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What to Know About the School Shooting in Uvalde, Texas

Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in a massacre at an elementary school. It was the deadliest school shooting in the United States in a decade.

By The New York Times

On May 24, an 18-year-old gunman wielding an AR-15-style rifle killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a small city west of San Antonio. It was the deadliest school shooting since 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.

Here’s what to know about the attack.

What happened?

Around 11:30 a.m. on May 24, a gunman was reported outside the school, shortly after he crashed a pickup truck in a nearby ditch. The gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, 18, had earlier shot his grandmother in the face at her nearby home.

After leaving the truck, Mr. Ramos entered the school, where he went into a pair of connected fourth-grade classrooms and started shooting.

The toll: 19 students and two teachers dead, and more than a dozen others wounded. ( Read more about the victims .)

Scores of officers from multiple agencies responded to the scene, but hesitated to confront the gunman, to the frustration of parents who had also gathered outside.

More than an hour after Mr. Ramos entered the building, Border Patrol officers stormed the classrooms and fatally shot him. (Read a minute-by-minute timeline of the attack .)

Why did it take the authorities so long to respond?

That question has become the focus of at least three investigations, including one by a special Texas House committee, which released its findings on July 17 .

The report, the first comprehensive assessment of the law enforcement response to the shooting, made a broad indictment of actions by the police.

It concluded that the order to confront the gunman could have been issued far earlier; that “some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait” for rescue; and that the school police chief, dozens of state police officers and scores of agents with the U.S. Border Patrol all exercised “egregious poor decision making.”

The decision to finally confront the gunman was made by a small group of officers, the report found.

A video from inside the school , showing how officers waited before confronting the gunman, was released on July 11 by The Austin American-Statesman and KVUE.

On Aug. 24, the school board in Uvalde fired its school police chief, Pete Arredondo , who directed the district’s response to the shooting. The unanimous vote, which Mr. Arredondo, through his lawyer, called “an unconstitutional public lynching,” was the first direct accountability over the widely derided police response.

Gun control is back in the spotlight.

The shooting in Uvalde came less than two weeks after a racist attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, where a gunman killed 10 Black people. The back-to-back mass shootings prompted a flurry of negotiations in Congress, where years of efforts to enact gun restrictions have fallen short amid Republican opposition.

A month to the day after the Uvalde shooting, Congress gave final approval to a bipartisan compromise intended to stop dangerous people from accessing firearms, a measure that President Biden signed on June 25 .

Listen to ‘The Daily’: Portraits of Grief From Uvalde

The lives touched by the killing of 21 people at an elementary school in a close-knit community..

From The New York Times, I’m Sabrina Tavernise. This is The Daily.

In the small and close-knit community of Uvalde, Texas, the killing of 21 people at an elementary school has left few lives untouched. Over the past few days, my colleagues Rick Rojas, Natalie Kitroeff, Eduardo Medina and I set out to tell some of those stories.

It’s Wednesday, June 1.

Hi. All right, cool. Would you mind just spelling your name for me to make sure I have that right?

And your last name?

Lopez, L-O-P-E-Z.

And how old are you?

10 years old.

And just to be sure, you’re her grandmother?

Yes, I’m her grandmother.

I have custody of her.

OK, OK — great, great. So I guess, first off, tell me about today. What have you been doing today?

Today, I didn’t just wake up. I woke up at 7 because she just got here at 7. And then we did a lot of stuff. We were playing around. We were playing hide and seek for a little bit. We went to our grandpa’s. And then we were playing around with Alexis, my little cousin.

OK. And so what grade are you in?

I’m in fourth grade.

OK, so you’ve just been playing and just trying to take it easy today?

Yeah, and then we got chicken. We ate it here. And then we were just playing around.

Nice. And so you were just talking about your classroom being close to there. I mean, would you mind? I know it’s difficult. But what do you remember from that — from that day? What kind of —

All I remember was just in the morning, we were just eating breakfast. Then we put on a movie. The movie was I think “The Jungle Cruise.”

Like, in the middle of it, we went to P.E. Then we played a little bit more of the movie. And then we went to the awards ceremony. And then when I came back, we finished the movie. And then we did, like, a little bit other work. And then we were just playing — we were just messing around, playing around, doing whatever we do. And then all of a sudden, like, unexpectedly, I heard gunshots.

But I thought they were, like, firecrackers, ‘cause kids on their free time, they could mess around and everything. After I heard that, I wasn’t thinking of it as much. And then I just checked the window. Then I saw police officers holding the gun.

And then I heard a gunshot again. And they shot the top of the wall. Then I went in between Jalisa (sp) and Stacy (sp) and went, like, close to my arm.

But I missed my arm. And then, like, I knew something was, like, so wrong. So everybody went under the — first they turned off the lights. And everybody went under the table. They were scared and everything. But I told them to be quiet. Then I heard a lot more of gunshots. Oh, I was crying a little bit. And my best friend Sophia (sp) was also crying right next to me.

I mean, how do you see her doing? I mean, how — I guess, you see your granddaughter go through something like this. I mean, how do you help her cope?

Well, what she was telling me that she went under the table. And I said, well, that’s good, mama. That’s good. She didn’t run or scream. She just went under the table. I mean, she cried a little bit. But I mean, she didn’t panic that much.

Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm. And it’s good that she turned off the light, you know.

Oh, so you turned off the light in classroom?

Yes, she turned off the light.

Wow. And what made you think to do that?

Because we always have all these drills about the lockdowns. And they always say to turn off the lights instantly and go hide. So I instantly just remembered that. So I instantly did it.

OK, so have there been just like, they told you to do this, or did you actually practice this before?

We practiced a lot of lockdown since, like, pre-K or kindergarten.

Your name is Jacob, yeah?

A-L-B-A-R-A-D-O. That’s your last name, right?

Yes, correct.

And are you in the Border Patrol?

And so were you on duty at the time, or were you —

No, I was off duty. I was in my slacks and dress shoes because I had just — I had just left because I was at an awards ceremony.

You were at an award ceremony for your daughter?

Yeah, that’s correct. That goes there at Robb. She’s in second grade at Robb.

And my wife teaches fourth grade at Robb.

How did you hear that this was going on?

As I was walking into the barbershop, they go, did you hear that? And I said, no. I said, what, what are you talking about? He said, man, I think I heard gunshots. And I said, nah, I didn’t hear anything.

I sit down and get my haircut.

And nothing — we didn’t get started at all. He received a text from his wife that Robb had a shooter. And then I received a text from my wife saying that there is an active shooter. So we just took off, hauling butt to the school as fast as we could.

You and the barber?

Did the barber have a kid in the school too?

Oh my gosh.

Thankfully, my barber had a shotgun. And I grabbed his shotgun. And I took off running towards the school.

You’re kidding me.

And he had that in his car or something? Like, did you run?

Yeah, he had it in his truck.

Do you remember what time this was around?

I checked my messages — I checked my messages, it was like 11:45, 11:47.

So what were you thinking when you went in? I mean, when you went in there, were just like, I’m going to save these kids? I mean, what was on your mind? What was going through your head?

Oh, seriously — seriously, I need to get my wife out. I need to get my daughter out. But of course, I’m getting everyone else out as well. My wife got out. I was in contact with her. But I was still looking for my daughter. So from that point on, I just said, where’s my daughter? Where is Jada? I ran towards the opposite wing to go get my daughter.

My daughter was past the playground. So I went after her. I mean, I knew where she was at — my wife kept on telling me that she was in the restroom because she was — my wife was in contact with my daughter’s teacher. I was looking for a restroom. I couldn’t find the restroom. But apparently, there’s restrooms inside the classrooms.

But were you personally looking or were the agents looking?

No, like I said, I ran over there. And I was looking for the restroom. I couldn’t find the restroom. And then I told him, I said, we need to get these kids out of here. I take charge of every situation. I’ve had 13 years in law enforcement.

I don’t know how many years these other guys have. But I take control of every situation.

OK, so you were leading this team basically.

This makeshift team that I made, yes.

And how did you make — you got to the scene and, what? Did you just see your colleagues and say, like, we’re doing this, or how did you get the team together that fast?

Yeah, I ran. I ran across. And I said, what’s going on? The kids are all in the room right now. I said, man — I said, get these kids out of here. I said, these kids — this is our opportunity. This is our time to get the kids out. So I started clearing the rooms.

And you had just a bunch of your — a bunch of officers were out there. And so you were able to just get together a team right there?

Yeah, it’s a small town. Half these guys know me. Half these guys don’t. They realized I was taking charge. And they just listened. I was on the sidewalk. I sent two officers to open up the rooms and send them my way.

And then I had another two officers pointing their guns towards where the active shooter was at. And then I had another two officers set up on the sidewalk so the kids can know where to go.

I cleared out her whole wing of classes, which is like five or six classes. And then I finally see my daughter. And then I start clearing out the other wing. And then I see my daughter’s best friend. I clear out all their — clearing them all out, sending them towards the parking lot so they can get off campus.

So who knows if the shooter is going to be moving around? Who knows? But at that point in time, the shooter wasn’t there so I was getting everybody, anyone I could, off of campus.

How many kids do you think you cleared out?

Five, six classes on one wing, which is about 20 something kids a class, and then another wing, which is another five or six classes — another 20-something kids a class.

So easily, I’d say, 200 kids.

Wow. Did you see your daughter come out? Were you able to give her a hug?

No, I saw her. I saw her. I spotted her. And it was a big relief that she was fine, yes. I think I might have given her a hug and just kept on moving the kids along.

I did what I was trained to do.

I don’t know if I’m in the right place. I was looking for Rubin.

Rubin, no, he’s not there right now. He’s next door.

He’s next door?

Yeah, yes, ma’am. He’s next door.

But he’s not there right now.

And with everything that happened to him, it’s just so crazy, so unbelievable. I work at the hospital, so.

Yes, I work at the hospital.

Oh my god, I just can’t get it out of my mind. I can’t sleep. Ever since that, I couldn’t sleep. I just can’t sleep. I just, I hear the screaming and everything. I just — everything is just crazy.

I never thought it was going to happen here. But it did. But it did, so. What’s your name again?

Yeah, what’s your name?

My name is Ricky.

Yes, ma’am.

Nice to meet you.

What do you do at the hospital, if you don’t mind my —

I’m a groundskeeper.

This is at —

I had my grandson — my two grandsons were going to school there. And I have a niece that was going. But they are OK. But they’re just shaken up. I guess they saw what they saw. And it’s just crazy.

[INAUDIBLE]

But yeah [INAUDIBLE], sometimes I just can’t sleep. I can hear the screaming, the yelling, and what I saw in the kids when they’re bringing them in. I could see the kids when the door would open to the emergency room. You can see the kids when they’re coming in. And it’s just unbelievable.

When you were hearing the screaming, who was screaming?

The parents when they were getting to know the bad news. They [INAUDIBLE], no [EXPLETIVE] no!

Hitting the walls, I can hear that. I can hear that — the fear, the sadness, everything — the anger they were feeling. My body — I mean, I have goosebumps. I had goosebumps. Man, I’m lucky. Thank you god, but you know, what about the other kids?

I mean, how many parents did you see like?

Oh man, the whole hospital was full. Whole hospital full — the whole hospital was full. Everybody is going and sitting down, just shocked. And I mean, there’s something that — it’s just something I just can’t get out of my mind. And the nights — sometimes I can’t sleep.

I can hear the echoes of the screaming and the pain they were in, stuff like that. And I think I’m going to go to counseling here tomorrow at the [INAUDIBLE] because I just — this was [INAUDIBLE]. Ever since I saw that, I mean, I thought I would never see something like that. You see it in the movies and hear it [INAUDIBLE].

When you can’t sleep at night, are you hearing a specific thing that they’re saying?

Yeah, just yelling, no, no! That’s the only thing I can. That’s the only thing I can hear, the parents. No, no! [EXPLETIVE] no, boom, boom! [EXPLETIVE] no, boom, boom! No, no — it’s just, man.

You’re going to go do some counseling right?

Yes, yes, I got to, miss. It’s just — shaking my hands. I mean, I just feel — I don’t know. I feel weird. I wish I could have done something but I can’t. I just — so unreal.

Do you think anything is going to change because of all this?

I’m hoping so, Natalie. I’m hoping so. Something’s got to change. I mean, come on. There’s just too much of it.

I’m so sorry for what you had to go through.

It’s OK. Thank you.

I’m going to send you a note, OK? I’m going to send you a text.

I’m going to also [INAUDIBLE].

Thank you [INAUDIBLE].

All right, Ricardo, right?

We’ll be right back.

So I’m Dr. Ronald Stewart. I’m a trauma surgeon at University Hospital in San Antonio. And I’ve been here for, I guess, more or less 40 years.

And I’ve been faculty since 1993.

So you’ve seen a lot of trauma surgery over the years.

I have. I’ve treated lots of patients with firearm injuries and gunshot wounds over the years. And then we had the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church mass shooting.

That was the shooting in 2017, if I’m not mistaken, right?

Where 26 people were killed.

On that note, Dr. Stewart, I wanted to turn to Tuesday and the shooting in Uvalde.

So bring me back to the beginning of that day. How did it begin for you? What was the morning like?

So I had a 7 a.m. meeting. Then I had another meeting with our chief medical officer, just normal daily activities. And then sometime at around, I guess, probably around 11:30 or noon, I got notification that there was first responders responding to a shooting with an elementary school.

What was the first thing that came to your mind?

The first thing — the first thing honestly, I think, would be sadness, emotion of sadness — the first emotion.

And a wish to hope that it’s not accurate, that the report’s not right.

But then really just probably a few seconds later, it’s like, OK, so our job is to prepare at that time for whatever comes our way.

And what’s the first thing you see once people start to arrive?

We received three children and one adult. And you have children who were elementary-age children who, they’re small. And critically ill patients are intubated. And these wounds are — the wounds that we saw were typical of high-energy wounds from high-velocity firearms.

Typical 12 muzzle velocity of say, 800 to 1,200 feet per second — a handgun muzzle velocity, you have an entrance wound. And you may or may not have an exit wound. And you have two holes. And that’s what you have with these sorts of wounds. You have big defects in tissue. It’s destroyed. It’s open. That’s what we were seeing.

And Dr. Stewart, what will you most remember from that day?

To me, people working together to help another person, a child, when they need it the most is the most beautiful thing. I’m a photographer. And I consciously look for beauty in the world.

But the most beautiful thing that I see is people working together to help somebody when they need it the most. It’s like watching a symphony that all the parts are different but all working together towards a common goal. That, I will remember. That’s the beauty. That’s the beauty.

Probably the thing I remember the most negative is a conversation with a child who’s describing the events — the events of the scene, the horror of the events, the actuality.

We weren’t asking what happened. They just started talking about what happened. That to me is the most — the thing I will remember.

And you know, I feel kind of bad and guilty in that maybe I feel like I’m focused on how I feel a little bit. But — because obviously, the impact to the patient and families is nothing compared to anything that I go through or we go through. It’s nothing. It pales in comparison, you know? But.

I’d love to make sure I have the spelling of your names correct, if that’s OK?

Kimberly Rubio, right?

I got K-I-M-B-E-R-L-Y?

And then Rubio, R-U-B-I-O?

Sir, would you be comfortable if I include your name in there?

That’s fine.

Perfect. How do I spell it?

Felix, F-E-L-I-X. And then Rubio.

Would you be comfortable if I include your daughter’s age in the story as well?

10, perfect.

They need to know how old she was.

I don’t know where you’d want to start. But something we’ve been asking today is if parents were there at the school when the officers were there, and if, so what you saw and what you made of the response there from the law enforcement?

We were there for — first of all, we had two kids on campus. My son is in second grade. And my daughter was in fourth grade. We went to his award ceremony at 8. And we left. And we went back — her’s was at 10:30.

She got two awards, a good citizen award and the honor roll. We took pictures with her. And then my mother-in-law said that we would get her ice cream after school.

She loves ice cream.

She loves ice cream. She always wants ice cream.

It sounds to me like she was a brilliant girl. Can you tell me more about that? Was she always very studious?

Always. My husband has said it before. She is the student every teacher wants because she does everything that’s asked of her. You never have to tell her to do her homework.

She does everything. She’s very competitive. They have a program for math to help them. And they get points. And she was just back and forth with this one student one year because —

She wanted to be first.

Yes, she wanted to be first.

She’s shy, really quiet. We talked about this, though. When she had a point that she wanted across, she made it. She would speak up.

And sorry, I should have had this be my first question. But it’s just come to mind now. How do I spell your daughter’s name?

A-N-D-R-I-A. And then Lexi, her nickname, L-E-X-I.

That’s Alexandria Aniyah Rubio.

A powerful name, that is.

When we talk about it, I always think about what it sounds like when they call them at graduation.

[CRYING] We waited a long time and couldn’t come up with a name forever.

Very last minute.

Very last minute, they told us, hey, if you want to leave tomorrow, we need you to fill this out now.

[INAUDIBLE], it was perfect.

It’s a beautiful name.

I would love to know from you, if there are particular messages you want to make sure people understand from someone who’s at the core of this terrible tragedy.

We live in this really small town in this red state. And everyone keeps telling us that it’s not the time to be political. But it is. It is.

And I don’t want this to happen to anybody else.

You know, when I got home, my mom told me that the governor was here and that he wanted to come and meet with the families. And my first thought was, my Lexi doesn’t even like him. She was really little. But we talked about this stuff at home.

And we talked about women’s rights. And she was a budding feminist, you know? Like, she was —

[CRYING] And it’s not right.

It’s my baby, and I don’t want anybody else to go through this.

And this is her husband, Lexi’s dad.

And like my wife said, we just want to get the point across. We hear it all the time. Someone needs to come up with a solution. This is painful. It really is. Our baby was taken. And she’s taken.

They don’t care about Lexi. They don’t care about my baby. I don’t even understand why anybody needs these kind of weapons.

I suppose we —

Is it really worth my baby? Is it really worth all of these babies?

On Tuesday, funerals for the children killed at Robb Elementary began in Uvalde. Many of them will be buried in specially-designed caskets decorated with their favorite sports and cartoon characters.

Here’s what else you need to know today. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court blocked a Texas law that would ban large social media companies from removing posts based on the views contained in them. The case is moving through the lower courts. And the 5-to-4 vote suspends the Texas law while it is being litigated. Supporters of the law say it was an attempt to combat what they called Silicon Valley’s censorship of conservative views.

The law was prompted in part by the decisions of some platforms to bar former President Donald Trump after the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The case may well eventually end up at the Supreme Court. Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent that the issues raised in it were so novel and significant that the court would have to consider them at some point.

Today’s episode was produced by Diana Nguyen, Asthaa Chaturvedi and Clare Toeniskoetter, with help from Will Reid and Eric Krupke. It was edited by Michael Benoist with help from Lisa Chow, contains original music by Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Corey Schreppel.

Special thanks to Jack Healy, Frances Robles, Josh Peck, Edgar Sandoval, Jazmine Ulloa, and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for The Daily. I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

Gun Violence in America

The Pandemic’s Effect: The footprint of gun violence  in the United States expanded during the pandemic , as shootings worsened in already suffering neighborhoods and killings spread to new places.

Uvalde Families: The families of schoolchildren who were shot in 2022 filed lawsuits  accusing Instagram, the publisher of the video game “Call of Duty” and a manufacturer of semiautomatic rifles of helping to train and equip the teenage gunman who committed the massacre.

A Deadly Encounter: Bryan Malinowski, the executive director of an Arkansas airport, sold firearms at gun shows. Federal agents believed he was breaking the law. Here's how the raid on his home unfolded .

A Ravaged City : Columbus, Ohio, had only about 100 homicides a year — then came a pandemic surge. With more guns and looser laws, can the city find its way back to the old normal ?

Guns in Schools: Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill to allow teachers  and other school staff members to carry concealed handguns on school campuses.

The Emotional Toll: We asked Times readers how the threat of gun violence has affected the way they lead their lives. Here’s what they told us .

Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press

Claudia Lauer, Associated Press Claudia Lauer, Associated Press

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/read-the-justice-departments-full-report-on-the-uvalde-school-shooting-police-response

Read the Justice Department’s full report on the Uvalde school shooting police response

A Justice Department report released Thursday details a myriad of failures by police who responded to the shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, when children waited desperately for over an hour before officers stormed a classroom to take the gunman down.

WATCH: Uvalde struggles with trauma, unanswered questions a year after school shooting

The federal review, which was launched just days after the May 2022 shooting, provides a damning look at the missteps by police after a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School. It was not a criminal investigation but one of the most exhaustive reviews of law enforcement’s failure to stop the attack. Nineteen students and two teachers died in the shooting.

“The victims and survivors of the shooting at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022, deserved better,” Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters in Uvalde.

Local officials are still weighing whether to bring charges.

Click on the image below to read the full report in English.

Haga clic en la imagen de abajo para leer el informe completo en español.

Here are some of the major takeaways from the report:

The most significant failure

The Justice Department concluded that the chief failure was that law enforcement didn’t treat the crisis as an active shooter situation and push forward to engage the gunman until the threat was eliminated. Several of the officers who first arrived at the school did in fact move quickly toward the classrooms where students were trapped inside with the gunman, but retreated after he fired at them.

Law enforcement then treated the situation as if the gunman was barricaded, dead or otherwise contained, focusing on calling for more SWAT equipment and evacuating surrounding classrooms instead of immediately engaging the shooter and saving lives.

Some officers believed they had to wait for equipment such as shields or a specialized tactical team before they could enter, the report said.

READ MORE: Principal who was critically injured protecting students during Iowa school shooting has died

“As more law enforcement resources arrived, first responders on the scene, including those with specific leadership responsibilities, did not coordinate immediate entry into the classrooms, running counter to generally accepted practices for active shooter response to immediately engage the subject to further save lives,” the report said.

The report includes excerpts from a 911 call from terrified 9- and 10-year-old children trapped with the shooter while law enforcement waited in the hallway just outside the classrooms. “I don’t want to die. My teacher is dead,” one of them said. At that point, the students and their teachers had been trapped in classrooms with the shooter for 37 minutes. The call lasted for nearly 27 minutes, the report says. It would be another 13 minutes after the call ended before survivors were rescued.

There were numerous signs that should have prompted police leaders to send officers in sooner, the report states, including the victims’ injuries and the gunman firing about 45 rounds “in law enforcement officer presence.”

“For 77 agonizing, harrowing minutes, children and staff were trapped with an active shooter,” the report said, “They experienced unimaginable horror. The survivors witnessed unspeakable violence and the death of classmates and teachers.”

The recommendations

The report includes a slew of recommendations designed to prevent similar failures in the future. Chief among them is that officers responding to such a crisis must prioritize neutralizing the shooter and aiding victims in harm’s way.

The report says “an active shooter with access to victims should never be considered and treated as a barricaded subject.” Evacuations should be limited to those who are immediately in danger and “not at the expense of the priority to eliminate the threat,” the Justice Department said. And officers must be prepared to engage the shooter “using just the tools they have with them,” even if they are armed only with a standard issue firearm, it said.

Other recommendations address coordination between agencies responding to shootings, the release of information to the public, and providing proper support and trauma services to survivors.

What are the victims’ families saying?

The Justice Department also outlined failures in communication to families during and after the shooting, including instances of incomplete, inaccurate or disjointed releases of information that led to lingering distrust in the community.

The report cites the county district attorney telling family members that authorities had to wait for autopsy reports before death notifications could be made. Family members who had not been told that children had died, yelled back: “What, our kids are dead? No, no!”

Family members, many of whom had been briefed on the federal report before its release, had mixed reactions to the findings and the report itself. Some told news outlets they were grateful that the federal investigation supported their criticisms of the response.

READ MORE: Students rally at the Iowa Capitol days after Perry school shooting

Many families had hoped the report would come with a recommendation for federal charges against some of those criticized most heavily in the failures.

Velma Lisa Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of the teachers killed, told The Associated Press Thursday that she was grateful for the federal agency’s work but disappointed that local prosecutors have yet to bring any charges.

“A report doesn’t matter when there are no consequences for actions that are so vile and murderous and evil,” said Duran. “What do you want us to do with another report? … Bring it to court,” she said.

Richer reported from Boston and Lauer reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press reporters Lindsay Whitehurst and Eric Tucker in Washington, D.C.; Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; and Acacia Coronado in Uvalde, Texas, contributed to this report.

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Seeing America, Again, in the Uvalde Elementary-School Shooting

By Jessica Winter

On Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a report titled “ Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2021 ,” which logged sixty-one mass shootings last year. The deadliest of these was at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, where ten people were killed, a death toll that was matched ten days ago, at a supermarket in Buffalo , New York, and then exceeded, at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas, where an eighteen-year-old shot and killed nineteen children and two adults. Early reports indicate that he used a handgun and a rifle . Families who gathered at the local civic center, which was used as a reunification site, were asked for DNA swabs to assist investigators in identifying their loved ones. The shooting began around eleven-thirty in the morning; as darkness fell, many families were still waiting outside the civic center, without word of their children.

This is the second-deadliest K-12 school shooting in U.S. history, after the December, 2012, massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School , in Newtown, Connecticut, where twenty children and six educators were killed . Eventually, Sandy Hook also came to be seen as the graveyard of the gun-control movement : in 2013, a new assault-weapons ban, and also a bill to require universal background checks for firearm sales, failed in the Senate. If an entire classroom of dead first-graders could not spur even remedial action in Congress on gun control, nothing would. And nothing has.

A few months after Sandy Hook, the agitprop-documentary-maker Michael Moore , writing in HuffPost , imagined a scenario in which the parents of the victims leaked photographs of the classroom crime scenes to the press. If that were to happen, Moore argued, the horrifying images would have the same galvanizing effect on activist movements and public opinion as those of Emmett Till , in 1955, or Phan Thi Kim Phúc, in 1972. “There will be nothing left to argue over,” Moore wrote. “It will just be over. And every sane American will demand action.” (Just like that!) Sandy Hook parents swiftly shut Moore down, but there was a kernel of sense in his proposal—he was grasping for some method of defibrillation for a movement in arrest. Published images that represent school shootings are always heartrending and always the same: the surviving children filing out, some in tears, others in shock and excitement; the desperate parents; the sorrowful reunions. One of the many unforgivable obscenities of America’s gun obsession is how it can render the image of an anguished child and her caregiver, captured in real time as they absorb a life-altering trauma, as commonplace, interchangeable, even banal. Wait, which one is this again?

On Tuesday night, the poet Jana Prikryl shared the “Alas, poor country” passage from “Macbeth,” in which Ross laments that Scotland has become not a place to live but merely a place to die: “Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot / Be call’d our mother, but our grave . . . where violent sorrow seems / A modern ecstasy.” A modern ecstasy—and a habit, or a ritual, with its attendant ceremonies and scripts and rites. These always include cut-and-paste expressions of sympathy and concern from various bridesmaids of the National Rifle Association . Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader—who once said, following a school shooting in his home state of Kentucky, “I don’t think at the federal level there’s much that we can do other than appropriate funds” for school safety officers and counselling— tweeted that he was “horrified and heartbroken” by the tragedy at Robb Elementary School. Ted Cruz, the junior senator for Texas—who once ran a campaign ad that boasted, “After Sandy Hook, Ted Cruz stopped Obama’s push for new gun-control laws”— tweeted that he and his wife were “fervently lifting up in prayer the children and families in the horrific shooting.” Governor Greg Abbott—who last year signed seven pieces of gun-rights legislation into law, including one that permitted Texans to carry handguns without a license and another exempting the state from future federal gun restrictions— said that he and his wife “mourn this horrific loss and we urge all Texans to come together to show our unwavering support to all who are suffering.”

Politicians like these are routinely criticized for their hypocrisy and empty gestures—their “thoughts and prayers.” But, if only for the sake of rhetorical hygiene, we should go a step further. Republicans, as we know, get what they want. It is their best feature. They have vacuumed up the state legislatures, gerrymandered much of the country, stacked the Supreme Court and the federal judgeships , turned back the clock on L.G.B.T.Q. rights , paralyzed entire school districts with engineered panics over critical race theory and “grooming,” ended (or so it seems) reproductive rights as a constitutionally guaranteed freedom, and blocked all attempts at gun-control legislation. If the leaders of this political movement, which in Texas managed to ban most abortions and criminalize health care for trans kids in the space of a school year, took real offense to murdered children, they would never simply accept their deaths as the unfortunate cost of honoring the Founding Fathers’ right to take up muskets against hypothetical government tyranny. They would act. If America were not afraid to know itself, we could more readily accept that gun-rights advocates are enthralled with violent sorrow. This is the America they envisaged. It is what they worked so hard for. Their thoughts and prayers have been answered.

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By Susan B. Glasser

The Uvalde School Shooting: 4 Key Takeaways for Educators From the First Inquiry

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A preliminary investigation into the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that killed 21 people focused largely on a faulty law enforcement response to the May 24 attack, but also found problems with school security procedures that may be very familiar to educators around the country.

Among those issues: Teachers frequently struggled to lock doors in the aging Robb Elementary School building including on the day of the attack, and communications for both educators and law enforcement were difficult because of patchy cellphone and Wi-Fi coverage, according to a report released by a special committee of the Texas legislature Sunday.

In addition, building lockdown alerts had become so frequent that some staff may not have realized there was an imminent threat when they were told to keep students in classrooms during the attack, the committee found.

The alleged gunman, a teenager and former student at Robb Elementary School, had dropped out of school after struggling with attendance and poor grades. He had a stutter for which he received no special education services, the report said, and he had no criminal record or significant disciplinary history.

The findings come after weeks of shifting narratives about what happened that day, marked with periodic revelations of significant failures by on-site law enforcement.

Here are some notable findings and context for educators.

A failed police response, despite advanced planning with the school district

Although 376 law enforcement officers responded to the scene—some carrying ballistic shields and other tactical gear—it took 76 minutes for them to breach the adjoining classrooms where the gunman killed 19 students and two teachers, the committee found.

Although school safety best practices dating back to the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School call for responding to the shooter as quickly as possible, early officers on the scene believed they were in a standoff with a barricaded intruder rather than an ongoing active-shooter situation, the report found. That assumption cost them crucial minutes as they assembled in hallways outside of the classrooms rather than forcing their way in.

Uvalde was “one of the few Texas school districts recognized by the School Safety Center as having submitted a viable active shooter policy” in compliance with a state law passed after the 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas, the committee found.

That plan, created in consultation with law enforcement, said the school district’s police chief should serve as incident commander in the event of an attack.

But the chief told the committee he didn’t “label” himself as commander that day. Officers on-site didn’t know who was directing the response, and none took control, the report said.

In addition, the school district’s police chief did not have radios with him, and officers were slow to learn of 911 calls coming from inside the classrooms.

Context for schools around the country: States’ school safety laws increasingly direct school and district leaders to coordinate with local law enforcement and, in some cases, to hold on-site training with police and teachers.

“At least 43 states and the District of Columbia require a school safety plan in statute or regulation,” according to a 2019 analysis by the Education Commission of the States. “At least 29 states and the District of Columbia require law enforcement agencies to be involved in the creation of a school safety plan.”

Even with such training and planning, shootings are fast-moving and unpredictable events that require rapid decision making, school safety experts say. And it can be difficult for education administrators not trained in public safety to ensure planning is adequate.

Frequent Uvalde school lockdowns may have led to less urgency

Frequent campus lockdowns related to community incidents may have “contributed to a diminished sense of vigilance about responding to security alerts” in Uvalde schools, the committee found.

The community, not far from the Mexico border, sat near two busy highways and frequently saw “bailouts,” a term for police pursuits of vehicles full of undocumented migrants, police told the committee. Those incidents had never caused a safety concern in a school, but they sparked lockdowns because they had sometimes led to high-speed chases through parking lots or streets near campuses, creating safety concerns.

Uvalde schools responded to alerts of “about 50" bailout incidents between February and May of 2022, the report said. The district’s Raptor Alert System, an app used to notify adults about building lockdowns and security protocols, “does not differentiate its signals between bailouts and other kinds of alerts, such as an active shooter situation,” the report said.

“The series of bailout-related alerts led teachers and administrators to respond to all alerts with less urgency—when they heard the sound of an alert, many assumed that it was another bailout,” the committee concluded.

Patchy cellphone service in the building also made it difficult for some teachers to receive alerts and to communicate during a crisis, a problem that was also identified after the Santa Fe shooting. And the alert the day of the Uvalde shooting was largely spread via vocal warnings between classrooms.

Context for schools around the country: School safety consultants like Amy Klinger and Amanda Klinger, co-founders of the Educator’s School Safety Network, have long warned that a “normalcy bias” among educators can affect responses to crisis situations.

Normalcy bias refers to the tendency of people to doubt that an unlikely worst-case scenario is actually happening, leading them to disbelieve or downplay warnings. Researchers have identified normalcy bias in responses to events like earthquakes, forest fires, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is not just a concern in Uvalde. A 2018 analysis by the Washington Post found more than 4 million children had endured a non-drill school lockdown in the previous year.

Safety training for educators should touch on normalcy bias, the Klingers have stressed, and clear communication is key in a crisis so that teachers and staff understand the severity of the situation.

Aging buildings, faulty locks, inconsistent protocols

Robb Elementary School had known problems with locks on both interior and exterior doors, several of which were unlocked on the day of the attack, the report said.

The aging building had a dated hardware system that required teachers to lock their doors from the outside using a key. Teachers often propped the doors open or instructed substitute teachers to do so if they did not have keys for the locks, which were limited and no longer in production.

Room 111, where the attack took place, was known for having a faulty hallway door that could not be easily locked, staff members told the committee. And, while teachers had reported that concern to administrators, a work order had not been filed to have it repaired.

“If the door to Room 111 had been locked, the attacker likely would havebeen slowed for some time as he either circumvented the lock or took some other alternative course of action,” the report said.

Context for schools around the country: Some Texas leaders quickly responded to the shooting by calling for more limited access to school buildings.

But Texas already stressed such precautions after the Santa Fe shooting. Nationwide, the most recent federal data show 97 percent of schools already limit access to their buildings during school hours. But such plans are less effective if people prop open school doors , as was the case in Uvalde and at a 2013 Colorado school shooting.

And Uvalde is not alone in having aging school buildings and hardware .

Federal data show that the average U.S. school building was constructed in the 1960s , before architects focused on modern active shooter concerns in their designs. In 2020, the Government Accountability Office found that more than half of school districts nationwide reported the need to replace multiple building systems. And capital spending for schools still falls below pre-recession levels.

Potential warning signs went unreported

The alleged gunman was a former student who dropped out of school at 17, police said. He purchased the guns he used shortly after his 18th birthday the same month as the shootings.

The suspect had no significant history of school discipline or contact with law enforcement, the report said. Some committee interviews and a review of his phone messages suggested he may have struggled with bullying. He had an unstable home life, and he had an apparent stutter for which he did not receive special education services.

There were some warning signs that occurred outside of school: Family members repeatedly refused to buy guns for the suspect when he was underage, and some of the suspect’s online contacts said he referenced plans to do something big and talked frequently about firearms, violent threats, and school shootings. The suspect had shared his thoughts of suicide with a cousin, who believed he did not have a serious intention to act. None of these warning signs were shared with law enforcement.

Context for schools around the country: The U.S. Secret Service has concluded that school shooters often “leak” their intentions beforehand, sharing plans to harm themselves or others with a few friends or family members.

States and school districts around the country have responded to that research by setting up anonymous reporting systems and social media monitoring to detect threats. But an overly punitive approach can stop students from coming forward to share concerns , school safety experts have said. And even trained law enforcement struggle to consistently identify valid threats.

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The Uvalde school shooting thrust them into the national spotlight. Where are they now?

Here are the stories of some of those involved in the uvalde school shooting’s aftermath, where they have been, and where they are now..

Two years ago Friday, a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in one of the deadliest school shootings in history .

The details wracked the community, the state and the nation. Authorities waited 77 minutes before entering the classroom and taking out the shooter. He kept killing children in the meantime.

In the moments, days, and years since, investigations, hearings, news reports and lawsuits introduced a stunned nation to a cast of Texans, from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Uvalde County District Attorney’s Office to local police, politicians and parents.

These are the stories of some of those involved in the shooting’s aftermath, where they have been, and where they are now.

Pete Arredondo

Pete Arredondo, former police chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, was fired by the school board three months after the shooting. Arredondo oversaw a police response that was widely scrutinized by both parents and officials, including the U.S. Department of Justice.

More than an hour passed from the time law enforcement entered the school and the time the gunman was killed, as Arredondo instructed his officers to evacuate after entering so he could negotiate with the gunman, according to the Justice Department report.

Arredondo was fired with a general discharge , or a discharge that is due to a disciplinary investigation or performance problem, according to Texas 2036, a nonpartisan policy organization. Arredondo appealed the decision and had his honorable discharge restored — only for a judge to rule his general discharge reinstated and close the case.

Since his firing, Arredondo has remained absent from the public eye and has not publicly announced another job, though records indicate he still owns a residence in Uvalde County. His name entered into headlines at the beginning of this year after the Justice Department report alleged Arredondo failed to take control of the scene. 

Col. Steve McCraw

More than 90 DPS officers responded to Robb Elementary on the day of the shooting, but a Justice Department report said law enforcement did not follow training by immediately taking down the shooter. DPS Director Col. Steve McCraw told CNN in September 2022 that if the department was found to be culpable for a lack of response, he would “be the first to resign” and would release all records related to the shooting.

He has done neither since the Justice Department’s report was released. This is despite a ruling in March in favor of releasing the records to news outlets, including the Austin American Statesman and the rest of the USA TODAY Network.

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell has said she requested the records be withheld to protect grand jury proceedings, a reason McCraw cited when defending his refusal. The grand jury investigation is still underway, and McCraw testified before the jury in late February. Litigation for the records is ongoing, and an additional hearing will be held in September.

Christina Mitchell

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell convened a grand jury at the beginning of this year to investigate the police response to the shooting and to recommend possible criminal charges against law enforcement officers.

Mitchell has drawn criticism from former Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who called for her resignation and accused her of covering up records related to the shooting requested by the city. McLaughlin’s made the remarks before news outlets filed suit.

Mitchell remains district attorney and is running for reelection unopposed this November.

Don McLaughlin

Don McLaughlin served as mayor from 2014 to 2023 before resigning to run in the ongoing race for the Texas House of Representatives. House District 80, which includes Uvalde, has been represented by State Rep. Tracy King (D-Uvalde) since 1994. King has not faced a general election opponent in several years, but his retirement has created a competitive race for the seat.

McLaughlin received national attention in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. During an appearance on "Good Morning America," he said gun violence is caused by mental health issues not guns. He also criticized nominees for governor, including former-US Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, at a press conference after the shooting.

But McLaughlin’s campaign for Texas House is not centered around the issue of guns. Instead, he has cited concerns that Uvalde and South Texas are “overlooked by politicians in Austin,” according to the campaign website. McLaughlin secured the GOP nomination for HD80 with 58% of the vote, and will face one of two Democrats who are in a primary runoff.

Kimberly Mata-Rubio

Kimberly Mata-Rubio was motivated to enter local politics in Uvalde following the loss of her 10-year-old daughter Lexi in the shooting. Mata-Rubio ran for mayor to succeed the retiring McLaughlin, but was defeated by former Mayor Cody Smith, 65 percent to 32 percent. She ran as an advocate for stricter gun laws, criticizing state and national leadership for failing to address the issue and pass meaningful legislation. Mata-Rubio had support from national Democrats, and fundraised through ActBlue, the Democratic National Committee’s fundraising platform.

After her loss in the mayoral race, Mata-Rubio congratulated Smith but said she will “never stop fighting” for Lexi, and that this race was only the beginning.

Just a few months into Smith’s term however, he abruptly resigned from his seat April 1 for undisclosed health reasons. Mayor Pro-Tem Everardo Zamora will serve as interim mayor until the November election — Uvalde’s third mayoral election in five years. The position of mayor has a four-year term. Mata-Rubio has not announced plans to run again.

Brett Cross

Brett Cross also took up advocacy following the death of his son Uziyah “Uzi” Garcia in the shooting. He has organized sit-ins in front of the Uvalde Police Department and previously at the Uvalde CISD Police Department before it was shut down.

In February, he posted a video to X of an automated call that lawmakers in Congress have received. The call uses artificial intelligence to recreate Uzi’s voice and asks, “what is it going to take for you to make sure violence like this stops happening?”

In February, Cross was arrested at a county commissioner meeting and charged with “disrupting a meeting” when he swore at the county judge.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, made the Uvalde shooting central to a campaign to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, sometimes surrounded at his rallies by Uvalde parents who lost their children in the shooting.

Gutierrez lost the Democratic primary to Rep. Colin Allred by 42 points but carried Uvalde County by 54 points. He has remained steadfast in his support for the Uvalde families and the fight for stricter gun laws. Gutierrez has shared posts to X recently telling the stories of each Uvalde victim in the days leading up to the anniversary of the shooting.

He has not announced any additional plans to run for public office but remains in the Texas Senate, where he spoke out last session against legislation that he said did not do enough to ensure the safety of students. The measures, House Bills 3 and 13, required every school campus to have an armed security officer and for every school to create active shooter safety plans.

Gutierrez still believes Texas should pass a ban on assault weapons, but previous attempts have failed in the state's GOP-controlled legislature.

2 years after Uvalde school shooting, families plan to gather to remember victims' lives

Two years ago today, 19 fourth-graders and two teachers were killed by a teenage gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

The tragedy is the worst school shooting in Texas history, and it sparked renewed conversations about school safety and gun restrictions. Families will gather at the  Uvalde Amphitheater Friday at 7:30 p.m. to remember the victims and celebrate their lives. The event is open to the public. 

TWO YEARS LATER: Remembering the 21 school shooting victims

Many relatives of the slain students and teachers have channeled their grief into political activism, traveling to Austin and Washington, D.C., to advocate for raising the age to purchase assault-style rifles. At least one parent, Kimberly Mata-Rubio, who lost her 10-year-old daughter Lexi, will speak at a Democratic news conference on Friday outside the GOP convention in San Antonio.

Though the families have not achieved the gun law reform they want, the shooting inspired the most significant action on federal firearm laws in decades and an unprecedented investment in school safety measures.

In the weeks after the shooting, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn led negotiations on the bill that would become the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which increased scrutiny for young gun buyers and introduced stiffer penalties for gun trafficking and “straw” purchasing.

The Legislature also set aside at least $1.4 billion last year to help schools make safety upgrades and invest in mental health services. A majority-GOP state House committee also advanced a bill that would raise the age to purchase assault-style weapons, though the legislation never passed the full chamber.

RELATED: How the Uvalde massacre changed Texas school safety and inspired gun reforms

Meanwhile, the families also have sought accountability for the nearly 400 police officers who responded to the school on May 24 but declined to confront the shooter for 77 minutes as students called 911 for help. The Department of Justice released a scathing report earlier this year detailing officers’ flawed response, but federal officials did not recommend any disciplinary or criminal action.

“Had law enforcement followed generally accepted practices in an active shooter situation and gone right after the shooter to stop him, lives would have been saved, and people would have survived,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in Uvalde earlier this year.

The city of Uvalde commissioned a separate investigation into its officers’ actions that day and released that report in March. The probe found none of the first five Uvalde police officers who responded to the school violated policy, which outraged victims’ family members and survivors.

READ MORE: City of Uvalde to pay $2 million to settle claims over Robb Elementary mass shooting

But there has been some movement. Nineteen families of victims killed or injured in the shooting announced earlier this week that the city would pay out a $2 million settlement. As part of the agreement, city officials agreed to new policies intended to strengthen the Uvalde Police Department and memorialize the victims, and they established May 24 as an annual Day of Remembrance.

The families are suing the Texas Department of Public Safety and 92 of its officers who responded to Robb. The federal lawsuit also targets the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and several of its employees at the time of the massacre.

Guillermo Contreras contributed reporting.

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An Examination of US School Mass Shootings, 2017–2022: Findings and Implications

Antonis katsiyannis.

1 Department of Education and Human Development, College of Education, Clemson University, 101 Gantt Circle, Room 407 C, Clemson, SC 29634 USA

Luke J. Rapa

2 Department of Education and Human Development, College of Education, Clemson University, 101 Gantt Circle, Room 409 F, Clemson, SC 29634 USA

Denise K. Whitford

3 Steven C. Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education, Purdue University, 100 N. University Street, BRNG 5154, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2098 USA

Samantha N. Scott

4 Department of Education and Human Development, College of Education, Clemson University, 101 Gantt Circle, Room G01A, Clemson, SC 29634 USA

Gun violence in the USA is a pressing social and public health issue. As rates of gun violence continue to rise, deaths resulting from such violence rise as well. School shootings, in particular, are at their highest recorded levels. In this study, we examined rates of intentional firearm deaths, mass shootings, and school mass shootings in the USA using data from the past 5 years, 2017–2022, to assess trends and reappraise prior examination of this issue.

Extant data regarding shooting deaths from 2017 through 2020 were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the web-based injury statistics query and reporting system (WISQARS), and, for school shootings in particular (2017–2022), from Everytown Research & Policy.

The number of intentional firearm deaths and the crude death rates increased from 2017 to 2020 in all age categories; crude death rates rose from 4.47 in 2017 to 5.88 in 2020. School shootings made a sharp decline in 2020—understandably so, given the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent government or locally mandated school shutdowns—but rose again sharply in 2021.

Conclusions

Recent data suggest continued upward trends in school shootings, school mass shootings, and related deaths over the past 5 years. Notably, gun violence disproportionately affects boys, especially Black boys, with much higher gun deaths per capita for this group than for any other group of youth. Implications for policy and practice are provided.

On May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old man killed 19 students and two teachers and wounded 17 individuals at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, using an AR-15-style rifle. Outside the school, he fired shots for about 5 min before entering the school through an unlocked side door and locked himself inside two adjoining classrooms killing 19 students and two teachers. He was in the school for over an hour (78 min) before being shot dead by the US Border Patrol Tactical Unit, though police officers were on the school premises (Sandoval, 2022 ).

The Robb Elementary School mass shooting, the second deadliest school mass shooting in American history, is the latest calamity in a long list of tragedies occurring on public school campuses in the USA. Regrettably, these tragedies are both a reflection and an outgrowth of the broader reality of gun violence in this country. In 2021, gun violence claimed 45,027 lives (including 20,937 suicides), with 313 children aged 0–11 killed and 750 injured, along with 1247 youth aged 12–17 killed and 3385 injured (Gun Violence Archive, 2022a ). Mass shootings in the USA have steadily increased in recent years, rising from 269 in 2013 to 611 in 2020. Mass shootings are typically defined as incidents in which four or more people are killed (Katsiyannis et al., 2018a ). However, the Gun Violence Archive considers mass shootings to be incidents in which four or more people are injured (Gun Violence Archive, 2022b ). Regardless of these distinctions in definition, in 2020, there were 19,384 gun murders, representing a 34% increase from the year before, a 49% increase over a 5-year period, and a 75% increase over a 10-year period (Pew Research Center, 2022 ). Regarding school-based shootings, to date in 2022, there have been at least 95 incidents of gunfire on school premises, resulting in 40 deaths and 76 injuries (Everytown Research & Policy, 2022b ). Over the past few decades, school shootings in the USA have become relatively commonplace: there were more in 2021 than in any year since 1999, with the median age of perpetrators being 16 (Washington Post, 2022 ; see also, Katsiyannis et al., 2018a ). Additionally, analysis of Everytown’s Gunfire on School Grounds dataset and related studies point to several key observations to be considered in addressing this challenge. For example, 58% of perpetrators had a connection to the school, 70% were White males, 73 to 80% obtained guns from home or relatives or friends, and 100% exhibited warning signs or showed behavior that was of cause for concern; also, in 77% of school shootings, at least one person knew about the shooter’s plan before the shooting events occurred (Everytown Research & Policy, 2021a ).

The USA has had 57 times as many school shootings as all other major industrialized nations combined (Rowhani-Rahbar & Moe, 2019 ). Guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the USA, with children ages 5–14 being 21 times and adolescents and young adults ages 15–24 being 23 times more likely to be killed with guns compared to other high-income countries. Furthermore, Black children and teens are 14 times and Latinx children and teens are three times more likely than White children to die by guns (Everytown Research & Policy, 2021b ). Children exposed to violence, crime, and abuse face a host of adverse challenges, including abuse of drugs and alcohol, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, school failure, and involvement in criminal activity (Cabral et al., 2021 ; Everytown Research and Policy, 2022b ; Finkelhor et al., 2013 ).

Yet, despite gun violence being considered a pressing social and public health issue, federal legislation passed in 1996 has resulted in restricting funding for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The law stated that no funding earmarked for injury prevention and control may be used to advocate or promote firearm control (Kellermann & Rivara, 2013 ). More recently, in June 2022, the US Supreme Court struck down legislation restricting gun possession and open carry rights (New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, 2021 ), broadening gun rights and increasing the risk of gun violence in public spaces. Nonetheless, according to Everytown Research & Policy ( 2022a ), states with strong gun laws experience fewer deaths per capita. In the aggregate, states with weaker gun laws (i.e., laws that are more permissive) experience 20.0 gun deaths per 100,000 residents versus 7.4 per 100,000 in states with stronger laws. The association between gun law strength and per capita death is stark (see Table ​ Table1 1 ).

Gun law strength and gun law deaths per 100,000 residents

Accounting for the top eight and the bottom eight states in gun law strength, gun law strength and gun deaths per 100,000 are correlated at r  =  − 0.85. Stronger gun laws are thus meaningfully linked with fewer deaths per capita. Data obtained from Everytown Research & Policy ( 2022a )

Notwithstanding the publicity involving gun shootings in schools, particularly mass shootings, violence in schools has been steadily declining. For example, in 2020, students aged 12–18 experienced 285,400 victimizations at school and 380,900 victimizations away from school; an annual decrease of 60% for school victimizations (from 2019 to 2020) (Irwin et al., 2022 ). Similarly, youth arrests in general in 2019 were at their lowest level since at least 1980; between 2010 and 2019, the number of juvenile arrests fell by 58%. Yet, arrests for murder increased by 10% (Puzzanchera, 2021 ).

In response to school violence in general, and school shootings in particular, schools have increasingly relied on increased security measures, school resource officers (SROs), and zero tolerance policies (including exclusionary and aversive measures) in their attempts to curb violence and enhance school safety. In 2019–2020, public schools reported controlled access (97%), the use of security cameras (91%), and badges or picture IDs (77%) to promote safety. In addition, high schools (84%), middle schools (81%), and elementary schools (55%) reported the presence of SROs (Irwin et al., 2022 ). Research, however, has indicated that the presence of SROs has not resulted in a reduction of school shooting severity, despite their increased prevalence. Rather, the type of firearm utilized in school shootings has been closely associated with the number of deaths and injuries (Lemieux, 2014 ; Livingston et al., 2019 ), suggesting implications for reconsideration of the kinds of firearms to which individuals have access.

Zero tolerance policies, though originally intended to curtail gun violence in schools, have expanded to cover a host of incidents (e.g., threats, bullying). Notwithstanding these intentions, these policies are generally ineffective in preventing school violence, including school shootings (American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force, 2008 ; Losinski et al., 2014 ), and have exacerbated the prevalence of youths’ interactions with law enforcement in schools. From the 2015–2016 to the 2017–2018 school years, there was a 5% increase in school-related arrests and a 12% increase in referrals to law enforcement (U.S. Department of Education, 2021 ); in 2017–18, about 230,000 students were referred to law enforcement and over 50,000 were arrested (The Center for Public Integrity, 2021 ). Law enforcement referrals have been a persistent concern aiding the school-to-prison pipeline, often involving non-criminal offenses and disproportionally affecting students from non-White backgrounds as well as students with disabilities (Chan et al., 2021 ; The Center for Public Integrity, 2021 ).

The consequences of these policies are thus far-reaching, with not only legal ramifications, but social-emotional and academic ones as well. For example, in 2017–2018, students missed 11,205,797 school days due to out-of-school suspensions during that school year (U.S. Department of Education, 2021 ), there were 96,492 corporal punishment incidents, and 101,990 students were physically restrained, mechanically restrained, or secluded (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights, 2020 ). Such exclusionary and punitive measures have long-lasting consequences for the involved students, including academic underachievement, dropout, delinquency, and post-traumatic stress (e.g., Cholewa et al., 2018 ). Moreover, these consequences disproportionally affect culturally and linguistically diverse students and students with disabilities (Skiba et al., 2014 ; U.S. General Accountability Office, 2018 ), often resulting in great societal costs (Rumberger & Losen, 2017 ).

In the USA, mass killings involving guns occur approximately every 2 weeks, while school shootings occur every 4 weeks (Towers et al., 2015 ). Given the apparent and continued rise in gun violence, mass shootings, and school mass shootings, we aimed in this paper to reexamine rates of intentional firearm deaths, mass shootings, and school mass shootings in the USA using data from the past 5 years, 2017–2022, reappraising our analyses given the time that had passed since our earlier examination of the issue (Katsiyannis et al., 2018a , b ).

As noted in Katsiyannis et al., ( 2018a , b ), gun violence, mass shootings, and school shootings have been a part of the American way of life for generations. Such shootings have grown exponentially in both frequency and mortality rate since the 1980s. Using the same criteria applied in our previous work (Katsiyannis et al., 2018a , b ), we evaluated the frequency of shootings, mass shootings, and school mass school shootings from January 2017 through mid-July 2022. Extant data regarding shooting deaths from 2017 through 2020 were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, utilizing the web-based injury statistics query and reporting system (WISQARS), and for school shootings from 2017 to 2022 from Everytown Research & Policy ( https://everytownresearch.org ), an independent non-profit organization that researches and communicates with policymakers and the public about gun violence in the USA. Intentional firearm death data were classified by age, as outlined in Katsiyannis et al., ( 2018a , b ), and the crude rate was calculated by dividing the number of deaths times 100,000, by the total population for each individual category.

The number of intentional firearm deaths and the crude death rates increased from 2017 to 2020 in all age categories. In absolute terms, the number of deaths rose from 14,496 in 2017 to 19,308 in 2020. In accord with this rise in the absolute number of deaths, crude death rates rose from 4.47 in 2017 to 5.88 in 2020. Table ​ Table2 2 provides the crude death rate in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, the most current years with data available. Figure  1 provides the raw number of deaths across the same time period.

Intentional firearm deaths across the USA (2017–2020)

Data obtained from WISQARS (2022)

Intentional firearm deaths across the USA (2017–2020). Note. Data obtained from WISQARS (2022)

As expected, in 2020, the number of fatal firearm injuries increased sharply from age 0–11 years, roughly elementary school age, to age 12–18 years, roughly middle school and high school age. Table ​ Table3 3 provides the crude death rates of children in 2020 who die from firearms. Males outnumbered females in every category of firearm deaths, including homicide, police violence, suicide, and accidental shootings, as well as for undetermined reasons for firearm discharge. Black males drastically surpassed all other children in the number of firearm deaths (2.91 per 100,000 0–11-year-olds; 57.10 per 100,000 12–18-year-olds). Also, notable is the high number of Black children 12–18 years killed by guns (32.37 per 100,000), followed by American Indian and Alaska Native children (18.87 per 100,000), in comparison to White children (12.40 per 100,000 children), Hispanic/Latinx children (8.16 per 100,000), and Asian and Pacific Islander children (2.95 per 100,000). A disproportionate number of gun deaths were also seen for Black girls relative to other girls (1.52 per 100,000 0–11-year-olds; 7.01 per 100,000 12–18-year-olds).

Fatal firearm injuries for children age 0–18 across the USA in 2020

  AN Alaska Native; – indicates 20 or fewer cases

Mass shootings and mass shooting deaths increased from 2017 to 2019, decreased in 2020, and then increased again in 2021. School shootings made a sharp decline in 2020—understandably so, given the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent government or locally mandated school shutdowns—but rose again sharply in 2021. Current rates reveal a continued increase, with numbers at the beginning of 2022 already exceeding those of 2017. School mass shooting counts were relatively low between 2017 through 2022, with four total during that time frame. Figure  2 provides raw numbers for mass shootings, school shootings, and school mass shootings from 2017 through 2022. Importantly, figures from the recent Uvalde, TX, school mass shooting at Robb Elementary School had not yet been recorded in the relevant databases at the time of this writing. With those deaths accounted for, 2022 is already the deadliest year for school mass shootings in the past 5 years.

Mass shootings, school shootings, and mass school shootings across the USA (2017–2022). Note. Data obtained from Everytown Research and Policy. Overlap present between all three categories

Gun violence in the USA, particularly mass shootings on the grounds of public schools, continues to be a pressing social and public health issue. Recent data suggest continued upward trends in school shootings, school mass shootings, and related deaths over the past 5 years—patterns that disturbingly mirror general gun violence and intentional shooting deaths in the USA across the same time period. The impacts on our nation’s youth are profound. Notably, gun violence disproportionately affects boys, especially Black boys, with much higher gun deaths per capita for this group than for any other group of youth. Likewise, Black girls are disproportionately affected compared to girls from other ethnic/racial groups. Moreover, while the COVID-19 pandemic and school shutdowns tempered gun violence in schools at least somewhat during the 2020 school year—including school shootings and school mass shootings—trend data show that gun violence rates are still continuing to rise. Indeed, gun violence deaths resulting from school shootings are at their highest recorded levels ever (Irwin et al., 2022 ).

Implications for Schools: Curbing School Violence

In recent years, the implementation of Multi-Tier Systems and Supports (MTSS), including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and Response to Intervention (RTI), has resulted in improved school climate and student engagement as well as improved academic and behavioral outcomes (Elrod et al., 2022 ; Santiago-Rosario et al., 2022 ; National Center for Learning Disabilities, n.d.). Such approaches have implications for reducing school violence as well. PBIS uses a tiered framework intended to improve student behavioral and academic outcomes; it creates positive learning environments through the implementation of evidence-based instructional and behavioral interventions, guided by data-based decision-making and allocation of students across three tiers. In Tier 1, schools provide universal supports to all students in a proactive manner; in Tier 2, supports are aimed to students who need additional academic, behavioral, or social-emotional intervention; and in Tier 3, supports are provided in an intensive and individualized manner (Lewis et al., 2010 ). The implementation of PBIS has resulted in an improved school climate, fewer office referrals, and reductions in out-of-school suspensions (Bradshaw et al., 2010 ; Elrod et al.,  2010 , 2022 ; Gage et al., 2018a , 2018b ; Horner et al., 2010 ; Noltemeyer et al., 2019 ). Likewise, RTI aims to improve instructional outcomes through high-quality instruction and universal screening for students to identify learning challenges and similarly allocates students across three tiers. In Tier 1, schools implement high-quality classroom instruction, screening, and group interventions; in Tier 2, schools implement targeted interventions; and in Tier 3, schools implement intensive interventions and comprehensive evaluation (National Center for Learning Disabilities, n.d ). RTI implementation has resulted in improved academic outcomes (e.g., reading, writing) (Arrimada et al., 2022 ; Balu et al., 2015 ; Siegel, 2020 ) and enhanced school climate and student behavior.

In order to support students’ well-being, enhance school climate, and support reductions in behavioral issues and school violence, schools should consider the implementation of MTSS, reducing reliance on exclusionary and aversive measures such as zero tolerance policies, seclusion and restraints, corporal punishment, or school-based law enforcement referrals and arrests (see Gage et al., in press ). Such approaches and policies are less effective than the use of MTSS, exacerbate inequities and enhance disproportionality (particularly for youth of color and students with disabilities), and have not been shown to reduce violence in schools.

Implications for Students: Ensuring Physical Safety and Supporting Mental Health

Students should not have to attend school and fear becoming victims of violence in general, no less gun violence in particular. Schools must ensure the physical safety of their students. Yet, as the substantial number of school shootings continues to rise in the USA, so too does concern about the adverse impacts of violence and gun violence on students’ mental health and well-being. Students are frequently exposed to unavoidable and frightening images and stories of school violence (Child Development Institute, n.d. ) and are subject to active shooter drills that may not actually be effective and, in some cases, may actually induce trauma (Jetelina, 2022 ; National Association of School Psychologists & National Association of School Resources Officers, 2021 ; Wang et al., 2020 ). In turn, students struggle to process and understand why these events happen and, more importantly, how they can be prevented (National Association of School Psychologists, 2015 ). School personnel should be prepared to support the mental health needs of students, both in light of the prevalence of school gun violence and in the aftermath of school mass shootings.

Research provides evidence that traumatic events, such as school mass shootings, can and do have mental health consequences for victims and members of affected communities, leading to an increase in post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression, and other psychological systems (Lowe & Galea, 2017 ). At the same time, high media attention to such events indirectly exposes and heightens feelings of fear, anxiety, and vulnerability in students—even if they did not attend the school where the shooting occurred (Schonfeld & Demaria, 2020 ). Students of all ages may experience adjustment difficulties and engage in avoidance behaviors (Schonfeld & Demaria, 2020 ). As a result, school personnel may underestimate a student’s distress after a shooting and overestimate their resilience. In addition, an adult’s difficulty adjusting in the wake of trauma may also threaten a student’s sense of well-being because they may believe their teachers cannot provide them with the protection they need to remain safe in school (Schonfeld & Demaria, 2020 ).

These traumatic events have resounding consequences for youth development and well-being. However, schools continue to struggle to meet the demands of student mental health needs as they lack adequate funding for resources, student support services, and staff to provide the level of support needed for many students (Katsiyannis et al., 2018a ). Despite these limiting factors, children and youth continue to look to adults for information and guidance on how to react to adverse events. An effective response can significantly decrease the likelihood of further trauma; therefore, all school personnel must be prepared to talk with students about their fears, to help them feel safe and establish a sense of normalcy and security in the wake of tragedy (National Association of School Psychologists, 2016 ). Research suggests a number of strategies can be utilized by educators, school leaders, counselors, and other mental health professionals to support the students and staff they serve.

Recommendations for Educators

The National Association of School Psychologists ( 2016 ) recommends the following practices for educators to follow in response to school mass shootings. Although a complex topic to address, the issue needs to be acknowledged. In particular, educators should designate time to talk with their students about the event, and should reassure students that they are safe while validating their fears, feelings, and concerns. Recognizing and stressing to students that all feelings are okay when a tragedy occurs is essential. It is important to note that some students do not wish to express their emotions verbally. Other developmentally appropriate outlets, such as drawing, writing, reading books, and imaginative play, can be utilized. Educators should also provide developmentally appropriate explanations of the issue and events throughout their conversations. At the elementary level, students need brief, simple answers that are balanced with reassurances that schools are safe and that adults are there to protect them. In the secondary grades, students may be more vocal in asking questions about whether they are truly safe and what protocols are in place to protect them at school. To address these questions, educators can provide information related to the efforts of school and community leaders to ensure school safety. Educators should also review safety procedures and help students to identify at least one adult in the building to whom they can go if they feel threatened or at risk. Limiting exposure to media and social media is also important, as developmentally inappropriate information can cause anxiety or confusion. Educators should also maintain a normal routine by keeping a regular school schedule.

Recommendations for School Leaders

Superintendents, principals, and other school administrative personnel are looked upon to provide leadership and comfort to staff, students, and parents during a tragedy. Reassurance can be provided by reiterating safety measures and student supports that are in place in their district and school (The National Association of School Psychologists, 2015 ). The NASP recommends the following practices for school leaders regarding addressing student mental health needs directly. First, school leaders should be a visible, welcoming presence by greeting students and visiting classrooms. School leaders should also communicate with the school community, including parents and students, about their efforts to maintain safe and caring schools through clear behavioral expectations, positive behavior interventions and supports, and crisis planning preparedness. This can include the development of press releases for broad dissemination within the school community. School leaders should also provide crisis training and professional development for staff, based upon assessments of needs and targeted toward identified knowledge or skill gaps. They should also ensure the implementation of violence prevention programs and curricula in school and review school safety policies and procedures to ensure that all safety issues are adequately covered in current school crisis plans and emergency response procedures.

Recommendations for Counselors and Mental Health Professionals

School counselors offer critical assistance to their buildings’ populations as they experience crises or respond to emergencies (American School Counselor Association, 2019 ; Brown, 2020 ). Two models that stand out in the literature utilized by counselors in the wake of violent events are the Preparation, Action, Recovery (PAR) model and the Prevent and prepare; Reaffirm; Evaluate; provide interventions and Respond (PREPaRE) model. PREPaRE is the only comprehensive, nationally available training curriculum created by educators for educators (The National Association of School Psychologists, n.d. ). Although beneficial, neither the PAR nor PREPaRE model directly addresses school counselors’ responses to school shootings when their school is directly affected (Brown, 2020 ). This led to the development of the School Counselor’s Response to School Shootings-Framework of Recommendations (SCRSS-FR) model, which includes six stages, each of which has corresponding components for school counselors who have lived through a school mass shooting. Each of these models provides the necessary training to school-employed mental health professionals on how to best fill the roles and responsibilities generated by their membership on school crisis response teams (The National Association of School Psychologists, n.d. ).

Other Implications: Federal and State Policy

Recent events at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, prompted the US Congress to pass landmark legislation intended to curb gun violence, enhancing background checks for prospective gun buyers who are under 21 years of age as well as allowing examination of juvenile records beginning at age 16, including health records related to prospective gun buyers’ mental health. Additionally, this legislation provides funding that will allow states to implement “red flag laws” and other intervention programs while also strengthening laws related to the purchase and trafficking of guns (Cochrane, 2022 ). Yet, additional legislation reducing or eliminating access to assault rifles and other guns with large capacity magazines, weapons that might easily be deemed “weapons of mass destruction,” is still needed (Interdisciplinary Group on Preventing School & Community Violence, 2022 ; see also Flannery et al., 2021 ). In 2019, the US Congress started to appropriate research funding to support research on gun violence, with $25 million in equal shares provided on an annual basis from both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health (Roubein, 2022 ; Wan, 2019 ). Additional research is, of course, still needed.

Despite legislative progress, and while advancements in gun legislation are meaningful and have the potential to aid in the reduction of gun violence in the USA, school shootings and school mass shootings are something schools and students will contend with in the months and years ahead. This reality has serious implications for schools and for students, points that need serious consideration. Therefore, it is imperative that gun violence is framed as a pressing national public health issue deserving attention, with drastic steps needed to curb access to assault rifles and guns with high-capacity magazines, based on extensive and targeted research. As noted, Congress, after many years of inaction, has started to appropriate funds to address this issue. However, the level of funding is still minimal in light of the pressing challenge that gun violence presents. Furthermore, the messaging of conservative media, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and republican legislators framing access to all and any weapons—including assault rifles—as a constitutional right under the second amendment bears scrutiny. Indeed, the second amendment denotes that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Security of the nation is arguably the intent of the amendment, an intent that is clearly violated as evidenced in the ever-increasing death toll associated with gun violence in the USA.

Whereas federal legislation would be preferable, the possibility of banning assault weapons is remote (in light of recent Congressional action). Similarly, state action has been severely curtailed in light of the US Supreme Court’s decision regarding New York state law. However, data on gun fatalities and injuries, the correspondence of gun violence to laws regulating access across the world and states, and failed security measures such as armed guards posted in schools (e.g., Robb Elementary School) must be consistently emphasized. Additionally, the widespread sense of immunity for gun manufacturers should be tested in the same manner that tobacco manufacturers and opioid pharmaceuticals have been. The success against such tobacco and opioid manufacturers, once unthinkable, is a powerful precedent to consider for how the threat of gun violence against public health might be addressed.

Author Contribution

AK conceived of and designed the study and led the writing of the manuscript. LJR collaborated on the study design, contributed to the writing of the study, and contributed to the editing of the final manuscript. DKW analyzed the data and wrote up the results. SNS contributed to the writing of the study.

Declarations

The authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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READ: The Uvalde report

Published July 17, 2022

A Texas House investigative committee released a preliminary report Sunday on the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre that left 21 people dead in May.

The report describes “shortcomings and failures of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and of various agencies and officers of law enforcement,” and “an overall lackadaisical approach” by authorities on the scene. Read the full report below.

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It's been 2 years since a gunman killed 19 students and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas

Kayla Padilla

Two years after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, many have lost interest in seeking accountability for the botched police response.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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Families of Uvalde school shooting victims are suing Texas state police over botched response

Austin, Texas — The families of 19 of the victims in the Uvalde elementary school shooting in Texas on Wednesday announced a $500 million federal lawsuit against nearly 100 state police officers who were part of the botched law enforcement response to one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

The families said they also agreed to a $2 million settlement with the city, under which city leaders promised higher standards and better training for local police.

The announcement in Uvalde came two days before the two-year anniversary of the massacre. Nineteen fourth-graders and two teachers were killed on May 24, 2022, when a teenage gunman burst into their classroom at Robb Elementary School and began shooting.

The lawsuit, seeking at least $500 million in damages, is the latest of several seeking accountability for the law enforcement response. More than 370 federal, state and local officers converged on the scene, but they waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the shooter.

It is the first lawsuit to be filed after  a 600-page Justice Department report  was released in January that catalogued “cascading failures” in training, communication, leadership and technology problems that day.

The lawsuit notes that state troopers did not follow their active shooter training or confront the shooter, even as the students and teachers inside were following their own lockdown protocols of turning off lights, locking doors and staying silent.

“The protocols trap teachers and students inside, leaving them fully reliant on law enforcement to respond quickly and effectively,” the families and their attorneys said in a statement.

Terrified students inside the classroom called 911 as agonized parents begged officers — some of whom could hear shots being fired while they stood in a hallway — to go in. A tactical team of officers eventually went into the classroom and killed the shooter.

“Law enforcement’s inaction that day was a complete and absolute betrayal of these families and the sons, daughters and mothers they lost,” said Erin Rogiers, one of the attorneys for the families. “TXDPS had the resources, training and firepower to respond appropriately, and they ignored all of it and failed on every level. These families have not only the right but also the responsibility to demand justice.”

A criminal investigation into the police response by Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell’s office is ongoing. A grand jury was summoned this year, and some law enforcement officials have already been called to testify.

The latest lawsuit against 92 Texas Department of Public Safety officials and troopers also names the Uvalde School District, former Robb Elementary Principal Mandy Gutierrez and former Uvalde schools police Chief Peter Arredondo as defendants. The state police response was second only to U.S. Border Patrol, which had nearly 150 agents respond.

The list of DPS officials named as defendants includes two troopers who were fired, another who left the agency and several more whom the agency said it investigated. The highest ranking DPS official among the defendants is South Texas Regional Director Victor Escalon.

The Texas DPS did not respond to efforts by The Associated Press seeking comment Wednesday.

The plaintiffs are the families of 17 children killed and two more who were wounded. A separate lawsuit filed by different plaintiffs in December 2022 against local and state police, the city, and other school and law enforcement, seeks at least $27 billion and class-action status for survivors. And at least two other lawsuits have been filed against Georgia-based gun manufacturer Daniel Defense, which made the AR-style rifle used by the gunman.

The families said the settlement with the city was capped at $2 million because they didn’t want to bankrupt the city where they still live. The settlement will be paid from the city’s insurance coverage.

“The last thing they want to do was inflict financial hardship on their friend and neighbors in this community. Their friends and neighbors didn’t let them down,” Josh Koskoff, one of the attorneys for the families, said during a news conference in Uvalde on Wednesday.

The city of Uvalde released a statement saying the settlement would bring “healing and restoration” to the community.

“We will forever be grateful to the victims’ families for working with us over the past year to cultivate an environment of community-wide healing that honors the lives and memories of those we tragically lost. May 24th is our community’s greatest tragedy,” the city said.

But Javier Cazares, the father of slain 9-year-old Jackie Cazares, noted that the announcement — which was made in the same Uvalde Civic Center where the families gathered to be told their children were dead or wounded — was sparsely attended.

“On the way over here, I saw the sticker, which I see everywhere, ‘Uvalde Strong.’ If that was the case, this room should be filled, and then some. Show your support. It's been an unbearable two years. ... No amount of money is worth the lives of our children. Justice and accountability has always been my main concern.”

Under the settlement, the city agreed to a new “fitness for duty” standard and enhanced training for Uvalde police officers. It also establishes May 24 as an annual day of remembrance, a permanent memorial in the city plaza, and support for mental health services for the families and the greater Uvalde area.

The police response to the mass shooting has been criticized and scrutinized by state and federal authorities. A 600-page  Justice Department report  in January catalogued “cascading failures” in training, communication, leadership and technology problems that day,

Another report commissioned by the city also noted rippling missteps by law enforcement but defended the actions of local police, which sparked anger from victims’ families.

“For two long years, we have languished in pain and without any accountability from the law enforcement agencies and officers who allowed our families to be destroyed that day,” Veronica Luevanos, whose daughter Jailah and nephew Jayce were killed, said Wednesday. “This settlement reflects a first good faith effort, particularly by the City of Uvalde, to begin rebuilding trust in the systems that failed to protect us.”