List of school shootings (1 Viewer)

[T Bell]

I've seen some Facebook and Twitter posts decrying some recent school shootings, and that caused me to find this list of US school shootings, which I'd never seen compiled before.

Obviously there are a lot of incidents listed and (ignoring reporting bias, which is probably more significant the farther back in history we go) they seem to be increasing in rate.

Still, I was struck by how many school shooting incidents there have been even dating back to the "good old days". I wouldn't call it "reassuring" so much, but it does give me some new perspective on whether what we're seeing nowadays is different in kind versus simply being different in degree than what has existed for most of this country's history.

Anyway, I'm just posting this for discussion. I don't feel like I have any fully formed opinions on this yet.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

And they don't happen as often as people think.

Interesting stats

there are about 132,656 K-12 schools, both public and private, in the United States. There are about 99,000 public schools, but I am including private schools in my calculation because a number of the school shootings over the last 13 years took place at private religious schools.

So, what are the odds that a school shooting will occur in your child's school in 2013? If you take the average number of school shootings per year and compare it to the number of schools in the US, you get 2.46:132,656. Reducing that down reveals the following statistic:

The chances of any particular K-12 school in the United States experiencing a shooting incident in any given year is approximately 1 in 53,925.

Breaking the numbers down a little further reveals the following statistics:

The chances of a school shooting taking place in a US high school in any given year: 1 in 21,000.

The chances of a school shooting taking place in a US elementary or middle school in any given year: 1 in 141,463.

 

[Spin]

I get depressed reading through some of those.

 

[HellToupee]

I Don't Like Mondays

 

[grateful zed]

thanks, posty.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

I Don't Like Mondays

Tell me why?

 

[Fennis]

And they don't happen as often as people think.

Interesting stats

there are about 132,656 K-12 schools, both public and private, in the United States. There are about 99,000 public schools, but I am including private schools in my calculation because a number of the school shootings over the last 13 years took place at private religious schools.

So, what are the odds that a school shooting will occur in your child's school in 2013? If you take the average number of school shootings per year and compare it to the number of schools in the US, you get 2.46:132,656. Reducing that down reveals the following statistic:

The chances of any particular K-12 school in the United States experiencing a shooting incident in any given year is approximately 1 in 53,925.

Breaking the numbers down a little further reveals the following statistics:

The chances of a school shooting taking place in a US high school in any given year: 1 in 21,000.

The chances of a school shooting taking place in a US elementary or middle school in any given year: 1 in 141,463.

Krusty: I'm going to personally spit in every 50th Krusty Burger!

Homer: I like those odds!

 

[Leeroy Jenkins]

Do they differentiate between gang related type shootings and the random/mass murder shootings?

 

[phatdawg]

They don't mess around ... Purdue already on there.

 

[grateful zed]

you guys could organize a school shootings pool draft.

 

[GoFishTN]

Do they differentiate between gang related type shootings and the random/mass murder shootings?

Not really:

It consists of incidents in which a firearm was discharged at a school infrastructure, including incidents of shootings on a school bus or near school property while school was in session. This list contains shooting incidents that occurred on the campuses of K-12 public schools and private schools, as well as colleges and universities. This list also contains incidents of where a person intentionally shot him or herself in a suicide or suicide attempt.

 

[phatdawg]

BTW, the list is certainly not complete. Purdue had a shooting at the school when a student shot an RA and then himself back in the 90s.

 

[grateful zed]

1.01 - Purdue