School Shootings

On December 16, 2024, there was a school shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin. This shooting was conducted by a 14 year old girl who attended the school and killed herself in the attack. According to CNN, there have been 83 school shootings in 2024 as of December 16. These incidents resulted in the deaths of 38 people and 116 other victims were injured. Frankly, by how much publicity these incidents have gotten I would have thought they would be far more common than at only 83 schools. I also expected at least 1 person, likely at least the assailant, would have died in each incident. Regardless, something should be done to prevent the fear that prevails throughout schools.

In recent years there has been a lot of talk about school shootings and parents seem to indicate that this is a new concern they never had to deal with and that something should be done about it. I am curious about the statistics of the cases as you often hear about school shootings only increasing. However, CNN does state that there was a significant decrease in school shootings during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a brief look into the history of school shootings has revealed 2 events and 3 pieces of legislation, which may shed some light on the beginnings of school shootings.

The two events are the Columbine school massacre and the Stockton schoolyard shooting. The Columbine school massacre was referenced to in a manifesto by the Abundant Life Christian School shooter. This shooting occurred on April 20th, 1999 in a library. Two seniors at the school killed 12 students and 1 teacher. This attack seems to be viewed as the point when school shootings hit the public awareness.

However, on January 17, 1989 the Stockton schoolyard shooting occurred. This shooting was perpetrated, not by a student as modern school shootings commonly are, but by a 24-year-old man who entered an Elementary school in Stockton, California. He killed 5 children and wounded 30 other children and 1 adult before committing suicide himself.

This led to strong backlash against firearms classified as assault weapons in California and eventually inspired the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989. This act limited the transfer of assault weapons. In the original Roberti-Roos Act, 50 specific brands and models of firearms were listed including primarily rifles, but also pistols and shotguns. However, this definition was updated in 1999 to limit specific features of weapons. This law was challenged in Miller v. Bonta, however a clear result of the case is not yet clear.

In addition to the California law, 2 federal laws were passed to prevent school shootings. These acts are the Gun Free Schools Act (GFSA) and the Gun-Free Schools Zone Act (GFSZA). The GFSZA was originally passed in 1990 and prohibits carrying loaded or unlocked firearms within 1,000 ft of a K-12 school. This act used the federal powers of interstate trade. This act allowed licensed gun owners to continue to have a weapon within school zones and allowed weapons used for academic purposes.

The Gun Free Schools Act (GFSA) was originally passed in 1994. This act does not legally mandate schools act in a certain way, but rather leverages federal funding of schools. The GFSA, as of 2002, requires schools to have a zero-tolerance policy for guns in schools. This zero-tolerance policy requires students to be expelled if they bring a firearm to school.

It is interesting how gun control was initially implemented to prevent outside threats from attacking a school and now has morphed into preventing threats from within. Additionally, no clear definition of an assault weapon is commonly accepted today. Rather each law must create a definition of its own. I am curious how effective these laws have been.