Gun Shootings

As of March 2018, there have been eight school shootings this year in which a gun was discharged and victims were either injured or killed.

The shooting in Maryland is the 20th incident in which a gun has been discharged on a school campus in the US this year, according to gun safety non-profit Everytown.

However, after that figure was widely shared following the Florida incident, it has been challenged by many outlets over how the organization categorizes "school shootings".

Here are details of the school shootings in 2018 in which people have been wounded or killed – on three other occasions, firearms were discharged without causing physical harm.

• On January 22, shots were fired from a truck in the car park of NET Charter High School in New Orleans, Louisiana, targeting students during their lunch break. One student was injured during the incident.
• On the same date, a 16-year-old male fired at his 15-year-old classmate in the cafeteria of Italy High School, Texas. The young victim was wounded while cops quickly apprehended the teen shooter.
• On January 23, a 15-year-old male student shot 16 people in the lobby at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, killing two 15-year-olds. One died at the scene and the other passed away from wounds in hospital.
• On February 1, two 15-year-old students were shot and injured inside a classroom at Sal Castro Middle School in Los Angeles, California. A 12-year-old girl was arrested.
• On February 14, a gunman stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing at least 17 people and injuring up to 50. Parkland police arrested former pupil Nikolas Cruz, 19, who was expelled from the school in 2017.
• On March 7, a 17-year-old girl was shot dead and a 17-year-old boy injured in a gun incident at Huffman High School in Birmingham, Alabama.
• On March 20, a teenage gunman shot two classmates before he was tackled by a hero cop in Maryland.
• On May 18. between eight and 10 people were killed in a shooting at Santa Fe High school

How many school shootings have there been since 2013?

Since 2013, there have been over 305 incidents in which a gun was discharged on a school campus in America, again according to Everytown.

This averages out to around one shooting a week.

Significant incidents over the last five years include the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 26 people and himself on December 14, 2012.

A report by the Urban Institute revealed that in the single school district of Washington DC, there were at least 336 gunshots near schools over a single school year.