U.S. K-12 School Shooting Characteristics in Rural and Metropolitan Counties,1990 to 2016

Abstract

Using The American School Shooting Study (TASSS), this descriptive analysis examined 386 injurious K-12 school shootings involving 412 perpetrators in the United States from 1990 to 2016. Incidents were classified by county metropolitan status using USDA Rural-Urban Continuum Codes to assess whether situational and perpetrator characteristics differ systematically by place. Nearly 60% of incidents occurred in large metropolitan counties, 25% in small/medium metropolitan counties, and 16% in rural nonmetropolitan counties. Across all county types, shootings disproportionately occurred in high-poverty census tracts (≈19%–20%). Relative to other settings, rural incidents more frequently involved family firearm access and school-related grievances, whereas metropolitan incidents were more likely to involve disputes originating off campus that spilled onto school property. These findings demonstrate patterned geographic heterogeneity in school shooting pathways, clarifying how incident characteristics—not just incident counts—vary by place.