How many school shootings have there been since Uvalde? Here's what US data shows.

It has been two years since the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde left 19 children and two adults dead, and 17 others injured. The tragedy shook the nation and became the deadliest school shooting in Texas history.

The gunman purchased weapons and ammunition used in the shooting just days after he turned 18 years old, according to a report by a Texas House investigative committee. They included a pair of AR-15-style rifles.

Gov. Greg Abbott recently used a short address he made at a National Rifle Association convention in Dallas on Saturday to emphasize his support for a second Donald Trump presidency and for Texas' pro-gun culture.

"Since I became governor, Texas has passed more significant Second Amendment protections than any other state in the United States of America," Abbott, a three-term Republican, said as he listed such measures as allowing the carrying of handguns in limited places on the campuses of public colleges and universities and allowing the unlicensed open carrying of handguns.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden's reelection campaign recently put out a statement from Vice President Kamala Harris, who said that she and Biden "will continue to take on the gun lobby to keep Americans safe" in the wake of mass shootings in schools, work spaces and places of worship.

Here's a breakdown of school shootings, mass shootings and mass killings since the May 24, 2022, massacre in Uvalde.

How many school shootings in the U.S. since Uvalde?

There have been approximately 652 school shooting incidents since Uvalde, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which was created and is maintained by David Riedman, a researcher who tracks gun violence in schools.

Seventy-eight of those school shootings resulted in 38 deaths and 111 people injured, according to an Education Week analysis updated May 13.

Just nine months after the shooting at Robb Elementary, a shooting at Michigan State University left three dead. A month after that, six people were killed in the Nashville Covenant school shooting. Earlier this year, a Perry High School student fatally shot two people before turning the gun on himself.

Shootings on K-12 schools increased by about 113% from 2022 to 2023, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. From the start of 2023 to Thursday, 489 school shooting incidents have resulted in 356 deaths or injuries.

School shootings spiked from 2000-01 to 2021-22 school years

From the 2000–01 to 2021–22 school years, "there were 1,375 school shootings at public and private elementary and secondary schools, resulting in 515 deaths and 1,161 injuries," according to USAFacts, a research nonprofit founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

About 61% of recorded school shootings occurred at high schools, 23.6% at elementary schools, 12% at middle or junior high schools, and 3.4% at other educational institutions, the group found. School shootings at college-level institutions are not included in this dataset.

The majority of school shootings since 2000 have occurred outside of school buildings, with the most common location (28.3%) being a parking lot.

Mass shootings in the U.S. since Uvalde school shooting

USA TODAY has partnered with Northeastern University and the Associated Press to create a "mass killing database." The data includes "deaths by guns, knives, fires, vehicles and other weapons in public and in private — that plague the U.S." since 2006. This research also defines a "mass killing" as an incident involving any weapon in which four or more people, excluding the offender, are killed within a 24-hour time frame.

Since the Uvalde shooting, 76 out of the 90 mass killing incidents were fatal mass shootings. Most fatal shootings occur in non-public spaces, such as in private homes, rather than public spaces like schools, supermarkets and churches.

In 2023, there were 39 mass shooting in the U.S. — the second most mass shootings in a year since data collection began in 2006 — resulting in the third-highest number of victims, only surpassed in 2017 and 2019.

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Mass killings in the U.S. since Uvalde school shooting

Since 2006, there have been 589 mass killings in the U.S. with a total of 3,057 victims, according to the mass killing database.

Texas alone has had 51 mass killing incidents since 2006, resulting in 345 deaths and 184 people injured. Of these, school shootings accounted for 31 deaths and 30 people injured.

In 2020, guns surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers, the database researchers found. Most children involved in mass shootings die at home.

In over 80% of mass killings, a firearm is used, and most of those firearms are semiautomatic guns.

Although homicides with fewer than four victims are more common in larger cities, mass killings with higher death tolls happen more frequently in smaller, rural towns.

— USA TODAY contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: How many school shootings since Uvalde? Here's what data shows