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As the 2025-2026 school year opens, there have been at least 95 school shootings in the United States since August 1, 2025, with 15 people murdered and another 44 injured: 21 elementary school incidents, 7 in middle schools, and 54 shootings in high schools. These 95 occurrences not only include fatal shootings, but also moments where guns were unlawfully brought onto school grounds, based on data gathered by EveryShot.
Najee Hayes is in her last year at Southwest DeKalb High School. She expressed her concern about school shootings, “Not only does it make me scared for college and the rest of senior year, but also for my little nephew, who just started kindergarten.”
Data gathered by the CNN School Shootings Database shows the trends in school shootings by late August each year since 2008. During the 2020 pandemic, school shootings had declined significantly due to the nationwide lockdown, but in the following years, gun violence has rapidly increased, with 2022 having a total of 50 school shootings. 2022 was the year of the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, where nineteen children and two teachers were murdered, leaving seventeen injured at the hands of former student Salvador Ramos. This incident stands as the third deadliest school shooting within the past four decades, according to Statista.
In May 2024, a Kennesaw State University student, Alasia Franklin, was shot and killed in the Austin Residence Complex, campus housing, after an argument with a man who did not attend the school. KSU Police promptly issued a “shelter-in-place” warning across the campus, but when asked to comment on this incident, Campus Police declined to be interviewed.
Recently, Patrick Joseph White fired shots through several of Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control windows, which happened near Emory University Campuses. Although the school was not the primary target, the danger prompted the nearby university to issue a “shelter-in-place” warning for its students. Fatalities were limited to the perpetrator himself and a DeKalb County Police Officer who arrived early on the scene.
Another shooting happened in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where two young children were killed and seventeen other people were injured when a gunman targeted Annunciation Catholic Church on August 27. The school’s principal, Matthew DeBoer, wrote a letter to Vice President JD Vance, pleading for change. “This does not have to keep happening … It shouldn’t be easier for this shooter to get a gun — or anyone—than it is for my child to see their pediatrician,” he wrote in part as reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune.
“I think I’m in a safe environment, but I will never know how safe it really is until something happens,” said Hayes. “[We] have campus security, and they make sure to notify teachers and parents immediately of a situation, and we have drills in place for things like this, [but] I would add those steel ‘curtains’ that you can pull and it creates an automatic safe room.”
Known as Rapid Access Safe Room systems (RASR), these units were created by Alabama-based security company, Security Solutions. The room transforms in mere seconds into a “ballistic shield” that can protect those inside from a wide variety of threats, from inclement weather to an armed intruder. “While we hope this product will never have to be used for its intended purpose, the RASR wall system provides another layer of protection for schools that helps protect our children and teachers,” reads the company’s official website.
On August 29, at the University of Georgia, there were reports of an armed shooter near the campus’s main library. University police responded promptly to the threat, and upon further inquiry, they concluded that the entire thing was a hoax.
“I wasn’t really scared. I guess I’m desensitized to this stuff,” UGA Freshman Marley Gordon said wryly about the incident. This is one of at least 22 hoaxes this school year, according to a Trace report.
An online cybercriminal group known as Purgatory has taken responsibility for the multiple threats of violence on university campuses across the country since the beginning of August. “Purgatory is a loosely affiliated group of individuals who engage in swatting, targeting schools, [and] targeting other locations across the U.S. Our analysts at the Center for Internet Security assessed that most of these events were being conducted by a single group, and that group was, in fact, Purgatory,” John Cohen told NewsNation. Cohen serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Internet Security (CIS), Program for Countering Hybrid Threats.
When asked about her campus’s security, Gordon said, “We all got alerts right away in three different forms, so I guess they’re pretty good about getting the word out. And the buildings seemed pretty secure.”
Some say the root of issues revolving around gun violence comes from easy access to guns. There are various hurdles that one must overcome to purchase a firearm, such as passing a background check or obtaining a purchase permit. Still, in states like Georgia, which have inadequate gun legislation, it is easy for disturbed individuals to get their hands on deadly weapons. As stated by the Georgia law, you do not need a Weapons Carry License, which allows you to carry a concealed weapon legally.
According to Everytown research, “Georgia has some of the weakest gun laws in the country.” Georgia does not require a permit for the purchase, a background check, or the registration of firearms or handguns before purchase. The Secure Storage or Child Access Prevention law aims to prevent unsupervised child access to weapons by mandating that gun owners lock up their firearms. This is not a law that Georgia or 24 other states have adopted. Extreme Risk laws, enforced by only 21 states, allow for “quick intervention when a person is at serious risk of harming themselves or others with a firearm.” With a court order, it temporarily removes guns and restrains the individual from purchasing a new one. These laws are meant to protect the masses from those who express threats of violence or attempt acts of violence. This is another law that Georgia does not implement, contributing to the dangerously low firearm regulations within the state.
Everytown is the largest gun violence prevention organization in America, with approximately 11 million members. Their main goal is to end gun violence by electing qualified candidates, implementing smart gun policies, and advocating for national and local safety reforms, among other things. Former Everytown employee and current Representative for Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District, Lucy McBath, is an active advocate for gun violence reform. Recently, she introduced the Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion (GOSAFE) Act, led by U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, which regulates the manufacture, sale, and transfer of gas-powered, semi-automatic guns.
“They [gas-powered and semi-automatic guns] are the preferred tool of mass shooters that wish to cause maximum harm. Limiting access to these highly lethal firearms and large-capacity magazines will protect our children and countless others from gun violence,” said Mark Barden, the Co-Founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund, and father of a Sandy Hook Elementary School victim.
This bill has been introduced to the Senate and is still awaiting further progress. Still, students, teachers, parents, and politicians alike are hopeful for success in advocating for stricter and safer gun laws.
