schools, and society. Journal of Child and Family Studies. 2018; 27 :2562–2573. doi: 10.1007/s10826-018-1096-2. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Katsiyannis A, Whitford D, Ennis R. Firearm violence across the lifespan: Relevance and theoretical impact on child and adolescent educational prospects. Journal of Child and Family Studies. 2018; 27 :1748–1762. doi: 10.1007/s10826-018-1035-2. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kellermann AL, Rivara FP. Silencing the science on gun research. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2013; 309 (6):549–550. doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.208207. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lemieux F. Effect of gun culture and firearm laws on firearm violence and mass shootings in the United States: A multi-level quantitative analysis. International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences. 2014; 9 (1):74–93. [ Google Scholar ]
• Lewis T, Jones S, Horner R, Sugai G. School-wide positive behavior support and students with emotional/behavioral disorders: Implications for prevention, identification and intervention. Exceptionality. 2010; 18 :82–93. doi: 10.1080/09362831003673168. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Livingston MD, Rossheim ME, Stidham-Hall K. A descriptive analysis of school and school shooter characteristics and the severity of school shootings in the United States, 1999–2018. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2019; 64 (6):797–799. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.12.006. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Losinski M, Katsiyannis A, Ryan J, Baughan C. Weapons in schools and zero-tolerance policies. NASSP Bulletin. 2014; 98 (2):126–141. doi: 10.1177/0192636514528747. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lowe SR, Galea S. The mental health consequences of mass shootings. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. 2017; 18 (1):62–82. doi: 10.1177/1524838015591572. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• National Association of School Psychologists. (n.d.). About PREPaRE. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.nasponline.org/professional-development/prepare-training-curriculum/aboutprepare#:~:text=Specifically%2C%20the%20PREPaRE,E%E2%80%94Evaluate%20psychological%20trauma%20risk
• National Association of School Psychologists. (2015). Responding to school violence: Tips for administrators. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-safety-and-crisis/school-violence-resources/school-violence-prevention/responding-to-school-violence-tips-for-administrators
• National Association of School Psychologists. (2016). Talking to children about violence: Tips for parents and teachers. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-safety-and-crisis/school-violence-resources/talking-to-children-about-violence-tips-for-parents-and-teachers
• National Association of School Psychologists & National Association of School Resource Officers (2021). Best practice considerations for armed assailant drills in schools. Bethesda, MD: Author. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-safety-and-crisis/systems-level-prevention/best-practice-considerations-for-armed-assailant-drills-in-schools
• National Center for Learning Disabilities. (n.d.). What is RTI? Retrieved July 21, 2022 from http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/what/whatisrti
• New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 20–843. (United States Supreme Court, 2021). Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf
• Noltemeyer A, Palmer K, James AG, Wiechman S. School-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS): A synthesis of existing research. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology. 2019; 7 :253–262. doi: 10.1080/21683603.2018.1425169. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Pew Research Center. (2022). What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S. Retrieved June 21, 2022 from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/
• Puzzanchera, C. (2021). Juvenile arrests, 2019 . U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs. Juvenile Justice Statistics National Report Series Bulletin. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/publications/juvenile-arrests-2019.pdf
• Roubein, R. (2022). Now the government is funding gun violence research, but it’s years behind. The Washington Post. Retrieved July 17, 2022 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/26/now-government-is-funding-gun-violence-research-it-years-behind/
• Rowhani-Rahbar A, Moe C. School shootings in the U.S.: What is the state of evidence? Journal of Adolescent Health. 2019; 64 (6):683–684. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.03.016. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rumberger, R. W., & Losen, D. J. (2017). The hidden costs of California’s harsh school discipline: And the localized economic benefits from suspending fewer high school students . California Dropout Research Project : The Civil Rights Project. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/summary-reports/the-hidden-cost-of-californias-harsh-discipline/CostofSuspensionReportFinal-corrected-030917.pdf
• Sandoval, E. (2022). Inside a Uvalde classroom: A taunting gunman and 78 minutes of terror. The New York Times. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/10/us/uvalde-injured-teacher-reyes.html
• Santiago-Rosario, M. R., McIntosh, K., & Payno-Simmons, R. (2022). Centering equity within the PBIS framework: Overview and evidence of effectiveness. Center on PBIS, University of Oregon. Retrieved July 27, 2022 from www.pbis.org
• Schonfeld DJ, Demaria T. Supporting children after school shootings. Pediatric Clinics. 2020; 67 (2):397–411. doi: 10.1016/j.pcl.2019.12.006. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Skiba RJ, Arredondo MI, Williams NT. More than a metaphor: The contribution of exclusionary discipline to a school-to-prison pipeline. Equity & Excellence in Education. 2014; 47 (4):546–564. doi: 10.1080/10665684.2014.958965. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Siegel LS. Early identification and intervention to prevent reading failure: A response to Intervention (RTI) initiative. Educational and Developmental Psychologist. 2020; 37 (2):140–146. doi: 10.1017/edp.2020.21. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• The Center for Public Integrity. (2021). When schools call police on kids. Retrieved June 21, 2022 from https://publicintegrity.org/education/criminalizing-kids/police-in-schools-disparities/
• Towers S, Gomez-Lievano A, Khan M, Mubayi A, Castillo-Chavez C. Contagion in mass killings and school shootings. PLoS One. 2015; 10 (7):e0117259. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117259. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• U. S. Department of Education. (2021). An overview of exclusionary discipline practices in public schools for the 2017–18 school year . Civil Rights Data Collection. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://ocrdata.ed.gov/estimations/2017-2018
• U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights. (2020). 2017–18 civil rights data collection: The use of restraint and seclusion in children with disabilities in K-12 schools. Retrieved July 27, 2022 from https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/restraint-and-seclusion.pdf
• U.S. General Accountability Office (2018). K-12 education: Discipline disparities for Black students, boys, and students with disabilities (GAO-18–258). Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-258
• Wan, W. (2019). Congressional deal could fund gun violence research for first time since 1990s. The Washington Post. Retrieved July 17, 2022 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/12/16/congressional-deal-could-fund-gun-violence-research-first-time-since-s/
• Wang, K., Chen, Y., Zhang, J., & Oudekerk, B. A. (2020). Indicators of school crime and safety: 2019 (NCES 2020–063/NCJ 254485). National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020063-temp.pdf
• Washington Post. (2022). The Washington Post’s database of school shootings. Retrieved June 21, 2022 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/school-shootings-database/

The Impact of School Shootings on American Students: A Research Paper and a Play

Journal title, journal issn, volume title, description, collections.

School Shootings: Conceptual Framework and International Empirical Trends

• First Online: 01 January 2012

Cite this chapter

• Nils Böckler 5 ,
• Thorsten Seeger 6 ,
• Peter Sitzer 5 &
• Wilhelm Heitmeyer 6  

6541 Accesses

16 Citations

An exploration of the phenomenology and global prevalence of school shootings, also serving as an introduction outlining the conceptual framework of the volume. The central approaches and terminology of school rampage research are introduced. An empirical survey of global prevalence reveals international trends and fundamental characteristics of perpetrators and attacks. The findings show that school shootings are a historically growing phenomenon occurring predominantly in modern Western societies, committed overwhelmingly by male adolescents at secondary schools. The chapter concludes with an overview of the contributions in the volume outlining the specific perspectives of each author.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save.

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime
• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Violence in the School Shooting Film

School Shootings in the U.S. – Where to Begin

What Is the Most Violent Thing to Do? Mapping the Definitions and Complexities of Violence

Schülein ( 1998 , p. 96, translated) identifies a number of central requirements for interdisciplinary cooperation that appear exceptionally relevant in this connection: “Interdisciplinarity demands the capability to transcend boundaries and to tolerate transgressions. In other words, to accept that there are other ways of seeing the world and that others may relativize that which is central to one’s own perspective.” Such dialog is worthwhile and potentially extremely fruitful because innovative ideas and research activities can arise specifically out of controversy and interdisciplinary exchange (Dornes 2007 ). This observation can also be regarded as the motto for this book, which brings together authors from different countries, professions, and scientific disciplines to present their specific perspectives and findings for discussion.

Interestingly, more recent empirical research shows that (rampage) school shootings frequently mingle individual motives (such as personal revenge for experiences of humiliation) with ideological and political motivations, creating a complex set of motives that is not always clear-cut (Larkin 2009 ; Böckler and Seeger 2010 ; Muschert and Ragnedda 2010 ).

Note that this criterion excludes incidents committed by individuals who are not current or former students of the institution. Such cases are classified as general “classical rampage” (or, if the perpetrator is a teacher or other member of school staff, as “workplace violence”).

“Rampage” derives from the verb “to ramp,” meaning “rage, storm, rush about” ( Pocket Oxford Dictionary , 1978). Similarly the German term for rampage attack, “Amok,” originates etymologically from the Malay “amuk” meaning “frenzied” or “attacking furiously” (also the origin of the English term “to run amok”). The related Malay verb “mengamuk” designates a spontaneous violent attack on random victims (Faust 2007 ).

A serious methodological problem of data collection arises here. In many cases, the perpetrator’s exact motives are almost impossible to reconstruct reliably from media reports, making scientific quality criteria of reliability and validity hard to fulfill.

One central weakness of this operationalization is certainly its broad focus, encompassing cases that were long planned and involved a large number of victims (such as Columbine, Erfurt, or Blacksburg) alongside incidents of violence that occurred in affect and more or less spontaneously with a significantly smaller number of victims (e.g., Pinellas Park or the Campbell County High School shooting). To what extent these different constellations are based on similar socio- and psycho-dynamics is a matter for further research.

The following sources also turned out to be very useful: the National School Safety Center’s school-associated deaths database (United States; lists only cases since 1992), the privately-run website www.columbine-angels.com , and the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Information from the latter two sources was included only if confirmed elsewhere (newspaper reports, etc.).

2000s: Figures for 2001–2010.

Placing the number of school shootings in relation to the total student population further relativizes the findings and shows them in a more realistic light. For example, there were about 11.7 million students at general and vocational schools in Germany in 2009/2010 (Statistisches Bundesamt 2010 ), and two recorded school rampage attacks in 2009, putting the percentage of perpetrators in the school population at 0.07%.

Muschert and Peguero ( 2010 , p. 119) refer to a “Columbine effect”: “a term that refers to how school rampage shootings change the way we think about school violence and security.”

Nevertheless, the probability of a child or adolescent being killed in a school shooting remains minuscule. In the United States, as the country with by far the largest number of cases, less than 1% of murders of young people aged between 5 and 18 years occur in the school context (Modzeleski et al. 2008 ).

This underlines the absence of a specific profile of attack or perpetrator (O’Toole 1999 ; Vossekuil et al. 2002 ; Borum et al. 2010 ). Instead, cases must be regarded as heterogeneous and subjected to accordingly differentiated analysis (Hoffmann 2007 ; Scheithauer and Bondü 2011 ). Using the empirical data, it may prove possible to develop subtypes or a typology of incidents and perpetrators (see also Langman in this volume).

Three of the 120 recorded incidents involved two perpetrators.

The age of 7 of the 123 perpetrators could not be ascertained. One was just 11 years old.

Empirical findings to date suggest that most school shooters were academically good or very good at school. According to Vossekuil et al. ( 2002 ), only 5% were failing in advance of their attacks. This says nothing, however, about subjective experience of pressure to achieve that perpetrators may have found stressful or burdensome. Heitmeyer ( 2002 ) points out that adolescents from prosperous and achievement-orientated backgrounds are often under considerable parental pressure to at least maintain the social status of their family (see also Heitmeyer et al. 1998 ). School shooters generally come from white middle-class families that are lacking in support and emotional recognition (McGee and DeBernardo 1999 ; O’Toole 1999 ; Fast 2008 ). These observations suggest that further research on perpetrators’ family relationships would also be worthwhile.

Bannenberg, B. (2007). So genannte Amokfälle. Forschungsmagazin der Universität Bielefeld, 30 , 36–40.

Google Scholar  

Baumert, J., Watermann, R., & Schümer, G. (2003). Disparitäten der Bildungsbeteiligung und des Kompetenzerwerbs: Ein institutionelles und individuelles Mediationsmodell. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 6 (1), 46–71.

Article   Google Scholar  

Böckler, N., & Seeger, T. (2010). Schulamokläufer: Eine Analyse medialer Täter-Eigendarstellungen und deren Aneignung durch jugendliche Rezipienten . Weinheim & Munich: Juventa.

Böckler, N., Seeger, T., & Heitmeyer, W. (2010). School shooting: A double loss of control. In W. Heitmeyer, H.-G. Haupt, A. Kirschner, & S. Malthaner (Eds.), Control of violence: Historical and international perspectives on violence in modern societies (pp. 261–294). New York: Springer.

Böckler, N., Seeger, T., & Sitzer, P. (2012). Media dynamics in school shootings: a socialization theory perspective. In G. W. Muschert & J. Sumiala (Eds.), School shootings: Mediatized violence in a global age (pp. 25–46). Bingley: Emerald.

Bondü, R., Meixner, S., Bull, H. D., Robertz, F. J., & Scheithauer, H. (2008). Schwere, zielgerichtete Schulgewalt: School Shootings und “Amokläufe”. In H. Scheithauer, T. Hayer, & K. Niebank (Eds.), Problemverhalten und Gewalt im Jugendalter: Erscheinungsformen, Entstehungsbedingungen und Möglichkeiten der Prävention (pp. 86–98). Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.

Bondü, R., & Scheithauer, H. (2010). Explaining and preventing school shootings: Chances and difficulties of control. In W. Heitmeyer, H. G. Haupt, S. Malthaner, & A. Kirschner (Eds.), Control of violence: Historical and international perspectives on violence in modern societies (pp. 295–314). New York: Springer.

Borum, R., Cornell, D., Modzeleski, W., & Jimerson, S. R. (2010). What can be done about school shootings? A review of the evidence. Educational Researcher, 39 (1), 27–37.

Brooks, K., Schiraldi, V., & Ziedenberg, J. (2000). School house hype: Two years later . Washington, DC, & Covington, KY: Justice Policy Institute & Children’s Law Center.

Donohue, E., Schiraldi, V., & Ziedenberg, J. (1998). School house hype: The school shootings, and the real risks kids face in America . Washington, DC: The Justice Policy Institute.

Dornes, M. (2007). Die emotionale Welt des Kindes (5th ed.). Frankfurt am Main: Fischer.

Fast, J. (2008). Ceremonial violence: A psychological explanation of school shootings . New York: Overlook.

Faust, V. (2007). Amok. Psychiatrie heute: Seelische Störungen erkennen, verstehen, verhindern, behandeln. Retrived June 12, 2012 from http://psychosoziale-gesundheit.net/pdf/amok_faust.pdf .

Fein, R. A., Vossekuil, B., Pollack, W. S., Borum, R., Modzeleski, W., & Reddy, M. (2002). Threat assessment in schools: A guide to managing threatening situations and creating safe school climates . Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program and U.S. Secret Service, National Threat Assessment Center.

Frymer, B. (2009). The media spectacle of Columbine: Alienated youth as an object of fear. American Behavioral Scientist, 52 (10), 1387–1404.

Gasser, K. H., Creutzfeld, M., Naher, M., Rainer, R., & Wickler, P. (2004). Bericht der Kommission Gutenberg-Gymnasium . Erfurt, Germany: Freistaat Thüringen.

Harding, D. J., Fox, C., & Mehta, J. (2002). Studying rare events through qualitative case studies: Lessons from a study of rampage school shootings. Sociological Methods & Research, 31 (2), 174–217.

Heitmeyer, W. (2002). Soziale Desintegration, Anerkennungszerfall und Jugendgewalt in Deutschland. In S. Kreitz-Sandberg (Ed.), Jugendliche in Japan und Deutschland: Soziale Integration im Vergleich (pp. 202–226). Opladen: Leske  +  Budrich.

Heitmeyer, W., Collmann, B., & Conrads, J. (1998). Gewalt: Schattenseiten der Individualisierung bei Jugendlichen aus unterschiedlichen Milieus (3d ed.). Weinheim & Munich: Juventa.

Henry, S. (2009). School violence beyond Columbine: A complex problem in need of an interdisciplinary analysis. American Behavioral Scientist, 52 (9), 1246–1265.

Heubrock, D., Hayer, T., Rusch, S., & Scheithauer, H. (2005). Prävention von schwerer zielgerichteter Gewalt an Schulen – Rechtspsychologische und kriminalpräventive Ansätze. Polizei & Wissenschaft, 1 , 43–57.

Hoffmann, J. (2007). Tödliche Verzweiflung—der Weg zu zielgerichteten Gewalttaten an Schulen. In J. Hoffmann & I. Wondrak (Eds.), Amok und zielgerichtete Gewalt an Schulen: Früherkennung/Risikomanagement/Kriseneinsatz/Nachbetreuungt (pp. 25–34). Frankfurt am Main: Polizeiwissenschaft.

Hoffmann, J., Roshdi, K., & Robertz, F. J. (2009). Zielgerichtete schwere Gewalt und Amok an Schulen – eine empirische Studie zur Prävention schwerer Gewalttaten. Kriminalistik, 4 , 196–204.

Holmes, R. M., & Holmes, S. T. (1998). Serial murder (2d ed.). New Delhi: Sage.

Imbusch, P. (2006). Terrorismus. In W. Heitmeyer & M. Schroettle (Eds.), Gewalt: Beschreibungen—Analysen—Prävention (pp. 487–510). Bonn: Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung.

Kelley, E., & May, D. (2011). Increases in school shootings: Reality or myth? International Journal of Sociological Research, 4 (1), 45–57.

Kellner, D. (2008). Guys and guns amok: Domestic terrorism and school shootings from the Oklahoma City bombings to the Virginia Tech massacre . Boulder, CO: Paradigm.

Kidd, S. T., & Meyer, C. L. (2002). Similarities of school shootings in rural and small communities. Journal of Rural Community Psychology, E5 (1). Retrieved June 12, 2012 from http://www.marshall.edu/jrcp/sp2002/similarities_of_school_shootings.htm .

Kiilakoski, T., & Oksanen, A. (2011). Soundtrack of the school shootings: Cultural script, music and male rage. Young: Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 19 (3), 247–269.

Larkin, R. W. (2007). Comprehending Columbine . Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Larkin, R. W. (2009). The Columbine legacy: Rampage shootings as political acts. American Behavioral Scientist, 52 (9), 1309–1326.

Leary, M. R., Kowalski, R. M., Smith, L., & Phillips, S. (2003). Teasing, rejection, and violence: Case studies of the school shootings. Aggressive Behavior, 29 , 202–214.

Levin, J., & Madfis, E. (2009). Mass murder at school and cumulative strain: A sequential model. American Behavioral Scientist, 52 (9), 1227–1245.

Lindgren, S. (2011). YouTube gunmen? Mapping participatory media discourse on school shooting videos. Media, Culture & Society, 33 (1), 1–14.

McGee, J. P., & DeBernardo, C. R. (1999). The classroom avenger. Forensic Examiner, 8 , 1–16.

Modzeleski, W., Feucht, T., Rand, M., Hall, J., Simon, T., Butler, L., & Hertz, M. (2008). School-associated student homicides – United States, 1992–2006. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 57 (2), 33–36.

Moore, M. H., Petrie, C. V., Braga, A. A., & McLaughlin, B. L. (Eds.). (2003). Deadly lessons: Understanding lethal school violence . Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Morton, R. J. (2008). Serial murder: Multi-disciplinary perspectives for investigators . Quantico, VA: Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Muschert, G. W. (2007). Research in school shootings. Sociology Compass, 1 (1), 60–80.

Muschert, G. W. (2009). Frame-changing in the media coverage of a school shooting: The rise of Columbine as a national concern. The Social Science Journal, 46 (1), 164–170.

Muschert, G. W., & Larkin, R. W. (2007). The Columbine High School shootings. In S. Chermak & F. Y. Bailey (Eds.), Crimes and trials of the century (Vol. 2, pp. 253–266). Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Muschert, G. W., & Peguero, A. A. (2010). The Columbine effect and school antiviolence policy. In M. Peyrot & S. L. Burns (Eds.), New approaches to social problems treatment (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy) (pp, Vol. 17, pp. 117–148). Bingley: Emerald.

Muschert, G. W., & Ragnedda, M. (2010). Media and control of violence: Communication in school shootings. In W. Heitmeyer, H.-G. Haupt, A. Kirschner, & S. Malthaner (Eds.), Control of violence: Historical and international perspectives on violence in modern societies (pp. 345–361). New York: Springer.

Newman, K. S., Fox, C., Harding, D. J., Mehta, J., & Roth, W. (2004). Rampage: The social roots of school shootings . New York: Basic.

O’Toole, M. E. (1999). The school shooter: A threat assessment perspective . Quantico, VA: Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Perry, T. (1997). Ex-San Diego State student pleads guilty to murdering 3 professors. Los Angeles Times . Retrieved May 28, 2012 from http://articles.latimes.com/1997-05-28/news/mn-63111_1_san-diego-state .

Robertz, F. J. (2004). School Shootings: Über die Relevanz der Phantasie für die Begehung von Mehrfachtötungen durch Jugendliche . Frankfurt am Main: Polizeiwissenschaft.

Robertz, F. J., & Wickenhäuser, R. (2007). Der Riss in der Tafel: Amoklauf und schwere Gewalt in der Schule . Heidelberg: Springer.

Rugala, E. A. (Ed.). (2004). Workplace violence: Issues in response . Quantico, VA: Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Scheithauer, H., & Bondü, R. (2008). Amoklauf: Wissen was stimmt . Freiburg, Basel, & Vienna: Herder.

Scheithauer, H., & Bondü, R. (2011). Amokläufe und School Shooting: Bedeutung, Hintergründe und Prävention . Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.

Scheithauer, H., Bondü, R., Meixner, S., Bull, H. D., & Dölitzsch, C. (2008). Sechs Jahre nach Erfurt – Das Berliner Leaking-Projekt: Ein Ansatz zur Prävention von School Shootings und Amokläufen an Schulen. Trauma & Gewalt, 2 , 2–13.

Schmidtke, A., Schaller, S., Müller, I., Lester, D., & Stack, S. (2002). Imitation von Amok und Amok-Suizid. Suizidprophylaxe, 29 , 97–106.

Schülein, J. A. (1998). Psychoanalyse und Soziologie oder: Das Unbehagen am Diskurs. Psychosozial, 72 , 111–120.

Statistisches Bundesamt. (2010). Anzahl der Schülerinnen und Schüler geht um 1,3% zurück. Pressemitteilung Nr. 105. Retrieved March 16, 2010 from https://www.destatis.de/DE/PresseService/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2010/03/PD10_105_211.html .

Sumiala, J., & Tikka, M. (2010). “Web first” to death: The media logic of the school shootings in the era of uncertainty. Nordicom Review, 31 (2), 17–29.

Verlinden, S., Hersen, M., & Thomas, J. (2000). Risk factors in school shootings. Clinical Psychology Review, 20 , 3–56.

Virginia Tech Review Panel. (2007). Mass shootings at Virginia Tech, April 16, 2007. Retrieved June 29, 2012 from http://www.governor.virginia.gov/TempContent/techPanelReport-docs/FullReport.pdf .

Vossekuil, B., Fein, R., Reddy, M., Borum, R., & Modzeleski, W. (2002). The final report and findings of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the prevention of school attacks in the United States . Washington, DC: US Secret Service and US Department of Education.

Webber, J. A. (2003). Failure to hold: The politics of school violence . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

Nils Böckler & Peter Sitzer

Faculty of Educational Science and Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

Thorsten Seeger & Wilhelm Heitmeyer

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nils Böckler .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Bielefeld, Universitaetsstrasse 25, Bielefeld, 33615, Germany

Nils Böckler

Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Bielefeld, Universitaetsstrasse 25, Bielefeld, 33615, Germany

Thorsten Seeger

University of Bielefeld, Universitätsstraße 25, Bielefeld, 33501, Germany

Peter Sitzer

Inst. Interdisziplinäre Konflikt- und, Gewaltforschung, University of Bielefeld, Universitätsstr. 25, Bielefeld, 33615, Germany

Wilhelm Heitmeyer

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Böckler, N., Seeger, T., Sitzer, P., Heitmeyer, W. (2013). School Shootings: Conceptual Framework and International Empirical Trends. In: Böckler, N., Seeger, T., Sitzer, P., Heitmeyer, W. (eds) School Shootings. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5526-4_1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5526-4_1

Published : 04 November 2012

Publisher Name : Springer, New York, NY

Print ISBN : 978-1-4614-5525-7

Online ISBN : 978-1-4614-5526-4

eBook Packages : Humanities, Social Sciences and Law Social Sciences (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

June 17, 2022

Why do school shootings keep happening in the United States?

Vcu homeland security expert william v. pelfrey jr. answers this question and more., share this story.

• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn

By Joan Tupponce

The first thought that raced through William Pelfrey Jr.’s mind when he heard the breaking news about the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was typical of any parent with young kids.

“It made me want to get into my vehicle and drive to their schools,” said Pelfrey, Ph.D., an expert in the field of homeland security, terrorism and radicalization and a professor of homeland security/emergency preparedness and criminal justice in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. “From a professional perspective, it reminded me there are too many people with guns, the wrong people with guns and that nothing is going to change.”

Guns are now the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No other developed economy has as many violent firearm deaths as the U.S., according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

“School shootings happen in the U.S. at an alarming rate, but they rarely happen elsewhere in the world. Eighty or 90 percent of all the school shootings in the world happen in the U.S. They are concentrated here,” Pelfrey said.

How did the U.S. get to this point and what can be done? Pelfrey fields those questions and more with VCU News.

Why does this keep happening?

It’s a simple question, but the answers are extremely complicated. There are some political overtones to it. Guns are ubiquitous in the U.S. There are more guns than people. The U.S. population is about 334 million and the number of guns in the U.S. is more than 390 million (according to a report by the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based organization). We have the highest civilian gun ownership in the world by a huge margin. That’s an extraordinary number relative to the rest of the world. The next countries that have as many guns are war-torn countries like Serbia or Yemen.

Another element is school safety is not as high as it should be. It’s easy to maintain basic school safety but not everybody does a good job of that.

A third element is social media, a component that revolves around how people make it OK on social media to act on violence. There is a faction of government, particularly a right-wing government element, that condones or encourages violence. They do so in an oblique way saying something like, “Our country is under threat. We have to stand up and protect our country. We need to take up arms to defend our country, our way of life.” When you do that, you are condoning acts that are dangerous. The U.S. border is populated by a lot of citizens who have dubbed themselves border protection and they stand at the border with guns waiting for someone to illegally cross the border and they take them into custody even though they are not law enforcement.

How do you categorize mass shootings?

Some are artifacts of bullying. A victim of bullying decides they are going to respond with extreme violence, and it’s usually not against their perpetrators. It’s a show of force to demonstrate they won’t be bullied again. They can stand up for themselves. That describes Sandy Hook and Columbine and some other shootings.

The second category of mass shootings is domestic terrorism. Those people had been self-radicalized on social media and believe their actions represent a higher good. What they are doing is for a bigger purpose than themselves. They are willing to die, almost like a suicide terrorist, to further the goals of the theology they support.

A lot of people don’t fit into either category. The mass shooting era began with Charles Whitman in 1966 when he climbed a bell tower at the University of Texas and started shooting people. He did that because he had a tumor in his brain. There was no kind of pattern, but it created a behavioral matrix that has been followed by any number of people in the U.S.

How easy is it to buy a gun?

In the U.S., you can walk into a gun store and buy as many assault rifles as you want if you have cash and are over 18 and you meet just a couple of other loose criteria. Guns are so easily obtained that it’s easy to commit violent crime. We don’t do a good job in our criminal justice system of prohibiting people that probably shouldn’t have them from securing guns.

In most countries there are tests you have to take. You have to demonstrate you need a gun for a specific reason. You have to pass a gun ownership exam to show you can use it safely. You have to maintain license requirements. We don’t do any of that in the U.S. We are going the other way. Texas last year made it easier for people to get a gun in what was already an incredibly permissive state.

What types of guns are especially dangerous to own?

Assault weapons — assault rifles and assault pistols. We don’t track who buys them. You go into a gun store and buy a gun. A criminal background check is run, but no one keeps track of what you bought or how much you paid for it or what you do with it when you walk out the door. You could buy 20 assault rifles, drive to Washington, D.C., and sell them and nobody knows it because there is no reporting mechanism to identify that you sold the guns.

It is a crime to sell a gun to a convicted felon or to take them out of state to sell. But our penalties are so lax that it’s not a deterrent. A straw buyer is a person who buys guns legally and then illegally sells them for profit. There are a small number of gun stores that welcome straw buyers and subsequently represent easy funnels for guns in illegal locations. Straw buyers go to stores where they know they can walk in with $30,000 or $40,000 in cash and walk out with a bunch of pistols and assault rifles and go back to the streets and sell those guns, especially in cities with restrictive gun laws. That’s one of the cheap mechanisms for guns getting into the hands of criminals.

Why is screening a person who wants to buy a gun so important?

There are people who should have red flags that would preclude gun ownership, but we don’t have that in place. We could look over the past 20 or so years at some of the major school shootings like Parkwood (Florida); Newtown (Connecticut); Columbine (Colorado); Uvalde (Texas); even the shooting in Buffalo (New York). These were people that had a history of mental illness or a history of being bullied and were threatening to lash out. People don’t seem to connect the risk factors to gun ownership and the propensity for subsequent violence. And that is just a tragedy.

What is the role of social media in all of this?

It has a powerful role because of far-right extremism. The Buffalo shooter was a self-radicalized domestic terrorist. He had a strongly held belief about the infringement of races on the Caucasian race. He was an avid follower of far-right extremists’ diatribe and used some of what he found as rationalization to act and commit violence.

Not true for every shooter. In Columbine, Newtown, Uvaldi, these were bullied misfits. They didn’t fit in groups and had a history of being marginalized by their peers. They found a different path for getting even and that was through violence. But there is a different population and I believe it’s one of the most dangerous threats to the U.S. and that is far-right extremists, which inspired far-right violent extremists. Social media has a tremendous role in that. There is no single bad guy we can legitimize or take out. There are hundreds of podcasts and thousands of self-proclaimed thought leaders and they write really nasty, vicious stuff and have followers. Some of those people act on what they read. No government entity does a good job counter-messaging extremists.

How does bullying play into this?

Schools don’t do a great job with bullying prevention. One of my areas of research is bullying and cyberbullying. I’ve worked with schools, and we talk about bullying identification. Schools don’t do that until it’s too late. Schools need to adopt bullying and cyberbullying identification measures and then practice them. The best tactic I’ve seen is analogous to the “see something, say something” messaging that was rampant in New York after 9/11. That same logic can be applied in schools to enable citizens to get involved in terrorism prevention. Students can be empowered to identify bullies and then the school can come in to support fellow students.

Some people talk about arming teachers or school administrators. What do you think of that as a way of prevention?

Several years ago, Virginia considered doing that. I did a report for the Department of Criminal Justice Services in Virginia on the merits and risks of arming school personnel. Most high schools have an armed resource officer on scene, but most middle and elementary schools don’t. Arming teachers or school personnel is an incredibly dangerous enterprise that could lead to the death of that person because if police respond to a shooting and see someone with a gun, they are going to shoot them. Or, the teacher could accidentally shoot another staff member or police officer or, in the worst case, a student.

At Uvalde, there was a police resource officer on scene, at Columbine a school resource officer was on scene, at Parkland a school resource officer was on scene. If a trained police officer can’t prevent a school shooting, what are the chances that a teacher who is not well trained can prevent a school shooting? I think the odds are pretty low. I think the risk dramatically outweighs any potential benefits.

Can you talk about the opposite views we have in the U.S. about guns?

We live in a country with two competing paradigms. One thought paradigm is that everybody needs guns and then we will all be safe. The other is the exact opposite. Nobody should have guns and we will all be safe. Those two paradigms cannot coexist. They are diametrically opposed. But our political structure is such that they can’t be reconciled.

After the Sandy Hook shooting there was a huge motivation for gun control, limiting who could buy guns and the kind of guns people could buy. That faded away rapidly. I expect the same thing will happen here, and it’s depressing to say that, but I see very little political will to enact any meaningful changes.

Mass shootings are going to happen again. It’s a pattern. School shootings and mass shootings happen about every year or two in the U.S. and I guarantee that there is going to be another one in a year and another one after that and nothing is going to change until enough people develop a political will to support meaningful gun changes.

What predictions do you have for the future when it comes to gun laws?

I expect there will be some change in gun laws, but they won’t be substantial. It will provide political cover for some people to say we are doing things, we are making things safer, but they won’t make things safer. I expect gun sales will go up even more because people now feel like they have to protect themselves and their family members because the government isn’t doing that.

I also expect that there is going to be some investigation into police practices at Uvalde because police didn’t go into that school immediately. In fact, several police officers stood outside waiting for reinforcements to arrive. That is going to lead to internal investigation and also police policy changes, which I expect will become popular across the U.S. Many police departments implemented a policy suggesting officers need to go into a school and engage an active shooter no matter what. That didn’t happen in Uvalde. As a policing expert, I don’t know how that is possible.

Do people use mental health as a scapegoat for these shootings?

Yes, it’s an easy target. A lot of people point to mental health and say the U.S. needs more mental health funding. They disregard there was a gun that shot these people. Only a small percentage of these shootings were people that had been diagnosed with a mental illness. We want to rationalize this type of behavior. We want to understand it. We presume that the people who commit these vile acts are disturbed, that they are mentally ill, otherwise they are like us and that’s untenable.

It creates an easy political target that allows politicians to rationalize their failure to enact reasonable gun laws. We have laws about who can buy guns — you have to be 18, you can’t be a convicted felon. There are guns that are restrictive. It’s not legal to sell fully automatic weapons. You can’t buy a tank. But whenever reasonable gun restrictions are opposed or discussed, there is a small faction of citizens and politicians that go crazy, and that’s a tragedy.

Over the past 50 years there has only been one meaningful law passed limiting guns — the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, passed under President Bill Clinton. That expired 10 years later under a Republican president. When that expired, people began buying guns at a substantially higher rate than ever before. They presumed that under another Democratic president or Congress gun sales would be limited again. So assault rifles, which had been a small portion of gun purchases prior to the ban, became a big part of gun sales.

Estimates are that a quarter to a third of all guns sold now in the U.S. are assault rifle platforms. That is a big number. Seven years after the ban expired, guns sales had doubled. A few years later they doubled again. It’s amazing that the ban had a counter-productive effect, which is it dramatically increased gun sales and people’s motivations to buy guns, particularly assault rifles.

As a policing expert, there is no reason anyone who is not military or law enforcement should ever have an assault rifle. I come from a family of hunters. Every year we would go hunting. I know rifles and shotguns. An assault rifle is a vastly inferior tool for anything other than shooting people. It’s not good for hunting or self-defense. A shotgun or a pistol is more effective. There is no reason for a civilian to have an assault rifle, but they do.

Each issue of the VCU News newsletter includes a roundup of top headlines from the university’s central news source and a listing of highlighted upcoming events. The newsletter is distributed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. To subscribe, visit  newsletter.vcu.edu/ . All VCU and VCU Health email account holders are automatically subscribed to the newsletter.

Subscribe to VCU News

Subscribe to VCU News at newsletter.vcu.edu and receive a selection of stories, videos, photos, news clips and event listings in your inbox.

Most popular

Aug. 15, 2024

Welcome to the Ram Rodeo: A look at what’s in store for this year’s Weeks of Welcome

Aug. 19, 2024

Hellos and goodbyes: Scenes from move-in

Aug. 21, 2024

A lively first day of classes

First-year students set to arrive at VCU this week for move-in days

Latest headlines

Aug. 29, 2024

For Rams finding their way, VCU introduces new interactive campus map

Aug. 28, 2024

Christa Mathieu’s research-based internship strengthened her interest in health care

VCU Brandcenter alums bringing Everything But the Booze ‘shocktails’ to market

VCU Board of Visitors to meet in person Sept. 5

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

NCJRS Virtual Library

School shootings: international research, case studies, and concepts for prevention, additional details.

11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor , New York , NY 10036 , United States

No download available

Availability, related topics.

• < Previous

Home > CHESS > CRIMINAL-JUSTICE_MASTERS > 5

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

School shootings: what’s the plan.

Sherrell L. Quintero , Concordia University, St. Paul Follow

Document Type

Degree name.

Master of Arts

Human Services

The purpose of this research review was to gather the information that will help make changes with evidence-based approaches to help prevent and intervene with these horrendous crimes that have impacted the United States. Inspired by students' and staff member's outcries, these tragic events that attack the most innocent victims must be taken into complete consideration to guarantee their safety. This research review explores the concerns and issues as they relate to policies, code of ethics, strategies, safety planning, and training that have proven to work in preventing any future attacks. States and school officials have implemented programs, security measures, and mental health personnel to help prevent and intervene with these attacks. Another focus has been on gun violence, youths are no longer using guns for recreational purposes, youths are using guns to harm people. The American people request more gun control in our country, citizens are expressing their opinions, and thoughts on what can help with controlling gun violence in school shootings. Relying on evidence-based approaches and taking school security measures seriously has helped in developing policies and procedures that help keep schools safe and maintain a positive school climate as well as a culture that will improve school achievement.

Recommended Citation

Since February 23, 2021

Included in

Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons

Advanced Search

• Notify me via email or RSS
• Collections
• Disciplines

Author Corner

• Submission Guidelines
• Submit Research

Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement

Privacy Copyright

• Student Voices

Aug. 23, 2024, 3:05 p.m.

Where students stand on gun violence ahead of 2024 election

Editor's note: In the spring of 2024, NewsHour Classroom put out a call to middle and high school students across the country about their thoughts on gun violence and the justice of charging the parents of school shooters with crimes.

The call followed the manslaughter conviction of Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of Ethan Crumbley, who had killed four students and injured seven others in 2021 at Oxford High School in Michigan.

Ethan's father James was also convicted of manslaughter. The convictions of Ethan Crumbley's parents set a new precedent for prosecuting parents for the acts of children who commit mass shootings.

We wanted to know what students thought about the precedent of charging parents for their children's acts of violence, as well as how they thought mass shootings and gun violence should be addressed. Our questions were:

• What measures need to be taken to put an end to America’s epidemic of gun violence?
• Do you think the prosecution of school shooters' parents will help curb mass shooting incidents? Why or why not?

Note that the majority of our respondents are from Troy, Michigan — a community near Oxford. Their grade levels indicate their grade in spring 2024 when they responded to the question. We will publish more of their voices in part II of this Student Voice piece.

It is important to hold parents responsible for keeping their weapons in a place where their children cannot access [them]...

Caden, 12th grade, Louisville, Colorado

Increased restrictions and precautions should be put on individuals who are purchasing firearms, including increased background checks and more training. Furthermore, I believe that rifle weapons like AR-15s should be significantly harder to purchase, as they are often used as weapons in mass shootings.

Prosecuting school shooters' parents won't be a complete solution to the problem at hand, but it may be a step in the right direction in the ultimate goal of ending gun violence and mass shootings. It is important to hold parents responsible for keeping their weapons in a place where their children cannot access, and they should also be prosecuted if they intentionally give their child access to a firearm which they then use to injure or kill others.

I believe the prosecution of school shooters’ parents will help curb mass shooting incidents as it will force parents to be more involved their children’s lives...

Abhradeep, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

I believe the prosecution of school shooters’ parents will help curb mass shooting incidents as it will force parents to be more involved their children’s lives to promote responsibility. This may not only prevent potential shooters from making any rash decisions, but also possibly prevent whatever mental issues spurred the decision to shoot a school in the first place. This may also encourage parents to better protect their firearms and keep them away from their children.

Laws should be passed requiring a hunting license, background check and application detailing purpose of use for each gun purchase.

Julie, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

To end America’s epidemic of gun violence, I think that only law enforcement and subsistence hunters should have guns. Laws should be passed requiring a hunting license, background check and application detailing purpose of use for each gun purchase. Convicts and those who have a history of substance abuse or mental health concerns should not be allowed to buy a gun, and any guns previously purchased should be confiscated if these situations later arise.

I think prosecuting school shooters’ parents will curb mass shootings by encouraging other parents to be more diligent in detecting dangerous behavior in their children.

There are multiple measures that can be taken to reduce gun violence in America. One option is making it harder to obtain guns.

Kazim, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

There are multiple measures that can be taken to reduce gun violence in America. One option is making it harder to obtain guns. This can be accomplished by increasing the minimum age to buy guns or also by raising taxes on guns and similar items.

I feel that guns should not be legal in our country, but this is not a realistic solution.

Adam, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

I feel that guns should not be legal in our country, but this is not a realistic solution. However, we should make sure the person buying the gun is in good mental health and also make sure everyone in the household with access to the gun is capable of keeping others safe. I also believe that parents should be held accountable if their child commits a crime with their gun, because they have the responsibility of having that gun and making sure everyone else in their community is safe.

One idea is to implement more attentive security in public areas...

Prisha, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

One idea is to implement more attentive security in public areas, such as schools, banks, hospitals and even governmental offices. Another idea is to place metal detectors in areas, especially schools, in order for officials to stay alert and work towards lessening the impact of gun use. These two solutions would help combat the gun epidemic and lead to a safer future.

I firmly believe that the act of prosecuting parents alone will not cure the problems in America.

I firmly believe that the act of prosecuting parents alone will not cure the problems in America. Oftentimes, assailants are set in their decisions to wreak havoc on communities. However, some are simply seeking attention. I believe mental assessments should be required with all shooters. Conducted by the government, the assessments would determine the motivation to cause harm and would guide judges in consequential decisions. Should the assessment classify the assailant as mentally unstable, the parents shall not be prosecuted. If they are deemed stable, parental prosecution is likely to reduce mass shootings.

Some states don’t take this epidemic seriously

Jayanth, 12th grade, Troy, Michigan

Some states don’t take this epidemic seriously and most likely have voters who don't either. But this is a serious issue that the government needs to address.

I would propose to run a background check on the parents after shootings, and charges could be brought based on results. I feel like this is a great solution since it really shows if the parents played a factor in the child’s behavior or not.

Parents can encourage immoral behavior by carelessly introducing weapons into their children's lives

Samiksha, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

I think the prosecution of school shooters' parents will help curb mass shooting incidents, because many school shootings result from kids gaining access to weapons through their parents. For example, Ethan Crumbley had bought the gun he used at the Oxford school shooting with his own father, who acknowledged it as a "gift." Parents can encourage immoral behavior by carelessly introducing weapons into their children's lives.

We can invest in community programs that address the causes of gun violence.

Armaan, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

To end gun violence in America, we should implement stricter background checks for gun purchasers to help prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands. Additionally, we can improve mental health support and identify potential warning signs in individuals at risk of causing violence. We can invest in community programs that address the causes of gun violence. Enhancing law enforcement efforts to track and combat illegal gun trafficking will reduce the availability of guns to criminals.

Parents who have actively contributed to their child's access to guns or ignored warning signs should face legal and consequences.

If parents are held responsible, there will be more parents willing to pay more attention to their children’s thoughts or actions.

Anna, 12th grade, Troy, Michigan

If parents are held responsible, there will be more parents willing to pay more attention to their children’s thoughts or actions. I also think that this will help because then the kids who do these acts will hopefully receive less attention than what they want. But there will always be bad people in the world, and there’s no stopping that.

Given the gravity of the situation, funding for research into gun violence is insufficient.

Aniha, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

Federal funding and gun control are two specific measures that can be used to put an end the epidemic of gun violence in America. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 is one example of a successful gun regulation. Timothy Welbeck, an assistant professor of anthropology and African American studies, says that the ban has reduced the number of people killed by assault rifles.

Given the gravity of the situation, funding for research into gun violence is insufficient. The federal government has the responsibility and opportunity to take the lead in sponsoring research that identify gun violence as a public health problem.

Mass shootings often involve many complex factors such as mental health issues, societal influences, access to the guns...

Minseo, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

The prosecution of school shooters’ parents will help curb mass shooting incidents to some extent, but is unlikely to fully curb them. It’s important to hold parents accountable for their children’s actions. However, mass shootings often involve many complex factors such as mental health issues, societal influences, access to the guns, etc. .So, addressing these issues comprehensively through measures like health care support and gun control legislation is crucial for reducing the frequency of mass shootings.

It is heartbreaking to see children who have so much life ahead of them having their lives cut short due to gun violence.

Mariam, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

It is heartbreaking to see children who have so much life ahead of them having their lives cut short due to gun violence. Anyone with a gun should have a license for that gun as well as have to bring the gun in for inspection every two years. The government should also pay for a metal detector at every school.

Students are less likely to consider gun violence as the way out of their situation if they know that they are on the school's radar for safety concerns.

Ana-Sofia, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

I don’t think persecution of school shooters’ parents will directly curb mass shootings on its own. Persecution serves as a warning to gun-owning parents, but prevention should be directed at their kids as well. Enforcing reports of firearms so schools are aware of who has access to guns at home, and student knowledge of this report, might serve as a good fear factor for students with that accessibility. Students are less likely to consider gun violence as the way out of their situation if they know that they are on the school's radar for safety concerns.

Assault weapons are exceptionally deadly firearms commonplace in mass fatality shootings.

Blessing, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

We need drastic measures to address the rising effects of America's epidemic of gun violence. In 2023 alone there were 656 mass shootings but an 8-10% decrease in deaths related to gun violence. Assault weapons are exceptionally deadly firearms commonplace in mass fatality shootings. They are generally capable of firing far more bullets, far faster than manual-action hunting rifles. Prohibiting assault weapons can prevent mass shooting injuries and deaths.

We also need to implement comprehensive background checks to ensure that firearms are not sold to individuals with criminal records, a history of domestic violence or severe mental illness. Addressing loopholes such as private sales and gun shows where firearms can be purchased without background checks is critical.

Schools should provide education and training once a month on how to best react to school shootings.

Jane, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

There are many forms of gun violence, but one major form of gun violence is school shootings. This phenomenon has unfortunately become more and more common recently. Some strategies schools use to prevent shootings include metal detectors and requiring clear backpacks. Instead of waiting for something to happen, I believe it should be required for schools to enforce the use of clear backpacks in high school. This will prevent students from bringing guns to school and ultimately reduce the rate of school shootings around the U.S.

Schools should also provide education and training once a month on how to best react to school shootings, so we can limit the number of deaths and injuries.

When parents are held accountable, it can alert other parents and spread awareness.

Shivani, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

Holding both school shooters and parents accountable will help reduce school shooting incidents. When parents are held accountable, it can alert other parents and spread awareness. Parents will feel more inclined to talk to their kids about school shootings and acts of terror. This will educate children and force parents to be more cautious about their children's behavior and actions. I believe that many parents overlook the behavior of their children because they could never imagine their child doing such horrifying things. However, this bias could cause a parent to mistakenly overlook a future act of terror.

I think there needs to be mandatory background checks in order to purchase a gun.

Clay, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

First, I think there needs to be mandatory background checks in order to purchase a gun. Secondly, I think we should utilize technology and require fingerprint access to guns so that only the lawful owner can use the firearm. I believe that we should have more accountability and stiffer penalties for careless gun storage. Finally, we need to invest more in mental health treatment.

The way these children grow up is a big reason why they are the way they are

Riley, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

Parents of school shooters should be prosecuted, because the way these children grow up is a big reason why they are the way they are. They can be just as at fault as the kids. Kids who suffer from abuse act out in different ways and the parents need to be held accountable for their actions. Prosecuting these parents will hopefully push other parents to take better care of their kids. I would also hope it influences parents to securely store their guns.

Prosecuting the parents of school shooters could potentially help curb mass shooting incidents, but it's not a straightforward solution.

Noah, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

I believe that prosecuting the parents of school shooters could potentially help curb mass shooting incidents, but it's not a straightforward solution. On one hand, holding parents accountable for their children's actions might encourage more adults to then be responsible gun owners and have better storage. If parents knew they could face legal consequences for their child's actions, they might take extra precautions. In theory, this could prevent some shootings by making it harder for potential shooters to access guns. However, it's not always clear when parents should be held responsible for their child's actions.

I believe we need to require gun safety training for firearm owners...

Lilianna, 12th grade, Louisville, Colorado

I believe we need to require gun safety training for firearm owners, similar to how we require training before getting a driver's license. We should also require universal background checks in order to purchase a gun.

I think the prosecution of school shooters' parents will make gun owners more aware of their children's access to weapons, especially if their children are showing warning signs of violence. This may lead parents to take steps to restrict their children's access to guns and get their children support, which would help curb mass shooting incidents.

...I advocate for trauma-informed, healing-centered education to foster growth and responsible decision-making among youth.

Jimin, 12th grade, Troy, Michigan

To combat the American gun violence epidemic, it is imperative to ban the sale of long guns to those under 21 due to the "gap between impulses and impulse control in adolescent brain development," as noted by Professor Timothy Welbeck. This measure addresses the impulsive nature of youth, mitigating the potential for devastating consequences. Emphasizing that an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex does not inherently imply negativity, I advocate for trauma-informed, healing-centered education to foster growth and responsible decision-making among youth.

Gun violence is very concerning to me. I have had close friends and family that experienced school shootings at Oxford and MSU.

Emerson, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

Gun violence is very concerning to me. I have had close friends and family that experienced school shootings at Oxford and MSU. If we have to be 21 to drink and purchase alcohol, I think the law should also be 21 to purchase firearms. It should also not be possible for people to purchase guns online, which allows them to skip background checks that should be mandatory for purchase.

I think the prosecution of school shooters' parents will help curb school mass shootings. Parents need to be held accountable. Parents need to be aware of their child’s mental health and seek help when concerned.

I believe in order to purchase a gun, there not only must be a background check, but also a medical background check.

Raegan, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

I believe in order to purchase a gun, there not only must be a background check, but also a medical background check. This will help the epidemic decline because people who may have mental health illness or have previous health conditions will stand out.

I don't think holding parents responsible would provide as much help as we need.

Chloe, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

I think the government should step in and create a better system for who can own guns, because the problem is rooted in guns being in the wrong hands. There should be a series of tests that buyers have to go through in order to own guns.

I don't think holding parents responsible would provide as much help as we need. Parents sometimes aren't even the root of the problem. Parents should lead by example and show their kids the difference between good and bad and try to look for early signs of mental illness, but sometimes these things are unattainable.

I don’t think I’m in the minority when it seems to me to be both the parents and child’s fault.

Ann, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

I hope that the prosecution of parents will help curb mass shooting incidents because in the Oxford case, it was his parents who bought the gun and failed to put it in any sort of safe. Not to mention that they tried to outrun the police, which is never a good idea. All in all, school shootings are a tragedy, but I don’t think I’m in the minority when it seems to me to be both the parents and child’s fault.

Prosecuting the parents of school shooters neglects comprehensive solutions and doesn’t address the root cause of gun violence.

Tashi, 11th grade, Troy, Michigan

Universal background checks need to primarily be put in place. I also think there needs to be a ban on assault weapons. Lastly, there should be laws that close loopholes. These laws make sure that individuals don’t purchase firearms until they get a proper background check.

I think prosecuting school shooters’ parents will not curb mass shooting incidents whatsoever. This would overlook broader systemic issues like mental health support, societal factors like violent behavior, and, most importantly, access to firearms. Prosecuting the parents of school shooters neglects comprehensive solutions and doesn’t address the root cause of gun violence.

We want to hear from you! To share your solution to gun violence in schools, post an Instagram or tweet to @NewsHourExtra using #StudentGunReformIdeas or email [email protected] for more informqtion.

Fill out this form to share your thoughts on Classroom’s resources. Sign up for NewsHour Classroom’s ready-to-go Daily News Lessons delivered to your inbox each week.

Recent Student Voicess

Student Voice: How I became an inventor (and how you can, too)

Hear from a student inventor about her path to invention, and why she thinks any student can do the same

Student Voice: A young inventor's "Farmer's Friend" makes farming safer

Student inventor Maia De La Cruz explains her invention to make moving hay easier for farmers

Student Movie Recommendation: 'Bridge of Spies' finds a connection between the two sides of the Cold War

Hear from one high school student about why a movie set in during the Cold War is relevant today

• Oxford school shooting
• Second Amendment
• background checks
• gun violence
• school shootings
• ethan crumbley
• jennifer crumbley
• james crumbley
• mass shootings
• oxford high school

SUPPORTED BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY:

Copyright © 2023 NewsHour Production LLC. All Rights Reserved

Illustrations by Annamaria Ward

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

A school shooting in Nashville started a gun debate in a very conservative state

Meribah Knight

The Supermajority team from NPR’s Embedded podcast follows three conservative mothers who lobby Tennessee lawmakers for gun control after a shooting at their private Christian school in Nashville.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

• Manage Account
• Best in DFW
• Life & Loss In Dallas
• Things to Do
• Public Notices
• Help Center

Shootings are up 31% in schools. Will our politics meet the moment?

For the sake of our kids, our nation must take a centrist stance on gun safety..

2:00 AM on Aug 26, 2024 CDT

As millions of children head back to the classroom, a new study has found t hat the number of instances of gunfire at elementary and high school campuses grew by 31% last school year.

Students face the reality behind this grim trend. Lockdown drills teach our children how to duck, cover and stay quiet if shots ring out in the hallways, cafeteria or parking lot.

It shouldn’t be this way. Will this be the year that voters of all political stripes finally say enough and elect leaders committed to commonsense gun restrictions?

If history repeats, then, no. But perhaps there’s a green shoot of hope.

Get smart opinions on the topics North Texans care about.

By signing up you agree to our  Terms of Service  and  Privacy Policy

We were encouraged by the remarks of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as he accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president. His centrist appeal as a former NRA-backed lawmaker who believes in Second Amendment protection but who also thinks kids shouldn’t fear being shot at school may help soften the minds of gun rights absolutists.

“Look, I know guns,” Walz told the crowd at the Democratic National Convention. “I’m a veteran. I’m a hunter. … But I’m also a dad. I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.”

But that’s not happening, according to a study released earlier this month by Everytown, a gun safety advocacy group, and K-12 School Shooting Database. The two organizations tracked incidents of gunfire on school campuses nationwide during the last school year. Gunfire is defined in the study as any time a firearm was discharged on school grounds.

Researchers found there were 144 incidents of gunfire at campuses last year; 36 people died and 87 were wounded. That’s up from 2022-23, when there were 110 incidents of gunfire in which 29 people were killed and 72 were wounded.

A deeper dive into last year’s incidents revealed another troubling trend. Last school year saw a record number of shootings by police as well as unintentional shootings in which guns were accidentally discharged, the researchers noted. In one case, two people were shot and wounded when a gun fell out of someone’s waistband at a high school basketball game in Alabama.

Of course, North Texans are no strangers to school shootings. In April, an 18-year-old was fatally shot by a 17-year-old classmate at James Bowie High School in Arlington. Just days before that, a student was shot and wounded inside a classroom at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in southeast Oak Cliff.

State and national elected officials have refused to make meaningful strides in protecting students from gun violence amid easy access to firearms. Texas has chosen to harden schools instead of passing measures such as red flag laws. And Congress has balked at universal background checks for gun purchases.

Surveys by the Pew Research Center show Americans have nuanced views on guns . Though 3 in 10 U.S. adults own guns, 61% of Americans — including some gun owners — say it’s too easy to legally obtain a firearm in this country.

We should demand that our political candidates reflect where most of us stand on the gun debate, for the sake of our children.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here . If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at [email protected]

Dallas Morning News Editorial . Dallas Morning News editorials are written by the paper's Editorial Board and serve as the voice and view of the paper. The board considers a broad range of topics and is overseen by the Editorial Page Editor.

• Bahasa Indonesia
• Slovenščina
• Science & Tech
• Russian Kitchen

Security and society under examination after school shooting

A policeman and a teacher have died after a 10th grade student opened fire at the school. Source: ITAR-TASS

On Monday, Feb., 3, 10th grader Sergey G. Took two dozen people hostage and killed a policeman and a teacher in Russia's first school shooting. A second policeman is fighting for his life after being shot. According to one version of what happened, the shooter had no personal grudge against his victims; he wanted to be killed by the police or special forces "in order to understand what death is like."

The tragedy has revealed problems with security in Russian schools as well with the ability of teachers and parents to identify students with mental health issues.

Investigators initially said the crime was committed “in a state of emotional breakdown” – but additional investigations showed that the shooting had in fact been carefully planned. The attacker’s classmates say he was a very diligent student and that he believed that his average grades in geography were ruining all his overall academic standing.

"I hoped I would be shot dead," he said after he had been apprehended. Classmates said he had made similar statements previously.

Some who knew the family have said they were well-to-do, and this may have contributed to the pressure Sergey admitted to feeling regarding his grades and after school activities.

Valery Ryazansky, head of the select committee for social policy of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament said that society was partially to blame for the tragedy.

“Looking at Russian society as a whole, there is of course a tendency towards more pressure and violence," Ryazansky said. “Things are being made worse by the huge numbers of various video games that depict violence and cruelty."

Kirill Kabanov, chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, believes that such entertainment should be banned altogether.

Alexander Shadura, a children and family psychologist, takes a somewhat different view. “I do believe that this was an unusual, one-off case," Shadura said.

Student faces up to 10 years in juvenile correction facility after shooting spree in school

Moscow school shooter was straight A student - Investigations Committee

“There is really no reason to claim that it represents some kind of pattern or trend. Information flows freely around the world these days. Maybe reports about school shootings in the United States got the attacker thinking about doing something similar; maybe it was scenes of violence, including violence in video games. But these are not the real causes. Such breakdowns are the result of a long process. Its causes include psychological pressure on the teenager by his parents, lack of proper attention, or a hormonal imbalance. We can't just attribute this to any single specific cause. Neither would it be right to say that someone should have seen it coming."

School security

Arriving at the scene of the shooting, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered security measures to be reviewed and increased at all schools in the Russian capital. “We have put in place CCTV cameras and other security arrangements financed by the city.

It appears that these measures are not enough,” Sobyanin said. He added that there would be a separate inquiry at School No 263, where the shooting happened.

The municipal authorities in Moscow started to bolster security arrangements at schools in 1999, after a series of blasts in residential apartment blocks. At that time, schools were allowed to hire private guards, paid for by parents.

After the hostage crisis in Beslan on Sept. 1, 2004, the education department in Moscow installed CCTV cameras and panic buttons at all schools, and surrounded schoolyards with tall steel fences or walls. Additional plans to install turnstiles at the entrances to school buildings are in progress.

Rafail Ruditskiy, head of the Moscow branch of the Civilian Weapons Union has argued for metal detectors and additional training for school guards. 

Andrey Demidov, a representative of the teachers' union, doubts the effectiveness of such steps. "If a school kid decides to shoot someone, he can do it just as well outside the school building," Demidov said. “It would be far more useful to make an emphasis on preventive programs among children."

Olga Bukhanovskaya, a psychiatrist, echoes these views. She believes that unless such programs are rolled out as soon as possible, the Moscow school shooter “may inspire copycats."

Based on reporting from the Kommersant and Moskovskiy Komsomolets newspapers and the Gazeta.ru news website.

All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

to our newsletter!

Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox

This website uses cookies. Click here to find out more.

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Shopping
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• U.S. Open Tennis
• College football
• Auto Racing
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Jury finds parents of Texas student accused in 2018 deadly school shooting not negligent

A Texas civil jury says the parents of a former student accused of killing 10 people at a high school shooting can’t be held responsible for what happened

Rose Marie Kosmetatos, left, and her husband, Antonios Pagourtzis, parents of accused Santa Fe High School shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis, talk before the start of the civil trial against them Friday, Aug. 16, 2024, in Galveston County Court No. 3 Judge Jack Ewing’s courtroom at the Galveston County Courthouse in Galveston, Texas. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP, Pool)

Rose Marie Kosmetatos, left, and her husband, Antonios Pagourtzis, parents of accused Santa Fe High School shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis, listen to their attorneys discuss a motion Friday, Aug. 16, 2024, during their civil trial in Galveston County Court No. 3 Judge Jack Ewing’s courtroom at the Galveston County Courthouse in Galveston, Texas. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP, Pool)

Plaintiff attorney Alton Todd, seated, talks with Roberto Torres, the court assigned civil attorney for accused Santa Fe High School shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis, on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024, in Galveston County Court No. 3 Judge Jack Ewing’s courtroom at the Galveston County Courthouse in Galveston, Texas. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP, Pool)

Attorney Lori Laird, representing Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, parents of accused Santa Fe High School shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis, looks through documents before closing arguments begin Friday, Aug. 16, 2024, in Galveston County Court No. 3 Judge Jack Ewing’s courtroom at the Galveston County Courthouse in Galveston, Texas. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP, Pool)

Galveston County Court No. 3 Judge Jack Ewing listens to an attorney’s objection to a definition in the jury charges in his courtroom at the Galveston County Courthouse in Galveston, Texas on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP, Pool)

Antonios Pagourtzis, left, reacts as he and his wife, Rose Marie Kosmetatos, listen as Galveston County Court Judge Jack Ewing reads the jury’s verdict Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, at the Galveston County Courthouse in Galveston, Texas. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP, Pool)

Antonios Pagourtzis, center, wipes away tears next to his wife, Rose Marie Kosmetatos, left, after a jury decided that they do not bear financial responsibility for the 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, at the Galveston County Courthouse in Galveston, Texas. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP, Pool)

Rose Marie Kosmetatos, facing, hugs her attorney Lori Laird on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, after a split jury found her and husband, Antonios Pagourtzis, not financially responsible for the 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, at the Galveston County Courthouse in Galveston, Texas. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP, Pool)

• Copy Link copied

The parents of a former student accused of killing 10 people at a high school near Houston in 2018 do not bear financial responsibility for the shooting, a jury decided Monday.

A lawsuit brought by victims and their families sought to hold Dimitrios Pagourtzis and his parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, accountable for the shooting at Santa Fe High School in 2018. During a three-week trial, attorneys for the families argued the parents failed to provide necessary support for their son’s mental health and didn’t do enough to prevent him from accessing their guns.

Jurors instead put the responsibility with Dimitrios Pagourtzis and a firearms ammunition retailer in a verdict that awarded families more than $300 million total in damages, including for pain and mental anguish.

Attorneys for the families said they were disappointed in the outcome.

“We’ve would’ve liked to have the parents share in their responsibility for this,” said Clint McGuire, who represented several of the families.

Authorities say Pagourtzis fatally shot eight students and two teachers. Pagourtzis, now 23, has been charged with capital murder, but the criminal case has been on hold since November 2019, when he was declared incompetent to stand trial. He is being held at a state mental health facility.

In April, Jennifer and James Crumbley were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison by a Michigan judge after becoming the first parents convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting. Pagourtzis’ parents are not accused of any crime.

The lawsuit was filed by relatives of seven of the people killed and four of the 13 who were wounded in the Santa Fe attack.

The jury also assigned some responsibility to Lucky Gunner, a Tennessee-based online retailer that sold Dimitrios Pagourtzis more than 100 rounds of ammunition without verifying his age and reached a settlement with the families last year. The company had previously been a defendant in the lawsuit.

Jake Felde, CEO of Lucky Gunner, said in a statement that the company isn’t responsible for any of the damages awarded by the jury because it was dismissed from the lawsuit.

“Lucky Gunner wasn’t a party to the trial, so it was easy for the jury to place some of the blame on us because we weren’t there to defend ourselves,” Felde said.

The attorney representing Pagourtzis told jurors that while his client did plan the shooting, he was never in control of his actions because of his severe mental illness.

McGuire said the parents knew their son was depressed, receiving bad grades, isolating himself, and had taken weapons from their gun cabinet and safe. McGuire said Pagourtzis also wrote disturbing Facebook posts and ordered ammunition and other items online, such as a knife with a Nazi symbol and a T-shirt that said, “Born To Kill.”

But Lori Laird, an attorney for Pagourtzis’ parents, told jurors that the couple hadn’t seen any red flags, knew nothing of his online purchases and didn’t know any of their weapons were missing.

“We need to protect our children. They need to feel safe when they go to school,” Galveston County Court at Law Judge Jack Ewing said after the verdict was delivered. “They need to feel safe at home. And that message will carry even outside of the walls and the doors of this courtroom. And hopefully it will follow into the ears of our legislators.”

Both parents testified during the trial. Antonios Pagourtzis is retired but worked for years in ship maintenance and repair. Kosmetatos works as an executive assistant at an academic health science center in Galveston.

Kosmetatos told jurors that while her son became more introverted as he grew older, he was a bright and normal child with no significant issues. She acknowledged that he “wasn’t himself” in the months leading up to the shooting but she had hoped it would pass.

Antonios Pagourtzis testified that he wasn’t aware that his son was feeling rejected and ostracized at school, or that he might have been depressed.

The family stored firearms in a gun safe in the garage and a display cabinet in the living room. Dimitrios Pagourtzis used his mother’s .38 caliber handgun and one of his father’s shotguns during the shooting. Whether he got the weapons from the safe or cabinet, and where he found the keys, were among points debated during the trial.

“You can’t secure anything 100%,” Antonios Pagourtzis said.

Similar lawsuits have been filed following other mass shootings.

In 2022, a jury awarded over $200 million to the mother of one of four people killed in a shooting at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee. The lawsuit was filed against the shooter and his father, who was accused of returning a rifle to his son before the shooting despite the son’s mental health issues.

Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.

Ukraine war latest: Ukraine keeping close eye on Belarus border as troops amass

Russia has launched several air attacks on Ukraine this week, costing Moscow a reported £1.1bn. Meanwhile, Ukraine says it's keeping a close eye on its border with Belarus after a build-up of troops there in recent days.

Thursday 29 August 2024 16:47, UK

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

• Ukraine keeping close eye on Belarus border as troops amass  
• Putin's attack on Ukraine in single day 'cost more than £1bn'
• Kyiv hit by third attack in four days as drone debris injures three
• Ukraine heading 'closer and closer' to total blackout
• Battlefield situation: Latest frontlines in maps
• Watch: Who are Ukraine's secret resistance?
• Your questions answered: Strategic consequences for Ukraine if Pokrovsk falls
• Reporting by Mark Wyatt

A Ukrainian F-16 fighter jet was destroyed in a crash on Monday, a US defence official has told Reuters.

According to the official, it is still to be determined what caused the incident - pilot error or mechanical failure.

It comes after Russia staged a missile and drone attack on Ukraine on Monday.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that F-16 jets were used to repel the attack on Monday and showed good results.

He had announced earlier this month that Ukraine had started flying F-16s for operations within the country, confirming the long-awaited arrival of the US-made fighter jets which Ukraine has been pushing for since the start of the war.

Four nuclear power units at two different power plants in Ukraine were disconnected from the grid during the Russian attack on Monday, Ukraine's presidential office head, Andriy Yermak, reports.

In a statement on Telegram , Mr Yermak said power units at Rivne NPP, in northwest Ukraine, and South Ukrainian NPP in the south, had been disconnected.

What happened on Monday?

Russian forces unleashed 236 drones and missiles in a massive attack on Ukraine. 

Seven people were killed and 15 regions were struck, with explosions heard in the capital, Kyiv. 

Ukraine said hypersonic missiles were used in the assault.

Fighting in Pokrovsk is "exceptionally tough", Ukraine's top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi has said. 

Mr Syrskyi, who has spent several days on the eastern front, also said that Russia was throwing everything it could into its assaults, trying to break through Ukrainian defences.

"Fighting is exceptionally tough," he said, adding that Ukraine had to constantly use unorthodox methods to strengthen its positions.

For context : Russia's army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defence in the area. 

The region, which had a pre-war population of about 60,000, is one of Ukraine's main defensive strongholds.

Its capture would compromise Ukraine's defensive abilities and supply routes and would bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region.

Ukraine says it's keeping a close eye on its border with Belarus after a build-up of troops there in recent days.

Kyiv's foreign ministry accused Minsk last week of concentrating a "significant number of personnel" in the Gomel region near Ukraine's northern border "under the guise of exercises".

It swiftly warned Belarusian officials not to make "tragic mistakes under Moscow's pressure" and withdraw its forces.

The Institute for the Study of War said Belarus's troop deployment was likely intended to divert Ukrainian soldiers from other fronts.

It also assessed that Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was "extremely unlikely to risk combat with Ukraine that could weaken his regime".

Speaking on television today, a spokesperson for Ukraine's border guard service said it had detected no immediate threats on the border, but that Ukrainian troops were keeping it constantly monitored.

"This is tens of kilometres from our border, at different points – different distances," said Andriy Demchenko.

"What is happening on the territory of Belarus is actively monitored by intelligence units, the ministry of defence and the state border service in order to understand how the situation is changing, how threatening it can be for Ukraine.

"So that all components of our defence forces, which strengthen this direction, have the opportunity to react in time to any actions."

Ukraine is calling on the civilian population in its eastern city of Pokrovsk to evacuate as Russian troops draw closer to its outskirts.

Readers have been sending in their questions to our senior correspondents and military experts for their take on what could happen next.

Today, Malcolm asks:

How serious is the situation in Pokrovsk? If the city falls to Russian forces, what are the strategic consequences for Ukraine?

Military analyst Sean Bell says...

It is very difficult to provide clarity over the tactical progress of the war given the relative paucity of detailed information about progress, challenges and opportunities.  

However, it appears likely that Vladimir Putin's near-term objective of his "special military operation" is to secure Crimea, the Donbas and the land bridge between the two areas.  

This summer, Russia's main effort appears to have been securing the final component of the Donbas, and despite the much-publicised casualty rate being suffered by Moscow's forces - more than 1,000 casualties a day - Russia continues to make slow but steady progress.  

Pokrovsk is a strategically important logistics and transport hub for Ukrainian forces in the region, and Russian forces are now reported to be only six miles away from the town, leading the Ukrainians to evacuate the civilian population.

The Russian president knows that it is very difficult to maintain momentum during the winter months, so he has perhaps 10 to 12 weeks available to achieve his objectives before the winter weather settles in.   

If Russian forces can seize Pokrovsk before the winter, it is possible that Mr Putin will indicate he is ready to negotiate an end to the conflict.  

Depending on the outcome of the forthcoming US presidential elections, that raises the prospect of Mr Putin being rewarded for his brutal invasion of Ukraine, which would have profound implications for global security.

Ukraine's invasion of Russia's Kursk region will soon enter its fourth week, with around 500 square miles of territory captured so far, according to the head of Kyiv's military.

Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Tuesday that around 100 settlements, including the town of Sudzha, were now under Ukraine's control.

In one of his evening addresses this week, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said troops were still expanding their territory in the region.

Here, we look at some key images from the start of the invasion into Kursk.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine will not forgive Russia "for a single destroyed Ukrainian life" as the country marks the Day of Remembrance of Defenders of Ukraine.

The holiday marks the 10th anniversary of the battle of Ilovaisk, where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were killed by Russian troops as they began to withdraw from the encircled town.

"This was a planned, cynical Russian crime that Ukraine will never forget and will not leave unpunished," Mr Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel.

"Today, Ukraine honours the memory of all its defenders. All those who fought for our state, for Ukrainian independence and sacrificed the most precious thing – their lives.

"And we will not forgive Russia for a single destroyed Ukrainian life."

Ukraine was forced to disconnect several nuclear power units from the grid on Monday after Russia's widespread drone and missile attacks on the country.

Kyiv's mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency has said the attack was intended to paralyse the operation of the power generation facilities of Ukraine.

It added that the attacks posed a significant risk to the stable operation of nuclear facilities. 

As a result of the attack, three out of four power units of the Rivne nuclear power plant were disconnected from the grid, it said.

Another nuclear power plant, the South Ukrainian, was also forced to decrease its output "due to fluctuations in the national power grid".

A fighter jet from Belarus attempted to shoot down a Russian drone that flew into the country's airspace this morning, a monitoring group has said.

The Belarusian Hajun group said this is "probably the first recorded case of a Belarusian Air Force fighter attempting to destroy a military target in the sky".

The group claims a Russian drone entered Belarus' airspace at around 3.30am local time (1.30am UK time), with two explosions heard in the country's Yelsk district around 30 minutes later.

The drone was said to be a Shahed, also known as a "kamikaze drone".

Sky News has not independently verified these claims.

For context: Belarus and Russia share a land border and the two are considered close allies.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Belarus allowed Moscow to stage part of the invasion from its territory.

In the wake of Ukraine's advances into the Russian region of Kursk this month, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko he had stationed nearly a third of the country's armed forces along its Ukrainian border.

Ukraine's allies must give Kyiv permission to use weapons to hit military targets in Russia "sooner rather than later", says one of the country's MPs.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly asked Western leaders to let Ukraine use long-range weapons on Russian territory.

During his nightly address yesterday, the president said such restrictions being lifted would "help us to end the war as soon as possible in a fair way for Ukraine and the world as a whole".

This week, Sir Keir Starmer said there had been "no new decisions" on the matter, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying the same yesterday in Berlin.

Speaking on Sky News this morning, Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik said the situation across the country remains difficult and urged Kyiv's allies to speed up their decision-making process.

She said: "It seems for us that the only way to defend our people and defend our territories is to be able to hit Russian missiles and Russian planes at the start of their launches, not when they are approaching our energy infrastructure or our homes. 

"And this is why we need the ability to use long-range weapons to destroy Russia's ability to attack us. 

"It's a pure act of defence. And we hope that, sooner rather than later, our allies will understand that."

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

At Least 15 Killed in School Shooting in Russia, Including Children

An unidentified gunman entered a school in the city of Izhevsk, killing four adults and 11 children, according to federal investigators.

By Valerie Hopkins

Fifteen people were killed and 24 injured in a school shooting on Monday in the Russian city of Izhevsk, 600 miles east of Moscow. The Kremlin called the shooting a terrorist attack.

A gunman entered School Number 88, which teaches the first to 11th grades, and killed four adults and 11 children before killing himself. Videos from the scene that were broadcast on TV and posted to social media showed children frantically running through the halls of the school and emergency workers evacuating the wounded.

The authorities said the attacker, who was armed with two pistols, “was wearing a black top with Nazi symbols and a balaclava” and was not carrying any ID.

Russia’s top investigative body identified the gunman as Artem Kazantsev, a 34-year-old who had previously attended the school, according to a press statement. He had lived with his mother in the city, which is the capital of the Udmurt Republic. Aleksandr Brechalov, the region’s governor, said he had been registered with the local psychiatric clinic.

The details Russian authorities provided could not be independently confirmed.

The incident bore eerie connections to the 1999 shooting in Columbine, Colo., in which 13 people were killed by two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Two braided cords attached to the pistols in Monday’s shooting bore the names “Eric” and “Dylan” and the ammunition had been inscribed with the word “hate,” according to images released by local media.

Russian authorities have sought to crack down on what they call the “Columbine movement,” a decentralized group of gunmen that the prosecutor general recognized as a “terrorist” organization in February, calling it a “widely developed structure” that is “coordinated using the capabilities of the internet.”

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .