Schools with multiple shootings are 'unforgiving places'

When there are 98,000 public schools in the United States, why do some campuses have multiple shootings while the vast majority have zero?

When there’s a shooting at a school, most people say, “we thought it could never happen here”.

On April 15, 2025, five students were shot and another was injured while fleeing when a 17-year-old student opened fire inside Wilmer-Hutchins High in Dallas, TX during afternoon classes. This shooting was almost exactly a year after a student was shot inside a classroom at the same school on April 12, 2024.

When a shooting on a school campus is statistically rare, why does lightning strike the same places multiple times? This happens because gun violence isn’t equally distributed. Shootings happen more often in ‘unforgiving places’.

I’ve documented 3,000 shootings over a 60-year time period. While there are 98,000 public schools and another 30,000 private schools in the United States, somehow 214 schools have had two or more shootings on campus since the 1960s. 42 schools have three or more shootings!

This means that these 42 schools account for almost 5% of all shootings that I’ve recorded nationwide.

Why are these shootings happening?

In his new book Unforgiving Places, University of Chicago economist Dr. Jens Ludwig’s analysis of crime data shows that 50-80% of all homicides in Chicago since 1965 resulted from disputes and interpersonal conflicts. This is something that both the political left and right are getting wrong about gun violence. These are not evil people (right wing theory) or desperately poor people (left wing theory), they are teens and young adults who carry guns and then make really bad decisions during an argument.

Looking at the situation leading to a shooting on campus, escalations of disputes are by far the most common circumstance at the schools with 2 or more incidents.

I talked about the phenomenon of fights escalating into shootings on my podcast episode with Dr. Jens Ludwig. Most of these fights that turn into shootings can be explained by Danny Kahneman’s book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’. Thinking fast is our unconscious reactions (system 1) while thinking slow is analytical (system 2). In the heat of an argument or physical fight, people are controlled by their system 1 thinking, and they don’t evaluate the pros and cons of shooting somebody.

If someone is thinking logically (system 2), they wouldn’t risk life in prison for shooting someone over an argument about an order at a sandwich shop.

Ep 38. Dr. Jens Ludwig explains his new book 'Unforgiving Places'

High schools overwhelmingly dominate the schools with multiple shootings (446 cases), compared to just 25 at elementary schools. These shootings happen in the places on campus with the lowest level of social control like the parking lot and other areas outside of the school building.

These shootings also happen during unstructured time periods like sports games and dismissal when both students and community members are on the campus.

Most of these unforgiving schools are situated in urban centers that experience higher poverty rates compared to national averages. These urban areas often have diverse populations, with significant representation from minority communities. These communities are also some of the most economically disadvantaged areas of the country.

Cities with multiple unforgiving schools

Ten cities have multiple schools with 2 or more shootings on the same campus:

• Detroit, MI
  Schools: Central High School, Henry Ford High School, Mumford High School, Murray-Wright High School​

• Chicago, IL
  Schools: Bowen High School, Roosevelt High School, Tilden High School​

• Memphis, TN
  Schools: Hamilton High School, Manassas High School, Brighton High School​

• Baltimore, MD
  Schools: Dunbar High School, Carver Vocational-Technical High School​

• Philadelphia, PA
  Schools: Martin Luther King High School, Roxborough High School​

• Atlanta, GA
  Schools: Benjamin E. Mays High School, Carver High School​

• Los Angeles, CA
  Schools: Locke High School, John Marshall High School​

• New Orleans, LA
  Schools: Booker T. Washington High School, McDonogh 35 Senior High School​

• Washington, DC
  Schools: Dunbar High School, Anacostia High School​

• Shreveport, LA
  Schools: Booker T. Washington High School, Fair Park High School

These cities all have higher poverty rates compared to the national average of 12.4%:​

• Detroit, MI: 31.5% ​

• Memphis, TN: 22.5% ​

• Baltimore, MD: 20.1% ​

• Philadelphia, PA: 23% ​

• Atlanta, GA: 17.9% ​

• Shreveport, LA: 23.6% ​

• Los Angeles, CA: 13.9% ​

• Washington, DC: 13.3% ​

• New Orleans, LA: 21% ​

• Chicago, IL: 16.8%

These urban areas often have significant minority populations (US population is 12.4% Black):​

• Detroit, MI: Approximately 78% Black​

• Memphis, TN: Approximately 64% Black​

• Baltimore, MD: Approximately 62% Black​

• Philadelphia, PA: Approximately 42% Black

• Atlanta, GA: Approximately 51% Black​

• Shreveport, LA: Approximately 56% Black​

These cities report higher violent crime rates compared to the national average (364 incidents per 100,000 people):​

• Detroit, MI: Violent crime rate of 2,179 per 100,000 residents ​

• Memphis, TN: Violent crime rate of 1,901 per 100,000 residents ​

• Baltimore, MD: Violent crime rate of 1,833 per 100,000 residents ​

• Philadelphia, PA: Violent crime rate of 1,095 per 100,000 residents ​

• Chicago, IL: Violent crime rate of 943 per 100,000 residents

Public schools in these 10 cities are all below the national average for high school graduation rate of 87%:

• Detroit, MI: 74.3%

• Memphis, TN: 83.4%

• Baltimore, MD: 70.6%

• Philadelphia, PA: 81.4%

• Atlanta, GA: 88.4%

• Shreveport, LA: 83%

• Los Angeles, CA: 87%

• Washington, DC: 76%

• New Orleans, LA: 79%

• Chicago, IL: 85%

One of the findings in Unforgiving Places is that a 10% increase in graduation rate decreases murders by 20%. These cities with unforgiving schools are all below the national average for graduation rates. For example, Booker T. Washington High School in Shreveport, LA had three shootings on campus. The graduation rate is 70%, the math proficiency rate is 3%, and 0% of students passed an AP exam.

From Ludwig’s book, changing incentives and social environments can dramatically reduce gun violence rates. Even if a kid is raised in a high crime area (based on a HUD experiment with housing vouchers in the 1990s), if they live in a low crime area during peak teenage offending years, they are much less likely to commit crime without changing any other social factors. If kids stay in low-graduation rate schools with lots of other high risk teens around them, many of these kids end up committing crimes. If high-risk kids can be sent to a better school in the suburbs, it’s likely they will never commit a crime because they are away from the unforgiving place.

For example, this week in Memphis, TN, three gunmen in ski masks killed two male students outside Booker T. Washington High in Memphis at dismissal. Around 3pm, a car pulled onto the street in front of the school. Three masked people with automatic rifles got out and opened fire on the students. One of the students was killed 'execution style' before the shooters fled.

In an interview with local news, an adult man said “there’s nothing open around there, there is nowhere for the kids to go”. A student who knew the victims said “everybody is beefing” and kids are carrying guns instead of having a place to play.

Moving a kid from an unforgiving school to an average performing school changes five behavioral economic factors:

1. Changing social environment without changing other factors (income, morals, family structure) decreases violent crime rates.

2. Changing levels of informal social control (more eyes on the street, neighbors stepping in when a conflict starts) decreases crime rates.

3. Changing levels of formal social control (visible presence of police, business improvement districts, security guards, more teachers, adult violence interrupters) decreases crime rates.

4. Teaching teens skills to help navigate the 10-minute window of high emotion during an argument or fight (e.g., learning skills like counting backwards from 10 before pulling the trigger can reduce the power of system 1 thinking during a fight) decreases the rate of shootings.

5. Prohibiting concealed firearms and keeping illegal guns off the street reduces access to a deadly weapon during the 10-minute window of system 1 thinking and this decreases the rate of shootings.

List of the unforgiving places:

Here are short descriptions of the shootings at schools with multiple incidents on campus. Just like the findings in unforgiving places, most of these are interpersonal conflicts rather than calculated acts of deliberate violence.

Benjamin E. Mays High School (Atlanta, GA)
– 2016-10-15: Shots fired from a car in the parking lot after an evening football game
– 2018-04-23: Shot fired into air during a verbal argument between male and female students
– 2023-05-28: Two students shot during unauthorized graduation party outside of the school
– 2024-02-14: Four students shot in school parking lot at dismissal