On 15 October, a 16-year-old walked into Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, and opened fire. A teacher and three children aged five, eight and eleven were killed. A seven-year-old and another teacher were wounded. Education Week noted that the five-year-old was the youngest person killed in a school shooting since it began tracking such incidents in 2018.

Every time this happens, America repeats the same script. Thoughts and prayers. Calls for more police in schools. Demands for gun control. Then the news moves on until the next tragedy. Why does the world’s richest country still struggle to keep children safe in classrooms?

Education Week counted 27 school shootings that caused injuries or deaths in 2026 as of 19 October, with 17 people killed and 29 injured. Its tracker, which counts only incidents on K-12 school property or school buses during school hours or school events, has recorded 268 such shootings since 2018.

School shootings are part of a much larger crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 44,000 firearm-related deaths in 2024, about 121 a day. Over half were suicides, and roughly a third were homicides. Firearms were the second leading cause of death for Americans aged one to 19 that year. Everytown, citing provisional 2025 CDC data, says guns have become the leading cause.

Gun rights groups dispute that framing. An October analysis by the Second Amendment Foundation, reported by Texas Gun Rights, noted that provisional CDC figures showed 2,099 firearm deaths among children aged one to 17 in 2025, the same number as motor vehicle deaths, and that about 85% of those firearm deaths involved teenagers aged 13 to 17. Statistics can be framed in many ways. Does any framing make 2,099 dead children acceptable?

Here is the fact that should reshape this debate. The US Secret Service found in 2019 that roughly three-quarters of school shooters under 18 obtained their guns from a parent’s or close relative’s home, according to Everytown’s summary of the research. An estimated 6.7 million American children live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm, a 2026 study in JAMA Network Open found.

The Secret Service also found warning signs that worried others in every case of targeted school violence it studied. An NYPD review found that current or former students carried out 75% of active shooter incidents at K-12 schools over five decades.

If most young shooters take guns from home and show warning signs first, why does much of the public debate focus on armed guards and bulletproof backpacks rather than locked gun safes and threat assessment?

The share of public schools with their own police officers has risen from about 1% in 1975 to 44%, according to sociologist Monic Behnken of Iowa State University. Research on their effectiveness is mixed. One North Carolina study found middle schools with officers recorded 38% fewer violent offences, along with harsher discipline. Other studies found officers increased the reporting of minor misbehaviour to police, with Black and Hispanic students disproportionately affected. School police may help with some crimes. Do they stop determined shooters? Uvalde remains the painful example. In Uvalde, Texas, in 2022, nearly 400 law enforcement officers responded to Robb Elementary, yet waited more than an hour before confronting the gunman while 19 children and two teachers died.

Drills raise similar questions. About 95% of US public schools train students on procedures for armed intruders, the American Psychological Association reports, yet there are no national standards for how drills should be run. Calm lockdown drills can build useful skills. Realistic active shooter simulations with fake blood or deception have been linked to distress. A social media analysis of 114 schools found spikes in stress, anxiety and depression lasting at least three months after drills. The APA recommends notifying parents in advance, offering an opt-out and providing mental health support afterwards.

University of Virginia psychologist Dewey Cornell warns: “It’s a big mistake to apply a military mindset to education.” He argues drills should be as low-key as fire drills. Are we preparing children for danger, or teaching them to live in fear?

Supporters of school hardening make reasonable points. Single entry points, interior door locks, trained staff and rapid police response can save lives when an attack begins. Many parents feel safer with an officer on site. Gun rights advocates argue that law-abiding gun owners should not be punished for the crimes of a few, and that the Second Amendment protects the right to keep firearms at home for self-defence.

Those concerns deserve genuine respect. Hardening, however, treats the symptom. It does nothing about the unlocked gun in the bedroom closet or the troubled teenager whose warning signs went unreported.

Researchers and safety experts point to several measures with stronger support. Secure storage and child access prevention laws hold adults responsible when children can reach unsecured guns. Extreme risk laws, often called red flag laws, allow families or police to ask a court to remove guns temporarily from someone in crisis. Threat assessment teams can identify students in trouble before violence occurs. Raising the minimum age to buy semiautomatic firearms to 21 is another option, since 18- to 20-year-olds commit gun homicides at about three times the adult rate, according to Everytown.

Schools also need more mental health staff. The National Association of School Psychologists recommends one psychologist per 500 students. The national average in 2021 was 1,233 students per psychologist. How can schools spot warning signs when counsellors and psychologists are stretched this thin?

Other wealthy countries do not accept school shootings as an inevitable part of life. America does not have to either. Parents can lock up their guns today. States can pass secure storage laws. Congress can fund school mental health staff. Communities can insist on calm, age-appropriate drills.

Gun violence and school safety will never be solved by one policy. Ignoring the evidence, however, is a choice. After Bend, after Uvalde, after Parkland, how many more children will we lose before the debate changes? And if the guns used in most school shootings come from home, what are we waiting for?

Understanding School Gun Violence: Drills, Police, Safe Storage and Red Flag Laws

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