K-12 School Shooting Database
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The K-12 School Shooting Database[1] (K-12 SSDB) documents when 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. The data collection is based on a peer-reviewed research methodology and the raw data is available for free to any user. The project is sponsored by the Center for Homeland Defense and Security[2] at the Naval Postgraduate School[3] in Monterey, CA. The raw data has been used by the Government Accountability Office for their official report on the characteristics of school shootings.[4] The data collected is widely inclusive because "not all school shootings are the same and the differences matter" and "analyses that ignore these distinctions, or focus on a particular type, may provide a misleading impression of the nature of these attacks".[5]
The database currently includes details on more than 1,850 school shootings from 1970 to present.
Background[edit]
The K-12 SSDB was started to answer the question “How many school shootings have occurred?” and fill the void of centralized and available data on the topic. Prior to the creation of the K-12 SSDB, lists of shootings reported by the media identify a large number of incidents, but provide few details beyond the date and location. Databases of school shootings on blogs had extensive lists of school shootings, but lacked citations to any primary source. The Wikipedia paged for "school shootings" contains limited details about the incidents and is not sortable or downloadable in a spreadsheet format. Without a common methodology for data collection, these individual data sources are limited in both validity and utility. There is still no consensus or legal definition of a "school shooting" to serve as the foundation for inclusion/exclusion criteria across the variety of data sources on the topic.
The inclusive definition and sortable data in K-12 SSDB allows users to decide which incidents they want to study. For example, a 2019 analysis by The New York Times filtered the data to identify 111 attacks from 1970 to 2019 "in which an assailant was actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people, on school property or inside school buildings."[6] Mass shootings at schools did not start with Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland, they are a recurring problem over the past five decades across every region of the country.
Shootings at High School Sporting Events[edit]
Due to the broad definition of a school shooting used by K-12 SSDB, it is the only centralized source of information available about shootings that occurred on school campuses outside of traditional school day hours. A 2020 analysis of the K-12 SSDB data by The New York Times found 108 shootings that occurred at high school sporting events between 2013 and 2020.[7] While school have prepared for an active shooter[8] during the school day, few schools have a plan for a shooting at a sporting event highlighting a significant shortfall in school security efforts.
2021 school year[edit]
The fall semester of the 2021 school year shows a dramatic increase in the number of shootings at K-12 schools.[9] Unlike prior years, the majority of incidents are fights on campus that escalated in shootings rather than planned attacks on the school.[10]
In September 2017, [K-12 SSDB] recorded eight incidents. In September 2018, there were 18, and in the same month in 2019, there were 14.
In September 2020, when many schools were closed or socially distanced, there were 24 incidents — which seems counterintuitive, but these shootings had different characteristics. They generally involved adult perpetrators and victims; and they apparently took place on the grounds of closed schools chiefly because these outdoor spaces remained accessible during the pandemic, while many other public areas, such as shopping centers, did not.
In 2021, many schools reopened. In September, [K-12 SSDB] recorded 55 school shootings — more than double the total for most full years in the past.[11]
Brandishing[edit]
The K-12 SSDB definition includes "brandishing" to allow for data collection of the rare cases in which a gun was pointed at someone without being fired. These incidents usually involve the potential shooter being disarmed or gun failure. Examples of brandishing include a student wearing a trench coat walking into a classroom with a shotgun and was tackled before firing[12], and a student with a gun ordered the class to get on the ground, put the gun to the teacher's head, and the gun jammed when he pulled the trigger.[13] These examples of brandishing cases resulted in criminal charges, pointing a gun at someone is felony assault and a gun failure while trying to shoot someone is considered attempted murder.
References[edit]
- ↑ "K-12 School Shooting Database". K-12 School Shooting Database. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ↑ "chds.us". Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ↑ "Welcome - Naval Postgraduate School". www.nps.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ↑ Office, U. S. Government Accountability. "K-12 Education: Characteristics of School Shootings". www.gao.gov. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
- ↑ Levine, Phillip B.; McKnight, Robin (February 2020). "Not All School Shootings are the Same and the Differences Matter".
- ↑ Cai, Weiyi; Patel, Jugal K. (2019-05-11). "A Half-Century of School Shootings Like Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ↑ Smith, Mitch; Lu, Denise (2020-01-06). "An Overlooked Danger: School Shootings After Hours". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ↑ "Active shooter", Wikipedia, 2021-08-13, retrieved 2021-10-13
- ↑ "View Chart". K-12 School Shooting Database. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ↑ "School shootings have never happened this frequently — and fights are often to blame". New York Post. 2021-10-08. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ↑ "Opinion | School shootings are increasing — and changing. Easily accessible guns are to blame". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ↑ "Police ID student accused of bringing shotgun to Parkrose High School". kgw.com. May 17, 2019. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ↑ Spoerre, Anna. "Trial begins Monday for Iowa middle-schooler accused of attempting to shoot his teacher in front of classmates". Des Moines Register. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
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