Courtesy of a tweet from Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, with over 1,900 likes and 1,200 retweets. Other outlets, like The Other 98%,turned it into meme form (shown in the photo) and shared it widely. This meme takes issue with recent comments by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and implies that “assault weapons” are a unique danger and threat in school shootings. This brings up the relevant question which is seldom asked; which guns are used most often in school shootings?
Methodology
Since the focus is to analyze modern US school shootings, the time frame chosen was post-Columbine. This seems to be an appropriate starting point, being at the turn of the century, with a long enough timeline to establish patterns. Also, the Columbine shooters used rifles, shotguns and handguns, making it tough to pick which weapon should be blamed in that event.
The source used to find the list of school shootings was Wikipedia. Normally, Wikipedia isn’t used on this site as a source, but their list of school shootings is comprehensive and accurate. Other popular lists, like the one from Everytown, include shorter and incomplete timelines, and lump in events that can’t be reasonably considered school shootings. Or Gun Violence Archive, which compiles certain events like mass shootings, but not all school shootings.
“School shooting” here is defined as events where a firearm was discharged at a K-12 or college institution, excluding individual suicides or police actions. Only school shootings that resulted in at least one death were examined, as the meme refers to children who were killed. Neither suicides or the perpetrator being killed were counted in the fatalities. In each event, independent news reports apart from Wikipedia were referenced to determine the type of weapon. In some cases, the weapon type couldn’t be determined by any source, and was categorized as “unknown”. All of the unknown events involved just one victim fatality, and generally these were gang-style shootings that quickly faded into media obscurity. More likely than not they were handguns. There were a few shootings listed on Wikipedia that were thrown out, as they didn’t take place on school grounds.
Quick Note on “Assault Weapons” and “Assault Rifles”
These terms are themselves inaccurate and vague, as assault rifles are technically those with an automatic feature, and assault weapons could mean anything used as a weapon. However, since this meme is distinguishing “assault weapons” from handguns, we’ll assume the colloquial use and regard them as semi-automatic rifles. In fact, for this analysis, all rifles used in school shootings will be considered “assault rifles”, unless they were specifically identified as a bolt-action rifle. Quotes will be used to indicate that this isn’t an accurate term.
Results
Out of all the fatal school shootings since Columbine, here is the breakdown.
- Total Events: 95
By gun type:
Handgun- 65
“Assault Rifle”- 7
Shotgun- 7
Bolt-Action Rifle- 1
Unknown- 15
- Total Deaths: 232
By gun type:
Handgun- 139
“Assault Rifle”- 51
Shotgun- 26
Bolt-Action Rifle- 1
Unknown- 15
Analysis
Over 2/3’s of all fatal school shootings since Columbine were from handguns. In fact, handguns outnumbered “assault rifles” almost 10 to 1 in school shooting events. This disparity narrowed with fatalities, but handguns were still responsible for almost 3 times what rifles were. If all school shootings were examined, not just fatal ones, the results would be even more skewed towards handguns. Those listed as unknown are also likely handguns.
Some of the highest profile and deadliest shootings, like Sandy Hook (26 killed) and Parkland (17 killed), involved rifles, and focused outrage by some on the AR-15. But the deadliest school shooting was Virginia Tech, which resulted in 32 fatalities with a handgun. Other high-profile shootings like Umpqua Community College (9 killed) and Oikos University (7 killed) were also exclusively handguns. The recent shooting at Santa Fe High School (10 killed) involved a shotgun and a revolver.
The meme’s implication that “assault weapons”, meaning semi-automatic rifles, are somehow more dangerous and distinguishable from handguns falls flat. In fact, it appears to be handguns that are far more dangerous and responsible for many more school shooting deaths.
This isn’t limited to school shootings, either. According to FBI statistics, handguns are used in all homicides far more than rifles. In many years, it’s more than 20 to 1.
Given this reality, it seems quite irrational to focus on semi-automatic rifles as an unusually dangerous weapon, and to condemn a public figure for not doing so. Ironically, despite invoking the memories of school shooting victims, it’s also insensitive to the far more parents who’ve lost children in school shootings involving handguns.
Notes
There was one high-profile school shooting with an “assault rifle” that was omitted, the Rancho Tehama Elementary School shooting. While a horrific event that resulted in several fatalities, none were at the school itself, nor were any children killed. All the deaths occurred in separate events throughout the city.
The Santa Fe High School shooter carried both a shotgun and revolver, but was counted as only a shotgun in the breakdown.
The Freeman High School shooting was considered an “assault rifle” event in the above tally, but also a handgun fatality. The gunman entered the school with an AR-15 and attempted to use it first. However, it ended up jamming and the pistol was the weapon used in the fatality.