History of gun shootings in schools

According to public broadcaster ORF, there have been four shooting incidents in Austrian schools since 1993. But so far, none of them have had more than one victim without counting the perpetrators. Similar incidents have occurred in other parts of Europe in recent decades that have led to changes in legislation.

The deadliest shooting in schools in Europe
When an armed person killed 16 children between the ages of five and six in the Scottish city of Dunblane in 1996, the British government soon banned private possession of arms.

After the mass shooting in the 2000s, Germany increased the age limit for gun ownership and introduced temporary checks to ensure that gun owners observed weapons laws.

In 2002, 19-year-old disfellowshipped student Robert Steinhower opened fire at a school in Erfurt, killing 12 teachers, two students, a secretary and a policeman before committing suicide.

Seven years later, in the southeastern town of Winten, a 17-year-old killed 15 students, teachers and passersby at school and around it. He was killed in a shootout with the police.

In Serbia, a 13-year-old boy killed eight classmates and a guard at Vladislav Ribnikkar elementary school on May 3rd, 2023. The suspect was arrested a little later.

In December of the same year, a 24-year-old student killed 14 people at a university in Prague using a weapon he legally owned. The gunman was killed at the scene, probably by his bullet. According to an AP report, the Czech Republic is in the process of imposing weapons laws.

Much less school shooting than in the U.S.
School massacres and educational institutions in Europe are still rare compared to the United States. Even though there is no direct reference data specifically to schools, research by the Rockefeller Institute for Public Administration shows that the United States has suffered more significantly from <x0) massive public shooting” than countries with similar levels of economic development.

Such incidents, according to New York's headquarters institute, include at least “victims, excluding cases of state violence or organised terrorism.

According to their data, 109 such incidents occurred in the US between 2000 and 2022. There have been six attacks in France, in Germany five, three in Finland, and two in the United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland during the same period.

“Hulum suggests that the highest number of shootings in America is partly linked to less restrictive weapons laws and a higher number of civilian-owned weapons, compared to many other countries”, criminologist Jason R. Silva in a research blog for the institute last year, reports Deutsche Welle, broadcast Periscopi.

In the EU, Brussels imposes basic regulations on ownership and use of weapons for all 27 member states. National governments can press them further.

The figures differ in Europe, but the number of civilian-owned weapons is, on average, much lower than in the US. According to the Small Arms Survey, in 2017 there were about 120.5 firearms for 100 inhabitants in the United States.

In England and Wales, the figure was 4.6, and in France and Germany was 19.6. Austria's assessment was 30 per 100 people have weapons, while Serbia had the highest rate in Europe by 39.1.

Deadly stabs
While gun shooting is relatively rare in Europe, school - knife attacks are more common than in the US. In France, there has been a wave of knife attacks in schools in recent years, including last Tuesday, May 10, 2025, in a town in the northeast of the country: a 14-year-old student stabbed a 31-year-old teacher to death, who was controlling school bags at the school entrance that day. Checks were introduced to prevent children from bringing knives to school.

In October 2023, a man who was being monitored for alleged Islamist radicalisation stabbed a teacher to death and injured three others at a school he had previously attended in the northern French town of Arras.

In a case that rocked France in 2020, an 18-year-old girl beheaded teacher Samuel Patty outside a school near Paris.

In the United Kingdom, a 17-year-old man stabbed three girls, ages six to nine, at a dance hour in Southport in July last year.

In Zagreb, on 20 December last year, a 19-year-old attacker shot a seven-year-old and injured several others at Precko elementary school. In January of this year, a student and a teacher were stabbed to death in a high school in Slovakia. In Germany, prosecutors have charged a 17-year-old for four assassination attempts following a February stab attack at a high school in the town of Wuppertal. /Periscopi/.