Active Shooter in Schools Preparedness Checklist

Overview

While many people hold the belief that their school will never fall victim to an active shooter situation, the truth is, it can happen to anyone. To ensure the safety of students and faculty, everyone must familiarize themselves with warning signs of a potential attack and how to respond if an active shooter is at your school. Because active shooter in school incidents are often over within 10 to 15 minutes, before law enforcement arrives, you must be prepared both mentally and physically to deal with the situation.

Active Shooter Statistics

Since the FBI began releasing its report in 2000, the first seven years demonstrated an average of 6.4 active-shooter incidents, and that figure grew more than twofold to 16.4 the following seven years. The number lingered around 20 incidents every year since then, surging in the last two. Unfortunately, these statistics have been steadily climbing, and last year’s results remained consistent with this troubling trend. According to the FBI, over 600 active shooter incidents occurred in 2023.

655 incidents in 45 states.

2,443 casualties – including the shooters.

746 fatalities

80 mass shooting events took place at a school or university

Types of locations (2022 - 2023):

• Nearly every state in the U.S. experienced a mass shooting event (45).
• 46% of the incidents occurred in open spaces.
• 28% in commerce, including grocery stores, malls, and shopping centers
• 12% in education and residences.
• 4% in houses of worship and government.
• 2% in health care.

KEY POINTS

• Look for warning signs that might indicate an attack.
• Do not evacuate unless you are certain you won’t encounter the shooter.
• Keep calm and completely silent to give the sense that nobody is in the room.