Female shooters in mass shootings in the US - such as the school shooting in Nashville on March 27 - are extremely rare, according to Violence Project - a unit with a national database on mass shootings since 2022.
The New York Times reported that the dataset includes 172 mass shootings, identified as involving four or more victims and collected before the March 27 shooting, in which only four attackers were women or girls. Among them, there were 2 cases of women acting with men.
The fact that fewer attackers are women in mass shootings reflects a broader trend: From 80 to 90% of all perpetrators of single murders in any given year are men, according to Violence Project.
Robert Louden, a retired New York City police officer and honorary professor of criminal justice at Georgian College of the Court, in Lakewood, New Jersey, said the female culprit in the murders was often involved in domestic violence.
"The woman who killed someone was a violator. Women don't kill, shoot or take hostages as much as men," he said.
Typical mass shooters are usually men and young people. Six of the nine most dangerous mass shootings in the US since 2018 have been carried out by people aged 21 and under. This represents a change with mass shootings. Before 2000, shootings in this form were usually carried out by men in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
A FBI study of 160 cases from 2000 to 2013 showed that only 6 cases, or 3.8%, involved female attackers.
Some of the cases involving guns committed by women in the US were in May 2021, when a 6th grade female student brought a gun to a high school in Idaho, injuring 2 students and 1 security guard. A teacher took the gun from the shooter. As a minor, the female student in this school firecracker case was sentenced at a reform center for minors.
In April 2018, Nasim Najafi Aghdam, in his 30s, went to YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California to shoot and injure three people before committing suicide. Police said Aghdam was upset because he thought he was being treated unfairly by YouTube, so he drove 800 km from his home near San Diego to YouTube's office.
