CHDS K-12 School Shooting Database

www.chds.us/ssdb | Twitter: @k12ssdb | Instagram: @k12ssdb | Email: k12ssdb@chds.us

To answer the question “How many school shootings have occurred” and address the void of centralized and available data, the K-12 School Shooting Database (K-12 SSDB) has been created as a resource tool from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security. The product is a filtered, deconflicted, and cross-referenced database of more than 1,360 K-12 school shootings from 1970 to present collated from the referenced sources as well as new and continued collection and validation by the team (David Riedman and Desmond O’Neill). The K-12 SSDB includes detailed information about each incident, a reliability score that quantifies the dependability of the information, and the verified primary source citation(s) (e.g., newspaper article, court records, interviews, police reports).

The objective of the database is to systematically record every K-12 school shooting, regardless of circumstance, injuries, or deaths, because there is value in being able to collectively study all the different types of incident. Inversely, brandishing a firearm, such as those instances where the shooter initially made threatening gestures but was stopped (weapon malfunction, shooter was tackled) prior to firing a shot, are also included in the K-12 SSDB. Although often excluded from other national reports, which focus solely on injuries or deaths, these “near misses” offer significant research opportunities because a greater loss of life could have occurred if circumstances were different. Furthermore, the situations leading up to school shootings have the same value in understanding the factors contributing to the issue, regardless of the number of casualties. Near misses can also offer an opportunity to highlight what went right in preventing an incident from having a greater loss of life.

The K-12 school shooting database documents each instance a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time of day, or day of week.

INCIDENTS BY YEARBased on publicly available data on incidents from 1970-present

Num

ber o

f Inc

iden

ts

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

20190

20

40

60

80

100

19 2118 18 16 14

1116 16 14

2017 18

25 2519

1624

3816 15

31 3042

3719 21 20

2822

2825

1930

3547

5943

3531

15 1318

3344

3345 44

9718

Data pulled as of 031519

In addition to numeric time, each incident is coded with a time period of the school day. While many active shooter drills take place while students are inside the classroom, the data shows that school shooting incidents occur at many different time periods including as students are arriving to school, eating lunch, and daily dismissal.

Shootings also occur after school and during the evening when students and community members are participating in activities at the building but are not supervised by teachers, staff and/or school administrators.

Data recorded includes details for analysis such as how the incident ended. Findings indicate that 58% of shooters flee the school building and property. Only 23 of 1,360 cases ended in a barricade situation. This data should help inform many planning assumptions, policies, and resource investments.

Incidents have occurred in every state and geographic region across the country. Each datapoint is geocoded to allow for mapping and GIS analysis

The graphics are examples of how the data can be visualized and additional customizable charts are available on www.chds.us/ssdb. The raw data is available for download and includes more than 60 different data fields for each of the 1,360 incidents that can analyzed individually or in aggregate.

INCIDENTS BY TIME OF DAYBased on publicly available data on incidents from 1970-present

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Morning Classe

s

Num

ber o

f Inc

iden

ts

Evening Classes

Aftern

oon Classes

Lunch

After S

chool

Dismiss

al

As School is

opening

Before School

Not a School D

ayNight

286

159140

113 110 10275 72 64

50

HOW THE INCIDENTS ENDED?Based on publicly available data on incidents from 1970-present

7 8 8

1 3 8

2 1

1 0 4

1 8 1

1 0 4 2 3

Immediately SurrenderedOfficer Involved

Subdued/ApprehendedSuicide/AttemptedUnknown if Subdued,Surrendered or Fled

BarricadedFled

HI

AKAZ

UTNV

CA

NM

OR

WA

WYID

MT ND

SD

NE

COKS

OK

TX

MN

IA

MO

AR

LA

WI

MI

ILIN

KY

TN

MS AL GA

FL

SC

NC

VA

OHWV

RI

DENJ

DC

PA

NY

ME

NHVT

MACT

MD

VI

157

13

3

12

12

12 9

16

3

32

28

1

1114

67

24 54

47

51

22

133

10 173

823

44

11

3663

34 40 26

2142

87

10

44

44

3

17

4

7

7

11

1321

914

INCIDENTS BY STATEBased on publicly available data on incidents from 1970-present

Published Research Methodology explain how all the data was collected and coded is available:

https://www.chds.us/ssdb/methods/