Ep 36. School shooters are bad at killing. We can make them even worse.

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Ep 36. School shooters are bad at killing. We can make them even worse.

Victims are rarely shot when they are face-to-face with an attacker. School shooters look for victims who are running away, hiding under tables, or they shoot randomly through doors and walls.

David Riedman

Mar 21, 2025

Transcript

Host: David Riedman, creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database.

Guest: Anne Nassauer, Professor of Sociology, Universität Erfurt, Germany

Paper: The Interactional Pathways of Mass Killings: Toward a Novel Understanding of Rampage School Shootings

Key points:

Prior papers and books on school shootings tend to cite the same 5-10 high profile cases (e.g., Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde). This paper is based on 83 cases since the 1960s.
Most “rampage” school shooters kill 0 or 1 victim. 40% kill zero victims.
98% of victims were shot in the back while running away, shot while hiding behind or under desks/tables, appeared as silhouettes in dark classrooms or smoky hallways, were shot from a long distance (e.g., sniper), or were struck by bullets that went through walls and doors (e.g., Parkland, Uvalde, CVPA High).
Only 2% of victims were shot face-to-face and school shooters often surrender or stop shooting when they are directly confronted or surprised by anyone (e.g., other students, staff, police).
Five school shootings account for 45% of all victims killed. Current lockdown and response policies are based on a very small percentage of cases.
Lockdown procedures (e.g., turning off the lights, moving to a corner of the classroom, positioning behind desks, and hiding faces from the shooter) puts victims into the optimal situation for rampage school shooters to kill the maximum number of victims.