Since the beginning of 2024, more than 20 schools across the country have been affected by gun violence; a high school in Georgia is the latest K-12 campus to struggle with gun deaths and injuries.
Four people were killed and nine others injured in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, a suburb of Atlanta, on Wednesday morning. According to data from the news organization Education Week, which reports on the school system, it was the 23rd time this year that a school shooting resulted in injuries or deaths.
Education Week is just one of several organizations that collect data on gun violence in schools. But unlike the National Gun Violence Archive or the K-12 School Shooting Database, they only track incidents that meet certain criteria:
- Reported incidents in which a firearm was fired
- If a person other than the suspect or perpetrator sustained a gunshot wound as a result of the incident
- Occurred on the premises of a primary school or on a school bus
- Occurred during school operations or during a school-sponsored event
Taking these factors into account, there will be 38 school shootings in 2023 – 15 more than so far in 2024, including the shooting in Georgia on Wednesday.
Since Education Week began tracking school shootings in 2018, there have been approximately 205 school shootings.
Apalachee High School Press Conference: Watch live as officials provide updates
How many school shootings were reported in 2024?
The 22 school shootings in Georgia before Wednesday left seven dead and 29 injured, according to Education Week’s count. Of the seven fatalities, three were students or children, while four were school employees or adults.
Including the fatalities and injuries on Wednesday, a total of 49 people were killed or injured in school shootings in 2024, including 11 dead and 38 injured.
Here is the total number of people, including children and adults, killed or injured in a school shooting since 2018:
- 2024: 49 people were injured or killed in 23 school shootings.
- 2023: 63 people were injured or killed in 38 school shootings.
- 2022: 140 people injured or killed in 51 school shootings
- 2021: 70 people were killed or injured in 35 school shootings
- 2020: 12 people were killed or injured in 10 school shootings
- 2019: 40 people were killed or injured in 24 school shootings
- 2018: 114 people were killed or injured 24 school shootings in 2018
- Overall: Since 2018, 488 people have been killed or injured in 205 school shootings.
When and where did the other school shootings occur this year?
Education Week’s list of school shootings reported in 2024 includes incidents that occurred on K-12 school campuses across the country that resulted in either the death or injury of a person by a firearm.
Although all reported incidents occurred at an elementary school, not all recorded school shootings endangered the lives of students, teachers, or staff. Some of these incidents, including those in New Mexico and Oregon, occurred after school hours.
Below is a list of school shootings reported so far in 2024, beginning January 1, 2024, and ending September 4, 2024.
- January 3, 2024: 1 injured in the parking lot of Manchester High School in Midlothian, Virginia
- January 4, 2024: 2 dead, 6 injured at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa
- January 11, 2024: 1 injured in the parking lot of Miami Northwestern Senior High in Miami, Florida
- January 29, 2024: 1 injured in the parking lot of Connally High School in Austin, Texas
- January 30, 2024: 2 injured at LeFlore High School in Mobile, Alabama
- January 30, 2024: 1 injured in the parking lot of Grant Union High School in Sacramento, California
- February 2, 2024: 2 injured in the parking lot of McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Georgia
- February 14, 2024: 4 injured in the parking lot of Benjamin E. Mays High School in Atlanta, Georgia
- February 26, 2024: 1 injured in the parking lot of Odessa High School in Odessa, Texas
- March 2, 2024: 2 injured in the parking lot of North Kansas City High School in North Kansas City, Missouri
- April 12, 2024: 1 injured at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in Dallas, Texas
- April 22, 2024: 1 dead at William Wiley Elementary School in West Richland, Washington
- April 24, 2024: 1 dead at James Bowie High School in Austin, Texas
- May 5, 2024: 1 injured at Dunbar High School in Washington, DC
- May 7, 2024: 1 injured at Parkland High School in Winston-Salem, NC
- May 10, 2024: 1 injured at Hastings High School in Houston, Texas
- May 22, 2024: 1 dead in the parking lot of North Marion Middle School in Citra, Florida
- May 23, 2024: 2 injured at Skyline High School in Oakland, California
- May 24, 2024: 1 dead in the parking lot of Gadsden High School in Anthony, New Mexico
- June 6, 2024: 1 dead in the parking lot of Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington.
- June 30, 2024: 1 injured at Klamath Union High School in Klamath Falls, Oregon
- August 19, 2024: 1 injured in the parking lot of Bossier High School in Bossier City, Louisiana
- September 4, 2024: 4 dead, 9 injured at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia
