You’ve likely seen the headlines. Every time a tragedy happens in this country, social media turns into a battlefield of claims and counterclaims. Lately, there’s been a very specific narrative floating around about gender identity and public violence. Honestly, it’s hard to keep track of what’s real when everyone is shouting.
If you’re wondering exactly how many mass shootings have been by trans people, you aren’t alone. It’s a question that has surged in search results over the last few years, often fueled by high-profile incidents and heated political rhetoric.
But if we strip away the noise and look at the actual numbers from places like the Gun Violence Archive and The Violence Project, the reality is a lot different than the "trend" some people describe.
The Actual Numbers: Breaking Down the Statistics
Let's get straight to the point. When we talk about mass shootings in the United States, we’re talking about thousands of incidents over the last decade. The Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are shot (either injured or killed), has recorded over 5,700 mass shootings between 2013 and late 2025.
Out of those thousands of cases, how many involved a shooter who identified as transgender or nonbinary?
According to verified data provided to FactCheck.org and tracked by the GVA, there have been five confirmed transgender or nonbinary shooters in that same period. Some researchers suggest that number could be as high as seven or eight if you include cases where gender identity was unconfirmed or debated, but even then, the percentage is staggeringly low.
We are talking about less than 0.1% of all mass shootings.
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Think about that for a second. In a country that sees hundreds of these tragedies every year, the number of transgender perpetrators is a tiny fraction of a percent. For comparison, roughly 1% to 1.6% of the U.S. population identifies as transgender or nonbinary. This means trans people are actually underrepresented among mass shooters relative to their share of the population.
Why Does It Feel Like There Are More?
It’s all about the media cycle. When a shooter is a cisgender man—which is the case for about 98% of these incidents—his gender identity is rarely mentioned because it fits the "standard" profile. It's treated as background noise.
But when a shooter identifies as trans or nonbinary, it becomes the central focus of the story.
Take the 2023 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville. Because the shooter was a trans man, the story stayed in the news for weeks with a specific focus on his identity. More recently, in August 2025, a shooting at a school in Minneapolis involving a suspect who identified as female sparked another massive wave of "trans terrorism" claims online.
The Power of Misinformation
High-profile figures often jump on these tragedies to push a narrative. You've probably seen posts claiming there's a "rising tide" of trans violence.
Kinda feels like a pattern, right?
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But many of these claims are built on hoaxes. For instance, after the 2022 Uvalde shooting, photos of a random trans woman from the internet were circulated with claims that she was the shooter. She wasn't. The same thing happened after the 2024 Lakewood Church shooting.
Wired actually did an investigation and found at least 12 violent events between 2022 and 2025 where trans people were falsely blamed before the real shooter was even identified.
Comparing the Demographics
If you look at the research from The Violence Project—which maintains one of the most comprehensive databases of mass shootings since 1966—the profile of a mass shooter is remarkably consistent.
They don't use the GVA's broad definition; they look at "public mass shootings" where four or more people are killed. In their database of over 200 such shootings:
- 97.5% were committed by cisgender men.
- 2.0% were committed by cisgender women.
- 0.5% were committed by a transgender individual.
Basically, the "epidemic" of violence isn't coming from the trans community. It’s almost exclusively a male phenomenon. Dr. Ragy Girgis, a clinical psychiatry expert at Columbia University, has stated clearly that being transgender is not a "causative factor" in these crimes. There is no evidence that gender dysphoria or transitioning leads to mass violence.
The Flip Side: Trans People as Victims
While the focus is often on trans people as perpetrators, the data shows they are far more likely to be on the receiving end of a gun.
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According to data from the Human Rights Campaign and Everytown for Gun Safety, transgender and nonbinary people are significantly more likely to be victims of violent crime than their cisgender peers.
- Over 370 trans or gender-nonconforming people were killed in the last decade.
- 70% of those homicides involved a firearm.
- Transgender youth are four times more likely to be threatened or injured with a weapon on school property compared to cisgender students.
It’s a bit of a grim irony. The community being labeled as "terrorists" is the same one facing a disproportionate amount of violence in their daily lives.
Moving Beyond the Headlines
If we want to actually solve the problem of mass shootings, we have to look at the factors that actually correlate with them. Experts like Jillian Peterson and James Densley point to things like childhood trauma, a "leakage" of intent, and access to high-capacity firearms.
Blaming a tiny, marginalized group might make for a viral tweet, but it does nothing to keep schools or malls safer. It just shifts the focus away from the systemic issues that lead to these tragedies.
Actionable Steps for Navigating the News
If you want to stay informed without getting caught in the misinformation trap, here’s what you can do:
- Check the Source: Before sharing a "breaking news" update about a shooter’s identity, check the Gun Violence Archive or the Violence Project. They update their databases with verified facts, not rumors.
- Look for Patterns, Not Outliers: Understand that a single incident involving a trans person does not equal a trend, especially when 99% of other incidents involve a different demographic.
- Support Local Reporting: Local journalists often have the most accurate details about a suspect's background before national pundits start spinning the story.
- Focus on Solutions: Support organizations that research the root causes of all mass shootings, such as mental health resources and firearm safety legislation.
The math doesn't lie. Transgender people are a vanishingly small part of the mass shooting conversation in America. When we stick to the facts, we can focus on the real work of ending the violence that affects everyone.