Correlates of the Number Shot and Killed in Active Shooter Events

• Published date: 01 November 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/1088767920976727
• Date: 01 November 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767920976727

Homicide Studies

2021, Vol. 25(4) 335 –360

© 2020 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/1088767920976727

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Article

Correlates of the Number

Shot and Killed in Active

Shooter Events

J. Pete Blair1, William L. Sandel2,

and M. Hunter Martaindale1

Abstract

Active shooter events have captured the public’s attention since the Columbine High

School shooting in 1999. Although there has been research on various aspects of

these events, only a single study has attempted to identify factors that are related

to the number of people injured or killed in these events. This study was limited in

that it only considered the presence or absence of a semi-automatic rifle. This paper

expands on the existing research by examining several other factors that may impact

the total number of people shot or killed during active shooter events.

Keywords

active shooter, mass murder, subtypes, school shootings, gun violence, rural, active

attacks, active threat

On February 23, 2010, at around 3:30pm, a man walked up to two students outside of

Deer Creek Middle School in Colorado and asked them if they attended the school.

When the two students responded that they did the man shot them both with a rifle. A

nearby math teacher named David Benke, witnessed the attack and decided to take

action. While the attacker attempted to reload his weapon, Mr. Benke tackled him.

Seeing this encounter, a bus driver, Steve Potter, and another man ran over to help Mr.

Benke. They kept the attacker on the ground until the authorities arrived. The two

students were injured, but no one was killed. (Blair & Schweit, 2014; Deer Creek

Middle School, 2010)

1Texas State University, San Marcos, USA

2Missouri State University, Springfield, USA

Corresponding Author:

J. Pete Blair, Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA.

Email: jb203@txstate.edu

976727HSXXXX10.1177/1088767920976727Homicide StudiesBlair et al.

research-article2020

336 Homicide Studies 25(4)

On March 29, 2009, at around 10:00am, a man walked into the Pinelake Health and

Rehabilitation Center located in Carthage, North Carolina. Looking for his estranged

wife the man began shooting at every individual he came across. By the time law

enforcement arrived, he had shot 10 people, killing eight. The man was eventually shot

and injured by a police officer, but not before he shot and wounded one of the respond-

ing officers (Blair & Schweit, 2014).

Active shooter events such as these have captured the public’s attention since the

Columbine High School shooting in 1999 (Addington, 2003; Larkin, 2009; Schildkraut

& Muschert, 2019). These events call to question why there are such dramatic differ-

ences in the number shot and killed. Although there has been much research on various

aspects of these events, to our knowledge, little attention has been given to identifying

factors related to the number of people shot or killed in active shooter events. The most

recent and related study was a research note that appeared in the Journal of the

American Medical Association which focused on the impact of the presence or absence

of a semiautomatic rifle on the number of people injured or killed. This paper will

expand on that study by examining several other factors that may impact the total

number of people shot or killed during active shooter events.

Literature Review

Defining Active Shooter Events

Active Shooter events are best defined in the 2014 report released by the Federal

Bureau of Investigation (FBI) titled: A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United

States between 2000 and 2013 (Blair & Schweit, 2014). In that report, the following

description of active shooter events is given: “an individual actively engaged in killing

or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area” (Blair & Schweit, 2014,

p. 5). Another way to look at this is that an active shooter is someone actively attempt-

ing to commit mass murder in a public space (Martaindale et al., 2017).

It is important to note that the above definition does not include a minimum number

of people shot or killed. The median number of people shot in these events is four and

of the four people shot, two die. Additionally, the definition excludes gang-related

violence and shootings that do not place others in peril (e.g., accidental discharges). In

total, 250 events were identified between 2000 and 2017 (hereafter we refer to these

events as the FBI data).

These data are not without limitations, and some commentaries have addressed the

issues (see e.g., Blair & Martaindale, 2015; Fox & Levin, 2015; Lott, 2015). One of

the primary strategies used to locate active shooter cases was a search of archival news

sources. Because these databases have continually improved, it is possible that older

cases were missed. It has been suggested that this means the increase in active shooter

events may be illusory (Fox & Levin, 2015). The use of archival news searches also

makes it more likely that events with fewer people injured or killed would have been

missed because these events tend to have less media coverage (Schildkraut & Muschert,

2014; Schildkraut et al., 2018).