Map Shows States With Most School Shootings Since 2004

The fatal shooting at Apalachee High School on September 4, 2024, was the 45th school shooting in the U.S. in 2024.
The shooting, in which two 14 year-old students and two teachers in Winder, Georgia, were killed, was also the 385th mass shooting in America in 2024, an average of 1.5 mass shootings per day.
Since 2004, there have been 2034 school shootings in total in American schools, and 89 in Georgia, according to K-12 Shooting Database. The data for school shootings includes any incident where a gun is brandished or fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason, meaning a number of these incidents do not result in injury, while others have multiple fatalities.
The states with the highest number of gun-related incidents at schools over the past two decades are California and Texas. There have been 169 school shootings in California and 141 in Texas.
Lindsay Nichols, Policy Director at Giffords Law Center told Newsweek that those total are likely due to population size—California is the most populous state in the nation and Texas has the second largest number of citizens. She added that California has been working on enacting gun laws that address the ease with which people can purchase guns.
Nichols told Newsweek: “Just this weekend, for example, the California Legislature passed a package of nearly 20 gun bills strengthening that state’s already strong laws.”
As a number of groups push for gun safety, 2023 was the worst year to date for school shootings since records began.
Since 2018, schools have seen a rise in shootings. However, it remains unclear to those who gather data on gun crime why it has risen so sharply in the past two decades, and most dramatically in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.
David Riedman, founder of K-12 School Shooting Database, told Newsweek: “This is a trend that we will need to look at 10 years from now to understand the variable that impacted it.”
Although many school shooting incidents do not result in major injuries or fatalities, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, 75 percent of youth aged 15-21 cite gun violence as a primary source of stress.
Gun safety experts have stressed the importance of having a system to raise alarm around suspicious student behavior, and for adults to improve their safety measures around guns they own.
Riedman told Newsweek: “A 14-year-old can’t buy guns in any state which means the gun used at Apalachee High School was taken from a legal owner who didn’t properly secure their firearm.
“Every state needs to pass laws that require guns to be stored inside a locked safe and hold the legal owners criminally and civilly liable for crimes that are committed with their unsecured firearm.”
Nichols stressed that guns are the number one killer of children across the country.
Nichols told Newsweek: “Our young people [are] dying not just in our schools, but in their homes, on playgrounds, and on our streets every week.
“We must enact stronger gun laws to ensure that the next generation does not continue to experience the loss of our most precious lives. Keeping our kids safe means keeping them safe everywhere.”
Nichols added: “Laws created by the gun lobby protect the industry from being held accountable.
“The sale of weapons like the AK-47 and AR-15 has generated more than $1 billion in profits for gun companies over the past decade. The enormous profits that the gun industry continues to enjoy are an important part of the context for these school shootings.”
Jennifer Briemann, Deputy Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said that it is time to “take school security seriously” in response to the Georgia shooting.
“Given what we currently know, the reality is that the proposals put forth by those who wish to disarm law-abiding citizens would not have prevented this senseless tragedy in Georgia,” Briemann told Newsweek. “It is well past time to prioritize the safety and well-being of our children and take school security seriously.”