Key Takeaways

• More than 100,000 American children attended a school at which a shooting took place in 2018 and 2019.
• Research indicates a higher rate of antidepressant use among those exposed to a school shooting in the years following the gun violence.
• School shootings lead to drops in student enrollment and a decline in average test scores.
• School shootings also lead to an increase in student absenteeism and the likelihood of needing to repeat a grade in the two following years.
• Students exposed to shootings at their schools are less likely to graduate high school, go to college, and graduate college, and they are less likely to be employed and have lower earnings in their mid-20s.

s America reels from yet another school shooting — this one at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — much of the public discussion has centered on the lives lost: 19 children and 2 teachers. The Uvalde massacre is the second deadliest on record, following the 2012 shooting at […]