Journalists must be wondering what they can report about the mass shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, that will make viewers, readers and listeners pay attention. 

Network news anchors didn’t rush to Madison to talk with shocked parents, as they sometimes do after mass shootings. National newspapers played the story — which involved three deaths, including the shooter and six injuries — below stories about Donald Trump’s conviction in the hush money trial being upheld by a judge. It is as if high-profile coverage requires some number, some threshold of deaths.

And still, America is on track to set a new record for school shootings. The number has grown each year since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

CNN’s database shows there were at least 83 school shootings in the United States so far this year, as of Dec. 16, including 27 on college campuses and 56 on K-12 school grounds. CNN also reported that “recent years saw a stark increase in school shootings, with 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 all setting records since at least 2008.” The Washington Post reported that more than 31,000 K-12 students experienced a school shooting just in 2024.

(CNN)

The Gun Violence Archive reports that the shooting in Wisconsin is the 487th mass shooting in America this year. It defines mass shootings as instances that involve “a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.”

(Gun Violence Archive)

(Gun Violence Archive)

Statistics paint a mass shooter profile

Killers in mass shootings generally fit a predictable profile — one that does not match the profile of the shooter at the Wisconsin school.

Even though Madison police did not identify the suspected shooter by name or gender, multiple news outlets including CNN, The New York Times and local Madison TV reported that the Abundant Life Christian School shooter was a 15-year-old female student. Mass shooters are almost always male. 

Multiple federal government-funded studies conducted over the last two decades show that between 93% to 98% of mass shooters are men and 52% are white. Seven out of 10 mass shooters know at least some of their victims and, as in the Wisconsin shooting, most use handguns, even though shootings involving semi-automatic rifles seem to get more media attention. 

(K-12 School Shooting Database)

(K-12 School Shooting Database)

The largest percentage of school shooters are students at the school where the attack occurred, but one in four school shootings involves an attacker who has no known relation to the school.

(K-12 School Shooting Database)

The U.S. Secret Service studied the backgrounds of shooters in 180 incidents and found “nearly all experienced at least one significant stressor in their lives within five years of the attack. And for 77% of the attackers, the stressors occurred within one year.” The stressors included strained personal relationships, health issues involving family members and romantic relationships.

(U.S. Secret Service)

Journalists can help the public spot troubling behavior that leads to mass shootings. The Secret Service’s study found that half of attackers showed significant behavioral changes before the shooting. Two-thirds of these changes, the report said, were so concerning that they should have sparked an immediate response. Those behaviors include threatening, harassing and violent behaviors.

Focus on safe storage: School shooters usually take guns from home

Journalists who are looking for ways to cover gun violence can do more than repeat the “thoughts and prayers” of politicians and spend more ink and airtime exploring where the guns used in school shootings come from. The Sandy Hook Promise group calculated some statistics that provide a foundation for a useful gun safety story:

(Sandy Hook Promise)

(Sandy Hook Promise)

Everytown for Gun Safety compiled a collection of the best devices to safely store guns. Groups like Be SMART suggest a model for how responsible gun owners can talk with kids about gun safety and model safe gun ownership behavior. 

(BeSMARTforKids.org)

Are Christian schools being targeted?

As word of the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School spread, posters on social media opined that it seemed that church-related schools were being targeted more often. 

But of all of the shootings at schools this year, this is just the second one to occur at a church-related school. The other occurred on Dec. 4, when a 56-year-old opened fire at Feather River Adventist School in Oroville, California. 

Prior to that, you would have to go back to the March 2023 shooting at a Christian school in Nashville that killed three students and three adults.