The Dec. 16 taking pictures at Ample Life Christian College in Madison, Wis., has shocked the nation, not just for its horror however for its distinctive profile. This time, a teenage woman opened hearth inside her college, killing a trainer, one other scholar, and apparently herself, and injuring six others. Though feminine college shooters are exceedingly uncommon, the patterns that result in such tragedies are painfully acquainted.
College shootings are a uniquely American disaster. Based on the K-12 School Shooting Database, which tracks each time a gun is brandished or fired on college property, there have been 323 such incidents on school property in 2024 alone.
The general public’s consideration usually focuses on the gender of the perpetrators. After the March 2023 mass taking pictures on the Covenant College in Nashville, the shooter’s transgender id was a lot mentioned. After different college shootings, “poisonous masculinity” has been highlighted, together with the well-documented proven fact that the majority of mass shootings are perpetrated by men and boys.
In our lately launched K-12 school homicide database, which particulars 349 homicides dedicated at Okay-12 faculties since 2020, solely 12 (3%) of the perpetrators had been feminine. There have been some notable instances involving feminine college shooters. In 1988, a female babysitter walked right into a second-grade classroom in Winnetka, In poor health., and instructed the scholars she was there to show them about weapons; she opened hearth, killing an 8-year-old boy and wounding 5 different college students.
In Rigby, Idaho, in 2021, a 12-year-old girl plotted to kill 20 to 30 classmates. Armed with two handguns, she walked out a WC and started firing within the hallway, wounding two college students and the custodian. A trainer heard the pictures, left their classroom, and hugged the shooter to disarm her.
The earliest case in our data was in 1979, when a 16-year-old woman opened hearth at Cleveland Elementary College in San Diego, killing two and injuring 9. This was when the American public was first launched to a feminine college shooter. Her notorious rationalization for her actions — “I simply don’t like Mondays” — is etched in popular culture. But it surely was much less a few flippant angle and extra about despair. At a parole listening to years later, the shooter admitted the reality: “I wanted to die.” She noticed her assault as a technique to be killed by police.
Her story displays what we now know: Most college shooters are suicidal, in disaster and pushed by a mixture of hopelessness and rage.
Many years of research reveal a constant set of truths. College shooters are usually insiders, which means they’re present or former college students. They know the routines, safety measures and weaknesses of their faculties. And whereas investigators don’t but know what led to the Madison taking pictures, college shootings are virtually by no means spontaneous acts of violence.
As an alternative, generally, college shootings are the end result of a profound unraveling, a final and horrible cry for assist. Greater than 90% of the perpetrators present clear indicators of a disaster within the months or weeks main as much as their assaults — despair, temper swings, agitation, isolation or an incapacity to handle every day life. And crucially, greater than 90% leak their plans ahead of time, sharing warnings with friends, posting ominous messages, and even voicing their intent outright.
With every college taking pictures, we have a tendency to focus on particulars: the uncommon feminine shooter, the high-profile bloodbath, the rapid response of authorities. But when we step again, we are inclined to see the identical story repeated time and again. A scholar insider. In disaster. Suicidal.
Lastly, there’s entry to weapons — the bridge between disaster and disaster. As of Tuesday afternoon, we don’t know the place the Madison shooter obtained the gun she used. In Wisconsin, it’s illegal for someone under the age of 18 to own a firearm, though there are exceptions.
In almost each college taking pictures, the weapon is obtained from the shooter’s residence or from a complicit grownup. This was true in 1979 when the Cleveland Elementary shooter used a rifle given to her by her father as a Christmas gift, and it stays true within the knowledge as we speak. When firearms are saved securely — locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition — the chance of impulsive violence drops dramatically. But this fundamental precaution is way too usually ignored.
Dad and mom and guardians should perceive their function in stopping tragedy. Protected gun storage is the best, simplest manner to make sure that weapons don’t fall into the palms of teenagers in disaster. Many states have carried out legal guidelines holding adults accountable when their firearms are accessed by minors. For the needs of that law in Wisconsin, a baby is outlined as somebody 14 or youthful. The shooter was 15.
On the similar time that households should be vigilant, faculties should foster environments the place college students really feel secure reporting troubling conduct with out concern of punishment or stigma. This 12 months alone, a number of teenage women have made threats of violence towards their faculties, generally coming alarmingly near taking actual motion. On Sept. 7, a 15-year-old woman in Temperance, Mich., was arrested after sending a group text threatening a school shooting at Whiteford Agricultural Faculties. Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 26 in Austin, Texas, a tip to the FBI led to the arrest of a 17-year-old girl, disgruntled and brazenly plotting a taking pictures at her former elementary college. In March, an 18-year-old woman was taken into custody after threatening to “shoot up” a school in Knoxville, Tenn.
But if we merely criminalize threats with out intervening meaningfully, we danger amplifying the very grievances that result in violence. We should deal with the broader tradition of despair and anger that usually fuels these assaults. Social isolation, bullying and untreated psychological well being points are usually not trivial adolescent struggles — they could be precursors to violence for many who see no different manner out.
College shootings shouldn’t be remembered for the novelty of any of their particulars, however as reminders of what we already know and what we are able to stop. We can not erase the trauma that these occasions trigger, however we are able to act on the teachings they provide. The warning indicators are normally seen. The instruments for prevention exist. And each college taking pictures we fail to cease is a tragedy we may have prevented.
James Densley is a professor at Metropolitan State College and co-founder of the Violence Prevention Project Research Center at Hamline College. Jillian Peterson is a professor at Hamline College and co-founder of the Violence Prevention Mission Analysis Middle. David Riedman is a professor at Idaho State College and creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database.
