School Shootings 2025: An Overview of the Numbers, Incidents, and Trends

*Data is updated as of November 10, 2025

An Introduction to the Issue of Gun Violence in Schools

Gun violence is one of the biggest and most complex issues facing American schools today. Despite all the efforts to make schools safer and reduce gun violence, K-12 campuses are still seeing incidents at an alarming rate. 

With less than two months left in the year and only a few weeks before schools close for the holidays, it does seem like there’s been an overall decrease of school shootings in 2025, which is great news. However, there were still, at most, 209 shootings so far this year.

This article breaks down the numbers behind school shootings 2025, how definitions impact reported totals, where they’re happening most often, the biggest incidents of the year, and what’s being done to prevent future violence in schools.

School Shootings in 2025 in Numbers

According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, the most comprehensive count of gun-related incidents on school campuses, there have been 209 shootings so far in 2025. Other sources with different measurement criteria report other numbers: Everytown for Gun Safety reports 141 incidents, CNN’s School Shooting Database reports 64, and Mother Jones’ database recorded zero, as their criteria only count incidents that meet their definition of a mass shooting—those that result in the deaths of four or more victims.

The reason these numbers vary so massively is because there aren’t universal definitions for “school shootings” and “mass shootings.” Some sources consider all incidents where a gun is brought onto school campuses, others consider any incident where a gun is fired, and some only consider incidents with a certain number of victims. Even when counting incidents by victims, some only count fatalities, meaning that an incident can result in several injuries but only one or two deaths and still not be counted.

Across all 209 incidents it recorded, the K-12 School Shooting Database counted a total of 148 victims. This number encompasses all of those who were wounded, including those whose wounds were fatal.

Where School Shootings Happened in 2025

School shooting distribution and exposure rates in the U.S. in 2025 are similar to previous years, with most states having had at least one incident this year. 

This section looks at the states with the most shootings this year, those with the highest student exposure rates, and trends in location.

By Number

Every state, except for Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and West Virginia, had at least one incident in 2025 where a gun was brought to or fired on a K-12 school campus.

Texas and California were both in the top three states with the most school shooting incidents in 2025, the same as last year. According to the K-12 School Shooting Database’s interactive map, Texas had 19 incidents this year, California had 17, and Tennessee (third) had 13.  

By Exposure Rate

In terms of exposure rate, which measures how many students per 100,000 are exposed to school shootings, there have likely been few changes since the 2020-2024 measuring period. During those years, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and Utah had the highest rates of student exposure.  

Washington, D.C. and Delaware almost always rank the highest due to their smaller geographic and population size, meaning that any incidents they do have end up resulting in a higher exposure rate.

Trends in Overall Geographic Distribution

Resources, like K-12 SSDB and Everytown’s “Gunfire on School Grounds” and EveryShot, map out shootings across the U.S.. These visualizations can help us see which regions, states, and population densities are most impacted by school shootings.

Regional analysis shows that school shootings are often concentrated in areas with higher populations, and they happen at a higher rate in the southern and mid-Atlantic states. In the West, California is an outlier for state-wide school shooting incidents in 2025. The Seattle Metropolitan area also had several incidents.

Most Deadly School Shootings in 2025

While overall school shootings were down this year, each one that did happen affected many lives. Here are three of the biggest shooting incidents of 2025.

Annunciation Catholic School (August 27)

The biggest school shooting in 2025 happened in Minneapolis in August. The attack, which left up to 29 people injured and killed two children, happened during morning mass at a catholic school. The shooter was a former student of the school, and they seemed to be motivated by hate and a glorification of past shooters. 

This attack underscored the need for community violence intervention; the shooter had experienced mental health issues, and past classmates of the shooter said they had seen concerning behavior from the shooter years before the attack. This shooting also highlighted the security gaps many religious institutions face.

Wilmer-Hutchins High School (April 15)

In April, a student at a Dallas high school opened fire, shooting four other students and nearly hitting a teacher, after they were let in through a side door of the school by another student.

This attack stands out for several reasons: first, because the school had experienced a shooting the previous year, and second, because the school has taken many security measures to prevent incidents, like installing metal detectors at the main entrance and requiring students to use clear backpacks. This incident emphasizes the critical need for multi-layered school security approaches, including better training and clear protocols.

Heidelberg High School (October 10)

Three people, were killed in a shooting during a Mississippi high school’s homecoming game in October. Several teenagers have been charged with participating in the attack. 

The shooting at Heidelberg High School serves as a reminder that shootings can happen outside of regular school hours, and schools should still implement adequate security measures at events, like sports games.

The Impact of School Gun Violence on Communities

The full impact of each school shooting is impossible to measure; beyond the costs of medical bills and mental healthcare, nothing can replace the lives lost, erase the long-term trauma, or quantify the emotional impact across the country. 

With every incident, kids become more fearful of their learning environment, a place that is supposed to be safe, and parents become more hesitant to send their children out of the house every day. The loss of that feeling of safety is everything—it affects students’ ability to focus, learn, and succeed.

In response to school shootings in 2025, communities have held vigils, set up relief stations, advocated for better security, and demanded stricter gun control laws.

School Safety and Security Efforts in 2025: Gun Control, Grant Funding, and Technology

From passing laws to advancing technology, there’s a lot happening around the country to address the issue of gun violence in schools.

Gun Control Legislation Updates

Early in the year, a national bill was introduced to establish an Office of Gun Violence Prevention within the Department of Justice (H.R.1307).  Since then, there’s been little movement on it, but advocacy groups like the Newtown Action Alliance have been pushing for it all year.

Additionally, in June, the School Violence Prevention Act (H.R.3968) was introduced. If passed, this would establish new grants for schools to use for gun violence prevention efforts.

Giffords tracks the status of gun control legislation across the states and publishes regular reports on gun laws. Their mid-year report, available here, details several key policies passed at the state level in 2025. One of the most influential came from Texas, which budgeted funds for community violence intervention (CVI) for the first time in the state’s history. The $2 million will go towards the evidence-based CVI strategy, which aims to proactively prevent gun violence by reaching out to those most at risk.

Funding for School Security and Safety Initiatives

Several grant opportunities that help schools and districts fund their security efforts either started or continued in 2025. These include:

• Homeland Security Grant Program
• School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP)
• Secure Schools Grant Program
• Nonprofit Security Grant Program (For religious schools)
• School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV)
• Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Program
• Strategies To Support Children Exposed to Violence 

Several states also have grants. Schools or districts seeking financial assistance to implement security measures or improve safety may want to search for state-specific grant programs.

Securing Schools with Technology

Many schools and districts have made efforts to upgrade their security in 2025. Schools have installed metal detectors, improved access control, integrated gun-detection AI into their security camera systems, and improved their Emergency Communication Systems. 

With any technology implemented, it is important that relevant security, staff, and administrators receive proper training on its use and protocols to ensure its efficacy. Security technologies can be an important tool in preventing shootings through early detection, but trained professionals are ultimately the ones who intervene when an incident does occur. 

Reflections on Gun Violence in Schools in 2025

The 2025 data paints a complex picture of school shootings in America: One shaped not only by the tragic frequency of incidents but also by the inconsistencies in how they are tracked and defined. While databases all report different totals, they reveal a shared truth about school gun violence in the U.S. From high-profile tragedies in Minneapolis to smaller, but equally traumatic, incidents across dozens of states, the toll of gun violence continues to ripple through schools and communities.

Efforts to address the crisis, through gun control legislation, targeted grant funding, and the development and implementation of advanced security technologies, show promise but remain fragmented. Meaningful change will require collaboration between policymakers, educators, law enforcement, and communities to address the root causes of violence while improving both prevention and response systems.

Ultimately, beyond the statistics and policy debates, each number represents a child, teacher, or community forever changed. The goal must not only be to reduce the count of school shootings but also to restore a fundamental sense of safety and peace to America’s classrooms.

Omnilert offers a wide range of security solutions for schools, designed with the goal of minimizing shootings and enabling the best possible response and outcome when they do happen. To learn more about our school security offerings, including AI Gun Detection, Emergency Notification Systems (ENS), and full-scale emergency response automation, visit our school security solutions page.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Data Sources:

• Everytown for Gun Safety. (2025). Gunfire on School Grounds in the United States. 
• Everytown for Gun Safety. (2025). EveryShot.
• Follman, M., Aronsen, G., and Pan, D. (2025). US Mass Shootings, 1982–2025: Data From Mother Jones’ Investigation.
• Leeds Matthews, A., O’Kruk, A., and Choi, A. (2025). School shootings in the US: Fast facts.
• Marks, N. (2025). Interactive map of school shootings. 
• Panchal, N. (2025). Examining School Shootings at the National and State Level and Mental Health Implications.
• Riedman, D. (2025). How Many School Shootings? All Incidents From 1966-Present.