In March 2024, I attended Ed Monk’s Active Shooter Instructor class at Karl Rehn’s KR Training facility. This class provided a foundation for researching school shootings as I was preparing to train school guardians from a Texas independent school district. A summary of my research follows.
Schools and school grounds can be surprisingly violent places. I researched almost 600 shooting incidents at schools from the years 2000 – 2024 and selected forty-eight active shooter* incidents to research. I excluded one-on-one shootings, fights, gang shootings, targeted shootings involving adults, drive-by shootings, and similar incidents. Although active shooter incidents have occurred at colleges and universities, for this research I only included elementary, middle, and high school incidents where the shooter clearly intended to shoot multiple people.
Weapons
In the forty-eight incidents, the weapons that shooters used were as follows:
-- Rifle and Pistol: Five incidents
-- Rifle Only: Eight incidents
-- Shotgun and Pistol: Four incidents
-- Shotgun Only: Eight incidents
-- Pistol Only: Twenty-Three incidents
In total, shooters used long guns only in sixteen incidents and pistols only in twenty-three incidents. In nine incidents shooters were armed with long guns and pistols. Most younger shooters obtained their firearms from the family home, often without an adult family member’s knowledge. Some late teen and older shooters obtained weapons when they killed family members. For example, 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed his grandfather (a police sergeant) and his grandfather's girlfriend at their home. After taking his grandfather's police weapons and bulletproof vest, Weise drove his grandfather's police vehicle to Red Lake Senior High School, where he had been a student some months before. At the school, Weise shot and killed seven people and wounded at least nine others.
Patterns Associated with School Type
Some patterns emerged in this research. Elementary school shooters tended to not be associated with the school and none were students at the schools they attacked. In several incidents elementary school students brought pistols to school; however, none apparently intended to shoot multiple people. Conversely, shooters attacking middle and high schools often were students at the schools they attacked.
Elementary School Shootings
There were seven active shooter incidents during this time frame at elementary schools. All these incidents started outside the school, or the perpetrator was not currently associated with the school—none were current students. Three shooters entered the school through unlocked doors, while two shooters shot through locked glass doors to gain entry. Two shooters attacked students and their teachers on playgrounds.
The average age of the elementary school shooters was twenty-five years old with the youngest being fourteen and the oldest forty-one. Police stopped two shooters during gunfights. During the shootings that started on the playground, nearby bystanders disarmed both of the shooters, one while he was reloading his pistol and another when his pistol jammed. Finally, three shooters stopped themselves, two committed suicide and one surrendered to a school front office worker.
Middle School Shootings
There were fourteen active shooter incidents during this time frame at middle schools. Only one of these incidents occurred outside the school. Three shooters entered the targeted school through unlocked doors and immediately began firing. Ten incidents started in the school after the shooter smuggled a firearm inside—seven started in the hallway and three started in classrooms. Finally, two shooters began in a gymnasium and one in the cafeteria.
The average age of the middle school shooters was fourteen with the youngest being twelve and the oldest twenty-five years old. Teachers disarmed four shooters and one shooter’s parents disarmed him after they realized two firearms were missing from the home. They rushed to the school and intervened in time to stop their son. Five shooters stopped themselves when they committed suicide and three surrendered. One shooter fled the scene and police later arrested him.
High School Shootings
There were twenty-seven active shooter incidents during this time frame at high schools. Two of these incidents occurred outside the school. Two shooters entered the targeted school through unlocked doors and immediately began firing. Twenty-three incidents started in the school after the shooter smuggled a firearm inside—thirteen started in the hallway and six started in the cafeteria. Three shooters began in classrooms and two began in the school’s main office area. Finally, one shooter fired into the school from a parking lot after he drove past a security booth, one shooter started in a courtyard, and in one incident, two shooters simultaneously started in different locations.
The average age of the high school shooters was sixteen with the youngest being fourteen and the oldest twenty-one years old. Eleven shooters were disarmed: teachers disarmed six shooters, janitors disarmed two, students disarmed one shooter, a police officer and school resource officer (SRO) disarmed one shooter, and a security guard disarmed one. Two shooters died during the incident in gunfights with police or an SRO. Seven shooters stopped themselves when they committed suicide. Five shooters fled the scene; police later arrested four and one committed suicide as police approached. Three shooters simply stopped and surrendered.
Stopping the Shooter
School
campuses are often very large and encompass multiple buildings and
other facilities. Of the forty-eight incidents, police or SROs only stopped five. Police or SROs cannot be everywhere simultaneously and
the chance that one will be immediately available when an incident
begins is coincidence at best. In general, unless an SRO or police officer is present at the school, responding officers will not arrive in time to quickly stop the killing (Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and Robb Elementary School being the obvious exceptions where officers could have potentially stopped the shooter earlier in the incident).
Of the eighteen shooters who were disarmed during the incident, teachers or school staff disarmed thirteen. Bystanders disarmed two, students disarmed one, a police officer disarmed one, and a security guard disarmed one.
Twenty-seven shooters stopped themselves. Fourteen shooters committed suicide during the incident—only one did so as police arrived. Seven shooters surrendered during the incident and six shooters fled the scene.
The conclusion of multiple researchers is that the longer an active shooter has unopposed/unchallenged access to victims, the higher the injury and death toll will be.** The conclusion is obvious; the faster the killer is stopped, the sooner the killing will stop.
In my opinion (and that of many other trainers), the competent armed private citizen who is is physically and mentally prepared to act decisively is the only way to effectively oppose/challenge an active shooter in a school or other public location and quickly stop the killing.
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* The Federal Government defines an active shooter as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.” In addition to the term “active shooter,” several other terms to describe someone committing these atrocities are in use in the United States including mass murderer, active killer, mass shooter, active mass murderer, and probably others. Many within the firearms community decry the use of “active shooter” because a first responder deploying a firearm is in fact an active shooter as well. Ed Monk stated that he uses the term “active shooter” because that term is the one most used in the United States so I used it here as well.
** Two researchers in particular stand out. As I mentioned above, LTC (Ret) Ed Monk has probably done as much research into the active shooter incidents as anyone and his lecture and class are worth attending if you have the opportunity. Tim Larkin posted six videos on Ed’s class and did an interview with Ed as well. They are worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDDK0jLsdKQ
Another is retired police officer Ron Borsch. His material is more challenging to find on the internet, but worth the effort.
