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Unclassified <br />Conclusion <br />The FBI initiated this study to add to the resources available to law enforcement and others <br />who must consider their best course of action to prepare for, respond to, and recover from <br />active shooter incidents. Using the same criteria over a 14 -year span, the FBI sought to <br />determine whether the number of active shooter incidents had changed, concluding the <br />trend over the study period showed a steady rise. hr the first half of the years studied, the <br />average annual number of incidents was 6.4, but that average rose in the second half of the <br />study to 16.4, an average of more than one incident per month. <br />Of the 160 incidents studied, 64 (40.0%) would have met the criteria to fall under the <br />federal statute passed in 2012 which defines mass killing as three or more killed in a single <br />incident. Of the 64, 39 of these mass killings occurred within the final 7 years studied. <br />Study results also indicate that, of the 11 defined location categories, the majority of <br />incidents -45.6% of the 160—occurred in an environment related to commerce. The <br />second most common incident locations were in educational environments (24.4%), and <br />the study results established that some of these incidents involved some of the highest <br />casualty numbers. <br />Study results provided added clarity on instances where law enforcement appeared to be <br />most at risk when responding to the scene. For example, though law enforcement responded <br />to a large number of school incidents, no law enforcement officers were killed or wounded <br />when responding to a school incident. However, in 45 of the 160 incidents where law <br />enforcement did engage a shooter, law enforcement suffered casualties in 21 (46.7%) of the <br />incidents, resulting in 9 officers killed and 28 wounded. <br />Significantly, 10 of the officers were wounded in gunfights categorized as occurring in <br />open spaces where the shooters were moving through streets and between buildings. <br />In addition, 3 of the officers were wounded on military property, and another 3 were <br />killed and 9 wounded in gunfights on other government properties. Based on these study <br />results, therefore, the FBI will no longer use the term "confined" as part of the "active <br />shooter" definition. <br />Though this study did not focus on the motivation of the shooters, the study did identify <br />some shooter characteristics. In all but 2 of the incidents, the shooter chose to act alone. <br />Only 6 female shooters were identified. Shooter ages as a whole showed no pattern, <br />However, some patterns were seen in incident sub -groups. For example, 12 of 14 shooters <br />in high school shootings were students at the schools, and 5 of the 6 shooters at middle <br />schools were students at the schools. <br />In addition, research results identified some location categories where victim targets were <br />more readily identifiable, in part because of the shooters' connections to the locations. For <br />example, in businesses generally closed to pedestrian traffic, 22 of the 23 shooters were <br />employees or former employees of the involved company. In other instances, the location <br />category appeared less significant than the victims targeted. For example, in 15 (93%) <br />of the 160 incidents, the shooter targeted family members. And in 15 (9.3%) of the 160 <br />incidents, the shooter targeted his current, estranged, or former spouse or his current or <br />former girlfriend. <br />Unclassified 20 <br />