The history of school shootings

2025-06-12 09:01:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

At least 10 people were killed in a school shooting in Graz, Austria. The gunman eventually killed himself. The tragedy has shocked not only Austria but also the wider world. It was the worst shooting incident in Austria in decades.

According to public broadcaster ORF, there have been four shooting incidents in Austrian schools since 1993. But so far, none have involved more than one victim - not counting the perpetrator. Similar incidents have occurred in other parts of Europe in recent decades - which has also led to changes in legislation.

Deadliest school shooting in Europe
When a gunman killed 16 children aged between five and six in the Scottish town of Dunblane in 1996, the British government quickly banned private gun ownership.

After mass shootings in the 2000s, Germany raised the age limit for gun ownership and introduced periodic checks to ensure gun owners were complying with gun laws.

In 2002, 19-year-old expelled student Robert Steinhauser opened fire at a school in Erfurt, killing 12 teachers, two students, a secretary and a policewoman before committing suicide.

Seven years later, in the southern German town of Winnenden, a 17-year-old gunman killed 15 students, teachers and bystanders in and around his school. He was killed in a shootout with police.

In Serbia, a 13-year-old boy killed eight classmates and a guard at the Vladislav Ribnikar Elementary School on May 3, 2023. The suspect was arrested shortly afterwards.

In December of the same year, a 24-year-old student killed 14 people at a university in Prague using a gun he legally owned. The gunman was killed at the scene, most likely by his own bullet. According to an AP report, the Czech Republic is in the process of tightening gun laws.

Far fewer school shootings than in the U.S.
Massacres at schools and educational institutions in Europe are still rare compared to the United States. Although there is no direct comparative data specifically for schools, research from the Rockefeller Institute for Public Administration shows that the United States has suffered significantly more from "public mass shootings" than countries with similar levels of economic development.

Such incidents, according to the New York-based institute, involve "at least some casualties," excluding cases of state violence or organized terrorism.

According to their data, there were 109 such incidents in the US between 2000 and 2022. There were six attacks in France, five in Germany, three in Finland and two each in the UK, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland during the same period.

"Research suggests that America's higher shooting rate is partly linked to less restrictive gun laws and a higher number of civilian-owned guns, compared with many other countries," criminologist Jason R. Silva wrote in a research blog for the institute last year.

In the EU, Brussels sets the basic regulations on gun ownership and use for all 27 member states. National governments can tighten them further.

Figures vary in Europe, but the number of civilian-owned guns is on average much lower than in the US. According to the Small Arms Survey, in 2017 there were about 120.5 firearms per 100 residents in the United States.

In England and Wales, the figure was 4.6, while in France and Germany it was 19.6. The estimate for Austria was 30 per 100 people owning a gun, while Serbia had the highest rate in Europe - at 39.1.

Deadly knife attacks
While shootings are relatively rare in Europe, knife attacks in schools are more common than in the US. France has seen a spate of knife attacks in schools in recent years, including the latest on Tuesday, May 10, 2025, in a city in the northeast of the country: a 14-year-old student stabbed to death a 31-year-old teacher who was checking school bags at the school entrance that day. The controls were introduced to prevent children from bringing knives to school.

In October 2023, a man who was being monitored for suspected Islamist radicalization stabbed a teacher to death and injured three others at a school he had previously attended, in the northern French city of Arras.

In a case that shocked France in 2020, an 18-year-old beheaded teacher Samuel Paty outside a school near Paris.

In the UK, a 17-year-old stabbed three girls, aged six to nine, at a dance class in Southport in July last year.

In Zagreb, on December 20 last year, a 19-year-old attacker fatally stabbed a seven-year-old and injured several others at the Pre?ko elementary school. In January this year, a student and a teacher were stabbed to death at a high school in Slovakia. In Germany, prosecutors have charged a 17-year-old with four attempted murders after a knife attack in February at a high school in the city of Wuppertal./ DW