School shootings are a gun violence problem, not a gender identity issue
A deadly shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee on March 27, 2023 is the 89th shooting at American schools in 2023. Three students and three adults were killed in the shooting. In 2022, 303 shootings took place at schools, more than any year since 1970.
Assuming male gender identity does not make someone more likely to become a school shooter because throughout history, women have also committed school shootings. School shootings are a gun violence problem, not a gender or transgender identity issue.
How rare is it for a school shooter to be female?
Most school shooters are male and in their teens or early 20s. However, over the last 50 years, at least four planned school shootings have involved female attackers.
In 1979, a then-16-year-old Brenda Spender shot 11 people, 2 fatally, at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. She used a rifle that she received as a Christmas gift from her father. When a reporter reached her by phone and asked why she did it, she said, “I just don’t like Mondays… I did this because it’s a way to cheer up the day.”
A decade later in 1988, Laurie Dann walked into a second grade classroom in Winnetka, Illinois and told the students she was there to teach them about guns. She then opened fire in the classroom, killing one student and wounding 5 more.
In 2019, two students, one male and a female who identified as male carried out a planned attack against the STEM School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, just miles from Columbine High School, a school whose name became synonymous with American school shootings after two teens shot and killed 13 students there and wounded 20 others. At the STEM School, eight students were wounded during their coordinated attack. Kendrick Castillo was killed as he saved his classmates by tackling one of the shooters.
Two years later, in the small town of Rigby, Idaho, a 12-year-old girl plotted to kill 20–30 classmates, and wound 50 others, at her middle school. Armed with two handguns, she walked out of the bathroom and began firing in the hallway, wounding two students and the custodian. A teacher heard the shots, walked out of the classroom, and hugged the shooter to disarm her.
Female students have also been caught planning school shootings. In 2016, two girls in Colorado were planning a Columbine copycat attack. The two 16-year-olds were both tried as adults on two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
In February of 2023, a girl at Sleeping Giant Middle School in Montana was arrested for plotting to carry out a school shooting with an AK-47 rifle. In Palm Coast, Florida in November 2022, a 12-year-old girl was arrested for plotting a school shooting and attempting to obtain a firearm.
What do we know about the shooter in Nashville today?
Based on early reports, we have learned the shooter was a 28-year-old woman (who is reported to use male pronouns) who was formerly a student at the school. This fits with the pattern of school shooters who are primarily current and former students at the school they attack. School shootings are almost never random acts of violence. They are usually planned by someone with a connection to the targets and an internalized motivation for the attack.
When an attacker knows the layout and security procedures of the campus from attending school there, it creates a difficult challenge for school security. “Insiders” are considered by security professionals to be the most difficult type of threat to address.
What about the shooter’s age?
Most school shooters are current or former students in their teens or early 20s. It is rare for a 28-year-old to commit a deliberate school shooting with the intent to kill multiple victims. School shootings usually relate to personal trauma and a grievance that is directed at the school. Once a mass shooter is in their mid to late 20s, it is more likely for that grievance to be associated with an employer.
What else stands out about this shooting?
This is the 75th shooting at a school in Tennessee since 1970. Prior to the shooting at The Covenant, the last shooting to occur at a school in Tennessee was at Freedom Prep High in Memphis. There, a student was shot in the school cafeteria in December 2022.
David Riedman is the founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a Ph.D. student at the University of Central Florida. To support the K-12 School Shooting Database and The Violence Project, please donate.
