School Shootings Fell in 2025, Yet Schools Overinvest in Safety Tech Over Prevention

Understanding the Patterns of School Shootings

Active shootings on college campuses are relatively rare, yet when they do occur, there are often recognizable patterns. The tragic shooting at Brown University on December 13, 2025, which resulted in two student fatalities and nine injuries, is one such incident. Scholar James Densley has studied similar cases and notes that these events typically occur inside classrooms and involve multiple victims.

This incident marks the fourth deadly university shooting in the United States in 2025. In response, the Department of Education in Rhode Island has urged local elementary and secondary schools to review their safety protocols. Amy Lieberman, an education editor at The Conversation U.S., discussed with Densley how schools face an "impossible mandate" in preventing such tragedies.

Trends in School Shootings Over Time

According to recent data, K-12 school shootings have shown a downward trend in the past two years. However, the most significant increases occurred between 2020 and 2024, coinciding with the broader rise in homicide and violent crime during the pandemic era.

In 2025, there have been 230 school shooting incidents in the U.S., a number that remains alarmingly high. This compares to 336 incidents in 2024, 352 in 2023, 308 in 2022, and 257 in 2021. Schools are increasingly adopting various security measures, such as cameras, drones, AI threat detection systems, weapons scanners, panic apps, and facial recognition technology. Despite this, the effectiveness of these tools is still under scrutiny, with limited or emerging evidence on their real-world impact.

Schools’ Response to Rising Violence

Schools are often placed at the forefront of efforts to prevent violence, even though they did not create the societal issues contributing to gun violence. Educators are expected to manage multiple roles—teacher, social worker, threat assessor, and first responder—which can normalize fear and shift responsibility away from addressing root causes.

A growing school safety industry capitalizes on this fear by promoting technological solutions that promise faster weapon detection. However, these products often lack a strong evidence base. For instance, an AI detection software once misidentified a bag of Doritos as a gun, leading to a large police response.

Schools are pressured to invest in these technologies to demonstrate proactive measures, but many systems generate false positives and divert attention from the human relationships that are essential for prevention.

Effectiveness of Prevention Systems

Some non-technical safety measures, such as ensuring every person has an ID, can be beneficial. Requiring ID scans and badges helps prevent unauthorized individuals from entering school buildings, reducing risks of theft and assaults. However, the challenge lies in the fact that most school shooters are already affiliated with the institution.

When an attacker enters a school, checkpoints and metal detectors become ineffective. Historically, several mass shootings began outside the building and moved inside, highlighting the limitations of physical barriers.

Addressing the Root Causes

The clearest way to prevent school shootings, according to current evidence, involves early intervention through behavioral threat assessment and management. This approach focuses on identifying changes in behavior and intervening before a crisis occurs. It is about creating structured, team-based processes to assess risk and provide support, rather than relying solely on law enforcement or profiling individuals.

Real prevention requires investing in systems that address the warning signs of potential violence. These systems must be human-centered, focusing on creating environments where students feel supported and understood. While locking doors and conducting drills are important, no school can become entirely secure without addressing the underlying causes of violence.

By shifting the focus from reactive measures to proactive, community-based strategies, schools can better protect students and foster safer learning environments.