Christine Drews Sieger
At least 56 school shootings have hit the US this year, leaving 32 dead and 56 injured.
At least 56 school shootings have occurred across the United States through October 22 this year, leaving 32 people dead and 56 others injured.
The vast majority of this year’s gunfire—37 incidents—took place on K-12 school grounds, while the remaining 19 occurred on college campuses.
To verify the figures, CNN compares every reported case against police files, school announcements, and local news coverage.
The tally includes any gun violence on school property—ranging from classrooms and stadiums to parking lots and buses—where at least one person other than the shooter is struck.
Unintentional discharges are also counted, though incidents where law enforcement or campus security are the sole shooters are excluded.
Record highs and deadly tolls
Historical tracking back to 2008 shows how sharply campus gun violence has fluctuated in recent years.
When the Covid-19 pandemic forced classrooms to close during its first year, shootings on school grounds dropped significantly.
Once in-person learning resumed, however, incident numbers climbed to unprecedented levels.
Annual shootings hit a record high of at least 84 in 2023, according to the CNN.
Yet 2022 remains one of the deadliest years on record with 48 fatalities—a toll heavily driven by the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two educators were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded.
Sharp regional divides
The data also highlights major geographic disparities since 2008.
Southern states have recorded the highest per-capita rates of school shootings, and Texas leads the nation in total volume with at least 72 incidents.
Relative to population, Washington, DC carries the highest rate at more than one shooting per 100,000 residents, totaling seven incidents.
At the other end of the spectrum, only four states—Montana, Wyoming, New Hampshire, and Vermont—have recorded zero school shootings since tracking began.
Rhode Island was previously part of that group until December 13, 2025, when a mass shooting at Brown University marked the state’s first recorded incident since at least 2008, the CNN reports.
