Texas and guns. It is a conversation that never really stops, especially when you start looking at our schools. If you are trying to figure out how many school shootings in texas 2025 actually occurred, you’ll quickly realize the answer depends entirely on who you ask and how they define the word "shooting."
Honestly, the numbers can be confusing.
One database might tell you there were dozens of incidents, while another says there was only one or two. It isn't because people are lying; it’s because the criteria they use are wildly different. Some count every time a gun is even shown on campus, while others only count when someone is hurt.
Breaking Down the 2025 Numbers in Texas
According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which is often cited by safety experts like Ken Trump, Texas saw 21 incidents in 2025. Now, before you panic, you have to understand what that number includes. This database tracks any time a gun is brandished, fired, or a bullet hits school property. This means it includes everything from a late-night discharge in a parking lot to a student showing off a weapon in a locker room.
By contrast, Education Week, which has a much stricter set of rules, paints a different picture. They only track shootings that happen during school hours or school events and result in an injury or death to someone other than the shooter. Under those specific rules, the numbers for Texas look a lot smaller, though no less serious.
Across the United States, 2025 was actually a year where school shootings dropped to their lowest levels in five years. We saw 233 incidents nationally, according to the K-12 SSDB, compared to the staggering 352 we saw back in 2023. Even with that downward trend, Texas remained one of the top three states for these incidents, alongside California and Tennessee.
It's a heavy reality to sit with.
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The Wilmer-Hutchins Incident and Why Definitions Matter
If you want to understand why these statistics feel so slippery, look at what happened at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in Dallas on April 15, 2025. This was one of the most significant events of the year in Texas.
During this incident, six people were injured.
Thankfully, no one died. Because there were injuries, this event shows up on almost every tracker—from Education Week to the Gun Violence Archive. But if you were looking at a tracker that only counted "mass killings" (defined as four or more fatalities), this wouldn't even be on the list.
This is why you've gotta be careful with the "how many" question. If you’re a parent, one gun on campus is one too many. If you’re a policy maker, you’re looking at these broad categories to decide where to put the money.
Why did the numbers drop in 2025?
Experts aren't 100% sure yet. Ken Trump, who runs National School Safety and Security Services, thinks it might be part of a general dip in violent crime across the board. The Gun Violence Archive showed about 2,000 fewer gun deaths nationally in 2025 compared to the year before.
There is also the "iWatchTexas" factor.
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In early 2025, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) reported that they actually prevented a targeted attack in Lubbock because someone saw a threat on social media and reported it through the iWatchTexas app. A 29-year-old was arrested before anything could happen. Prevention is invisible in the "how many" statistics, but it’s arguably the most important part of the story.
New Texas Safety Laws for 2025-2026
Texas didn't just sit on its hands last year. The 89th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 57 (SB 57), which changed a lot of the rules for the 2025-2026 school year. Basically, the state is getting much more specific about how schools handle safety.
Here is what changed:
- Special Education Representation: Every school safety committee now must include an administrator of special education. This is huge because, in the past, drills didn't always account for kids with disabilities who might struggle with loud alarms or quick evacuations.
- Mandatory Drills: The TEA (Texas Education Agency) has to create specific guidelines for these drills, ensuring they are trauma-informed and inclusive.
- Mental Health Funding: For the first time, Texas put $2 million toward community violence intervention (CVI). It’s a drop in the bucket for a state this big, but it’s a start toward proactive prevention rather than just "hardening" buildings.
Schools also had to submit their "Active Threat Annex" plans to the Texas School Safety Center by October 2025. If they didn't, they faced some pretty stiff penalties, including the state potentially sending in a conservator to run things.
Realities of Student Exposure
We talk about the number of "shootings," but we often forget the number of kids who were just... there.
Even if no one is physically hit by a bullet, the psychological toll is massive. Studies from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research have shown that students exposed to campus violence are about 12% more likely to miss classes and nearly 28% more likely to struggle with chronic absenteeism.
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In Texas, even with the "low" numbers of 2025, thousands of students still went through the trauma of a lockdown.
What Most People Get Wrong
The biggest misconception about school shootings in Texas 2025 is that they are all "mass shootings." In reality, the vast majority of these 21 incidents were targeted disputes, accidental discharges, or individual acts of violence that never made the national news.
Most school shooters (about 85%) engage in some kind of planning. Almost 94% share their intent with someone else before the attack.
This means that while "hardening" schools with metal detectors and clear backpacks (which many Texas schools did in 2025) might help, the real "fix" often comes from people speaking up when they see something weird.
Actionable Steps for Texas Parents and Educators
Knowing the numbers is only half the battle. If you're concerned about the landscape of school safety in Texas, here are the most effective things you can do right now:
- Download the iWatchTexas App: This is the direct line to the Texas Fusion Center. It’s monitored by analysts who can vet threats 24/7. It’s better than just posting a screenshot on Facebook and hoping the right person sees it.
- Audit Your Local School's Committee: Under SB 57, your district's school safety and security committee has to meet at least once a semester. These meetings are mostly public. Ask if they have included a special education representative as required by the new law.
- Check the EOP Status: You can ask your school administration if their Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) was approved by the Texas School Safety Center during the 2025 review cycle.
- Prioritize "Active Supervision": Safety technology is great, but experts like Ken Trump argue that nothing replaces "active supervision." This means teachers and staff being present and off their phones during high-risk times like lunch, recess, and dismissal—which is when over 30% of incidents occur.
Texas is a big state with a complicated relationship with firearms. While 2025 saw a statistical "improvement" in the frequency of school shootings, the 21 recorded incidents prove that the work is nowhere near finished.