Schools and Gun Violence: What Do We Know about the Prevalence and Effects?
Author: Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government
Date: 2022-12-00
Type: Collected Works - General
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,School Violence,Weapons,Student Behavior,Death,Crime,Educational Policy,Emergency Programs,Crisis Management,Educational Practices,School Safety,Psychological Patterns,Emotional Response,Drills (Practice),Prevention,Incidence

As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, the United States was rocked by the news of another school mass shooting, this time at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen fourth-grade students and two of their teachers were killed when an 18-year-old former student entered the school through an unlocked door, made his way to his former fourth-grade classroom, and opened fire during a 77-minute rampage. Seventeen others were injured in the attack. In the aftermath of the shooting in Uvalde, administrators and policymakers struggled to implement policies and procedures that would prevent a similar attack in their schools or minimize the loss of life if one did occur. With growing concerns about the impacts and effects of firearm violence on America's youth, evidence-based solutions are more essential than ever. Ahead of the 2022-23 academic year, expert researchers at the Rockefeller Institute's Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium authored a series of policy briefs to assist the public and policymakers with better understanding firearm violence in schools. This four-part series, released in August 2022, examined different aspects of this complex issue. In the first piece, &quot;What We Know About Foiled and Failed Mass School Shootings,&quot; Consortium members Jason Silva and Emily Greene-Colozzi examine what is known about school shooting plots that share similarities with Uvalde but never fully come to fruition. The second piece of the series, &quot;Lockdown Drills: A Widely Used Yet Often Misunderstood Practice,&quot; by the Consortium's executive director Jaclyn Schildkraut, explores a strategy used in 95 percent of public K-12 schools in the nation. The third piece of the series, &quot;Overview of The American School Shooting Study,&quot; seeks to situate events like Uvalde in the broader data of shootings in schools. Co-authored by Consortium members Joshua Freilich and Emily Greene-Colozzi with colleagues Steven Chermak, Nadine Connell, and Brent Klein, this brief introduces The American School Shooting Study (TASSS), a national-level database compiled using open-source information and accompanying case studies. In the final piece of the series, &quot;The Effects of Firearm Violence on Children&quot; by Consortium members Amanda Nickerson and Sonali Rajan, the authors consider a range of psychological, social, and emotional impacts. Taken together, these pieces provide important context for understanding the prevalence and effects of firearm violence in schools. As policymakers, school administrators, and other vested stakeholders continue to grapple with how to keep schools free of guns and address their associated impacts, it is critical to plan not only for the worst day like Uvalde but for every instance of firearm violence on school grounds. [This report was written by the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium.]