US school shootings hit another annual record high

The number of school shootings with casualties in the US has hit a new record in the 2021-22 school year and more than doubled from the previous school year, according to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Report informs referring to Axios.

The report defines a school shooting as an incident where "a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time of day, or day of week."

Casualties, per the report, include someone killed or wounded in a school shooting.

Shootings that occurred during the COVID pandemic "on school property during remote instruction" were within that definition, the report noted.

There were 188 school shootings with casualties reported in the 2021-22 school year at public and private elementary and secondary schools, per the annual report, which centers on crime and safety.

That's up from 93 school shootings with casualties reported in the 2020-21 school year at the same types of institutions.

According to the report, the most commonly known situations associated with such incidents included "escalation of dispute," "drive-by," "illegal activity," "accidental firing of a weapon" and "intentional property damage."