The latest government data on school shootings

In the wake of the school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville that left three children and three staff members dead, USAFacts has collected recent data about school shootings in the United States. Here’s what current data has to say about these incidents.

The Center for Homeland Defense and Security maintains a collection of metrics on these incidents: the K–12 School Shooting Database (or K–12 SSDB).

The numbers show that from the 2000–01 to 2020–21 school years, there were 11 to 93 annual shootings with injuries or deaths at public and private elementary and secondary schools. (Due to pandemic school closures, readers should use caution when comparing the 2019–20 and 2020–21 school years with other years.)

When it comes to 2020–21, however, there were 93 school shootings with casualties, including 43 school shootings with deaths and 50 school shootings with injuries only.

In the 2020–21 school year, there were 57 school shootings with and without injuries or deaths at high schools. Fifty-nine elementary schools had shootings with and without injuries or deaths, as did 21 middle or junior high schools, and eight other types of schools.

Thirty-three incidents from 2020–21 happened during morning or afternoon classes, 23 before or after school, seven during a school or sporting event, and four during lunchtime.

Parking lots were the most common location for school shootings in 2020–21, followed by beside or in front of school buildings.

The K–12 SSDB aims to compile information on school shootings from publicly available sources into a single comprehensive database. It defines school shootings as situations when someone brandishes or fires a gun on school property or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time or day of the week, or motivation.

For a fuller picture of crime in the US, read about how many high schoolers in the US carry guns and get more USAFacts data in your inbox by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.