Study says state has seen four non-school mass shootings so far in 2022
BY: JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY | Arizona Mirror
Data compiled by researchers show that Arizona has had 19 school shootings since the 1970s and four non-school mass shootings since the start of 2022.
Discussions around gun-control laws have been re-ignited after the shootings in Texas and New York, with Democratic leaders in Arizona and nationally pushing for gun control legislation.
The Arizona Mirror analyzed data compiled by the Center for Homeland Defense and Security Naval Postgraduate School of school shootings across the United States to better understand Arizona’s history of gun violence in schools.
The data document any time a gun is brandished, fired or if a bullet hits school property, however, the Mirror made sure to only include incidents in which a firearm was discharged. There were no incidents in Arizona schools where a weapon was just brandished in the dataset.
Of the 19 incidents, only one was a “preplanned” incident and the vast majority of them involved handguns of varying calibers.
The preplanned incident took place in 1987, when 17-year-old Jarod Huskey stole a pistol and a shotgun and killed the headmaster of his school before heading to the library to attempt to kill the computer science teacher, seemingly over being angry for being suspended from school, according to a New York Times report at the time.
Prior to Huskey, Arizona hadn’t seen a school shooter like him. Only a kid who brought a pistol to school that then discharged and struck another kid and a security guard who was shot by a person taking pot-shots at a school during the night.
