A man with three guns allegedly shot dozens of rounds into a Minneapolis, Minnesota school mass on Wednesday, killing two children and injuring 17 others as students prepare to go back to school this week after the summer break.
Authorities are still looking into the motive, according to Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara, who said the suspect, 23-year-old Robin Westman, “took his own life” at the back of the church.
Although attempts to enact stricter gun laws continue to face strong opposition from conservative organizations and politicians, school shootings have become a far too common reality in the United States.
The number of incidents that are recorded can vary depending on how many are recorded, how many people were injured or killed, and which database was used. Al Jazeera provides you with the breakdown.
Why do the numbers vary with school shootings?
School shootings are tracked by a number of databases that use various criteria, just like mass shootings. Some definitions are broad, while others only list the most severe incidents.
146 incidents, according to the broadest definition
The most comprehensive definition is found in the K-12 School Shooting Database.
No matter whether anyone was hurt or killed on K-12 school property, it records every incident where a gun is fired, brandished with intent, or a bullet strikes school property. This includes gang shootings, domestic violence incidents, shootings at after-school events, suicides, gunfights that escalate into gunfire, and accidental discharges.
This year, there have been 146 gun violence incidents, according to this definition.
Moderate definition: 91 incidents
Everytown for Gun Safety, a different source, uses data from the K-12 School Shooting Database to track and analyze gun discharge incidents on school grounds.
Everytown tracks gun incidents that left people dead or wounded, as well as those that left people shot after a gun was discharged. Not included are incidents where guns were brought into schools but never discharged.
This year, there have been 91 gunshot incidents on school grounds, according to this definition.
8 incidents is the definition of the word.
The most restrictive definition is used by a third database, Education Week.
Only shootings that occurred on school property or buses during the course of a class are included in the list.
According to this definition, there have been eight school shootings this year that have left people dead.
US school shootings are at their highest level.
Regardless of the method used, the US has the most shootings in schools worldwide.
Other nations do occasionally see school shootings. On June 10, a former student opened fire at a Graz, Austria, school, injuring 11 people, which included 10 people. The worst school shooting in Austria’s history occurred in this instance.
2025 school shootings resulted in casualties.
The fatal shooting at the school on Wednesday is the deadliest of the year and the single incident with the most fatalities since the 2022 fatal shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which left 17 people injured and 19 students dead.
According to Education Week, there have been 229 school shootings with injuries or deaths since 2018, including 24 each in 2018 and 2019, 10 in 2020, 35 in 2021, 51 in 2022, 38 in 2023, and 39 in 2024.
Source: Aljazeera
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