Yet another school shooting

Are you prepared for a rant?

In Graz, Austria (AT), a young mannered a school and killed at least 10 people on 10 June 2025. Eight of those who were initially reported to have been killed were students at the assailant’s former high school. One person died of injuries and approximately 10 more are still receiving medical treatment according to reports late on the night of the shooting.

AT chancellor, Christian Stocker, a three-day period of mourning beginning the morning of 11 June 2025. Multiple news organizations reported that the chancellor referred to the events as “a dark day in the history of our country” and “a national tragedy that has shocked us all.”¹

Many news sources note that this incident occurred in a country other than the US. News reports contrast gun-ownership in AT (30 guns per 100 people) versus the US (120 guns per 100), but contrast must be considered in the context of the fact that the US and AT are among the countries with the highest levels of gun ownership. These and lots of other “angles” on the story will likely be covered over the coming days. None of that coverage should dilute the story or obscure the fact that 10, 11, or more people are dead. Their lives ended. They can no longer have dreams and hopes, laughter or even sorrow. And their family members and friends will have to live with that reality, no matter what “motives” the shooter may be presumed to have had, the “type” of person he may have been, nor the caliber of the weapon, nor the color of his socks.

I understand that people may simply be interested in knowing, in getting the “full picture,” even hoping that what they learn may help prevent another shooting. None of that knowledge will bring the dead back to life.

I do not know whether any of the victims of this latest school shooting had disabilities. In a way, it doesn’t matter. Whoever these kids were, they were just kids. Maybe someone was looking forward to graduating and going on to work or college. Maybe someone was wondering whether she really ought to agree to take an advanced course next term. Maybe someone was bursting with joy upon learning she had completed some long-sought task. Maybe someone was feeling down because another student whom he’d asked for a date had refused the offer.

But in another way, having a disability really does matter in a school shooting. In such catastrophic conditions, many people can flee or hide. Readers may have heard about training programs that preach three alternatives when one finds oneself in an “active-shooter situation”: The first choice to run, the second is to hide, and the last choice is to fight with the attacker. Regardless of whether there are criticisms of programs that promote these responses (there are, and I’m not talking solely about the movie), for some students who have a disability, those may be vacuous recommendations.

• Some of our kids can’t run. For some, “fast” is limited to the top speed of a battery-heavy wheelchair. For some, the physical directions in which to run may be unknown and for others shouted directions about where to go may elicit such confusion that they run in not-funny circles. In a horrible version of “devil take the hindmost,” some of our kids are likely to be at the back of the fleeing pack.

• Some of our kids are not very good at hiding. It is damn near impossible for them to hold still. Some simply can’t keep quiet. In a quiet and still setting, a whimper or sob can tell a gunman where to shoot.

We certainly can and we should teach our kids how to respond in dangerous situations. Indeed, researchers such as Raymond Miltenberger and his colleagues have conducted studies of teaching children how to avoid being abducted (Johnson et al., 2005) and to behave safely around firearms (Miltenberger et al., 2004) and there are entire books on behavior safety for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (e.g., Luiselli et al., 2024).

But, really, now. Do we need to train every school kid how to act around shooters? A more sensible approach would be to make it possible for kids to live, learn, and play in places where there were no shooters. Yes, that would be “gun control.”

I know there are lots of objections to the idea and it would be impossible—probably even undesirable—to have a 100% gun-free society. I understand that a farmer might need a rifle to dispatch a burrowing animal that makes holes in the farmer’s pasture, holes that maim the farmer’s livestock. Sure, there are other legitimate uses for weapons. There ought to be a ways to craft policies so that responsible individuals who have legitimate needs for owning a weapon can do so and society can enjoy a heightened level of safety from gun violence.

And I’m not thinking that restricting gun ownership and use is going to eliminate all instances of violence, of course. Sure, it might only work, say, 95% of the time…but arguing that the 5% failure means we shouldn’t adopt a plan begs me to ask, “What’s the matter with, say, preventing 95 out of 100 school shootings?”

Regular readers likely remember that I have written something like this previously. I’ll incorporate it by reference into this posts. See “School Shootings and Students with Disabilities: John’s Screed.”

I apologize, Dear Readers, for dumping this post on you. I know it’s out of the usual currents I usually follow. I wrote it in haste and have not taken time away from the writing to compose myself so I could compose better prose. I hope that I’ll soon be “back to normal,” though I fear that “normal” isn’t really what ought to be normal. I fear we, as modern humans, are becoming inured to the deaths of children. I don’t like that version of normal.

References

Johnson, B. M., Miltenberger, R. G., Egemo‐Helm, K., Jostad, C. M., Flessner, C., & Gatheridge, B. (2005). Evaluation of behavioral skills training for teaching abduction‐prevention skills to young children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 38(1), 67-78. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2005.26-04

Luiselli, J. K., Bird, F. L., Maguire, H., & Gardner, R. M. (Eds.). (2024). Behavior safety and clinical practice in intellectual and developmental disabilities. Springer.

Milterberger, R., G., Fleshier, C., Gathering, B., Johnson, B., Satterlund, M., & Egemo, K. (2004). Journal of Applied Behavior AnalysisVolume, 37(4), 513-516. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2004.37-513

Rapa, L. J., Katsiyannis, A., Scott, S. N., & Durham, O. (2024). School shootings in the United States: 1997–2022. Pediatrics, 153(4), e2023064311. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2023-064311

Footnote

1. To read the media reports from which I drawing for this post, please see the following sources:

• “Austrians hold vigil to mourn 10 victims of school shooting” by Nick Thorpe and Anna Lamche and “School shooting leaves Austria's second city in shock and grief” by Bethany Bell of BBC News; BBC News also has a update available under “Death toll in Austria school shooting rises to 11 after victim dies in hospital” (when I last viewed it).

• “Austria reels from ‘national tragedy’ after gunman kills 10 at former school,” by John Henley in The Guardian.

• “At Least 10 Killed in Shooting at Austrian High School, Police Say” by Christopher F. Schuetze and Jim Tankersley in the New York Times.

• “Here’s what we know about a school shooting in Austria” by staff writers of AP News.

• “Austria’s deadliest mass shooting: Who are the Graz victims, shooter?” and “Gunman kills 10 people in school shooting in Austria’s Graz; attacker dead” by staff writers at Al Jazeera.

• “Death toll increases after suspected shooter opens fire at Austrian school, officials say” by Greg Norman and Greg Wehner of Fox News.