Use this comprehensive dataset to report on school shooting trends

An open-sourced database offers some of the most comprehensive and thorough data on shootings that happen on U.S. school campuses.

The K-12 School Shooting Database documents when a gun is fired, brandished or a bullet hits school property regardless of the number of victims, time, day or reason. The database has over 2,380 school shootings from 1966 to the present.

It was created to answer the question, "How many school shootings have occurred?" and to address the lack of centralized and available data, according to the database's methodology.

There's a wide array of publicly available data on school shootings, according to the methodology. Those sources include peer-reviewed studies, government reports, archived newspapers, mainstream media, non-profit entities, private websites, personal blogs and crowd-sourced lists.

For example, the website explains that the FBI, Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education issues reports detailing the factors that contribute to shootings, but don't supply a comprehensive list of incidents. Media reports on school shootings often only cover the date and location. Crowd-sourced websites and blogs maintain lists but they often lack citations to original sources.

But those "platforms failed to capture the magnitude of the problem," the website says. "Without a common methodology for data collection, individual data sources are limited in both validity and utility. There still is not a consensus for what actually defines a school shooting."

This database, founded and managed by the data scientist David Riedman, also offers detailed information on each incident, a score determining how dependable that information is and a verified primary source citation, like a news article, a court record or police report.

"The objective of the database is to systematically record every K-12 school shooting, regardless of circumstance, injuries, or deaths, there is value in being able to collectively study all the different types of incident," the website reads.

The data available in the database includes the date, school name, city, state and the number of victims. Some incidents have more detailed information about the shooter, victims, firearms used and demographics, according to the methodology.

The reason for the shooting is also available for some of the incidents, such as: unintentional shootings, anger over a grade or discipline, bullying, domestic violence, a drive-by shooting, the escalation of a dispute, a hostage situation, illegal activity, indiscriminate shots fired into a crowd, intentional property damage, psychosis, murder-suicide, officer-involved shooting, racial, self-defense or suicide.

The database also publishes charts exploring trends in the data. One chart shows how many school shootings happened each year from 1966 to 2024, demonstrating that these incidents are a modern phenomenon with the majority happening in the last decade.

Another shows that, when a motive is determined, the vast majority of the shootings happen because of a dispute that escalated. The majority of school shootings happen in the school parking lot, according to another chart. Nearly 40% of shooters are students at the school, another visualization shows.

There are also several interactive data visualizations available for use that offer breakdowns of incidents by state, how many shootings have happened to date, the total number of victims and the total fatalities, which includes the death of the shooter.

To request all of the raw data on incidents from 1966 to present, email [email protected] with your full name, institution/organization, contact information, how you plan to use the data, and a statement affirming that your use of the data will be cited, according to the website.

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