On Wednesday, as students continue to return to schools this week after the summer break, a man armed with three guns fired dozens of rounds into a school mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, killing two children and injuring 17 others.

The shooting ended when the suspect, 23-year-old Robin Westman, “took his own life” at the rear of the church, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said, and authorities are still investigating the motive.

School shootings have become a grim reality, occurring far too often in the United States, yet efforts to impose stricter gun ownership laws continue to face strong opposition from conservative groups and politicians.

Counting these incidents is not always straightforward, and totals can differ depending on how shootings are defined, whether injuries or deaths occurred, and which database is used. Al Jazeera breaks it all down for you.

School shootings: Why the numbers vary

Like mass shootings, school shootings are tracked by multiple databases that use different criteria. Some apply broad definitions, while others include only the most severe incidents.

Broadest definition – 146 incidents

The K-12 School Shooting Database has the broadest definition.

It records every incident on K-12 school property where a gun was fired, brandished with intent, or a bullet struck school property, regardless of whether anyone was injured or killed. This includes gang shootings, incidents of domestic violence, shootings at sports games or after-school events, suicides, fights that escalate into gunfire, and accidental discharges.

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According to this definition, there have been 146 incidents of gun violence this year.

Moderate definition – 91 incidents

Another source, Everytown for Gun Safety, uses data from the K-12 School Shooting Database to map and analyse firearm discharge incidents on school grounds.

Everytown tracks gun incidents that resulted in a person being killed or wounded, as well as those in which a gun was discharged and no one was shot. Incidents in which guns were brought into schools but not discharged are not included.

According to this definition, there have been 91 incidents of gunfire on school grounds this year.

Strictest definition – 8 incidents

A third database, Education Week, employs the strictest definition.

It counts only shootings causing injuries or deaths on school property or buses during school hours or events.

According to this definition, there have been eight school shootings this year that resulted in casualties.

School shootings highest in the US

Regardless of which measurement is used, the US overwhelmingly has the highest number of school shootings in the world.

Other countries do experience school shootings, but these occur rarely. One such incident from this year was at a school in Graz, Austria,  on June 10, when a former student opened fire, killing 10 people and injuring 11 others. This incident was the worst school shooting in Austria’s history.

School shootings with casualties in 2025

Wednesday’s shooting is the deadliest school shooting this year and the single incident with the highest number of victims since the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022, in which a man fatally shot 19 students and two teachers, and injured 17 others.

According to Education Week, there have been 229 school shootings with injuries or deaths since 2018, including 24 each in 2018 and 2019, 10 in 2020, 35 in 2021, 51 in 2022, 38 in 2023, and 39 in 2024.