Campus gun violence is on the rise and more likely to occur in October during homecoming week than any other time of the year, with HBCUs experiencing a “starkly disproportionate” of the shootings, a report released Friday shows.
“October had the highest number of shootings of any month, more than twice the monthly average, and nearly half of October shootings occurred during homecoming weeks, when campuses often experience an influx of visitors,” states the report, released by Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, a nonprofit that focuses on gun violence prevention.
The authors of the report analyzed about 400 shootings that took place at more than 260 campuses nationwide between August 2016 and July 2026.
The report found that campus shootings have been rising about 20% on average year-over-year. The number of people killed or wounded in the campus shootings has also risen, 52% and 31%, respectively, the report found.
Here are some other key findings:
- Most campus shootings are not high-profile mass shootings: “Over half of campus shootings were gun homicides and assaults, including mass shootings that represented just 5 percent of all campus shootings,” the report states. “Shootings were also most likely to occur in outdoor spaces, parking lots, and residence halls.”
- Campus shooters are often outsiders. “Unlike at K-12 schools, the majority of shooters at colleges and universities were unaffiliated with the institution,” the report states. “Unaffiliated individuals also made up a substantial share of those shot, highlighting the connections between campuses and their surrounding communities.”
- HBCUs experienced a “starkly disproportionate” share of campus gun violence, particularly during homecoming. “Although HBCUs represent about 2% of postsecondary institutions in the United States, they accounted for 29% of campus shootings and experienced shootings at a rate 20 times that of non-HBCUs,” the report states.
Given the higher proportion of shootings that take place during homecoming at HBCUs, the authors conducted focus groups with HBCU students, who related concerns about how inconsistent their schools have been when it comes to security and preventing gun violence on campus.
“When [a celebrity or something] comes, security is heightened,” one HBCU student told the authors of the report. “But if it’s a random Monday, I might catch a security guard asleep while I go get my DoorDash order from the back gate.”
The report indicates that shootings at campus events persisted despite increased security during high-profile events. “This raises broader questions about the other types of prevention measures that must be put into place alongside security to maximize student safety,” the report states.
Jamaal Abdul-Alim is a longtime education writer who resides in Washington, D.C. He occasionally teaches journalism and has completed fellowships at the University of Michigan, Columbia University and New America.
