The relationship between economic insecurity and gun violence in schools adds a tragic dimension to what is already known about the impact of unemployment and financial stress on families. Economic insecurity intensifies feelings of frustration, anger, fear, hopelessness, as well as a lack of safety. Now, this new research indicates that economic security, with lost hope and diminished prospects for a job, may link directly to gun violence in schools.

Although there has been extensive study of school shootings, there are many contradictory claims. For example, some past studies have seen no significant increase over time, while others believe a "copycat effect" has led to increased frequently. Other studies have tried to identify sociological and risk factors related to shooters in hopes of understanding and preventing incidents.

In the past, society looked at various potential causes as well as causality, even heavy metal music and violent videogames, which have been largely debunked as inciting violence. Bullying and other social origins of school shootings also are thought to be contributing factors to the isolation and revenge fantasies of perpetrators.

Establishing a root cause of gun violence at schools required quality data. One of the initial problems encountered in this latest research was the lack of an established dataset, with the need to narrow down what could be defined as a school shooting.

The following guidelines were determined: a shooting must involve the discharge of a firearm (even by accident), it must occur on a school campus, and it must involve students or school employees. Of the 535 events that had happened between 1990 and 2013, only 379 events met these criteria. Further, only 6.6 percent of these events were the result of gang violence, and only 6.3 percent of these events had three or more deaths.