Series of policy briefs from Rockefeller Institute’s Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium will help stakeholders and policymakers make trauma-informed, evidence-based decisions surrounding firearm violence in schools
Initial brief in series examines twenty years of data on failed or foiled mass shootings in schools to identify mechanisms that are effective in disrupting these events
Albany, NY — A new research series from the Rockefeller Institute’s Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium (RGVRC) presents school community stakeholders with important evidence, strategies, and policy recommendations for keeping students safe from firearm-involved violence.
With a new school year approaching and the horrific May 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, still fresh in the public consciousness, many are wondering how their local school communities can best safeguard themselves from gun violence and its associated impacts. As new ideas are introduced into the discussion and old ideas are recycled, it is imperative that school leaders and other policymakers have the evidence they need to implement sound policies and strategies. This research series will offer critical context to a range of school-involved firearm violence issues, including school shootings, lockdown procedures, and the impacts of exposure to violence on youth.
“This new research series from the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium is critically important to conversations taking place at the kitchen table, at school board meetings, and in state and federal agencies overseeing school safety,” said Rockefeller Institute Executive Director of Research Laura Schultz. “The Consortium, which has informed important policy conversations surrounding community gun violence, state and federal gun laws, mass shootings, and more, is now injecting the conversation about how to keep our kids safe in the coming school year with evidence and policy-oriented analysis. We are grateful to the Consortium’s network of scholars and practitioners for making this valuable research accessible to policymakers and the public.”
Using data from 2000 to 2019, the initial brief in this series examines completed, attempted, failed, and foiled mass shootings in schools. While completed and attempted school shootings gain significant media attention, analyzing failed and foiled mass shootings offers significant opportunity for understanding how these events can be disrupted. Among failed and foiled shootings, 66 percent of incidents were prevented because of offenders’ verbal or written leakage of violent intent and an additional 17 percent were discovered by someone identifying suspicious behavior or planning materials. These findings emphasize the importance of educating the public to recognize leakage and warning signs and encouraging awareness of red flag reporting mechanisms.
The brief also presents data on the demographics of offenders and their target selection:
- foiled and failed offenders were overwhelmingly male (92 percent), corresponding to public mass shooting demographics in general;
- nearly two-thirds of all thwarted offenders were under 18-years-old, and 83 percent of offenders were under the age of 21;
- high schools account for approximately two-thirds of all foiled and failed incidents, while middle schools and elementary schools were targeted 15 percent and 3 percent of the time, respectively.
New releases in the series will take place throughout the month of August and into early September.
Read the full brief by RGVRC members Jason Silva and Emily Greene-Colozzi here.