What to Know About The Mass Shooting At Apalachee High School in Winder, GA

Yesterday, just about one month into the school year, a 14-year-old, wielding an assault weapon, shot and killed two adults, two students, and wounded nine others. The shooter was a student at Apalachee High School who has now been taken into custody.

Yesterday’s shooting once again shines a spotlight on America’s unyielding gun violence crisis and serves as a stark reminder that when our lawmakers repeatedly fail to pass commonsense gun safety laws, our communities are left to pay the price.

What We Know About the 14-Year-Old Shooter

The shooter has been identified as a 14-year-old student at Apalachee High School. He will be charged with murder and will be tried as an adult according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). Authorities are still investigating possible motives. According to federal investigators, the shooter had been interviewed more than a year ago by local law enforcement officials in connection to threats made online of a school shooting.

The FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received several anonymous tips in May 2023 reporting threats that had been posted on an online gaming site warning of a school shooting at “an unidentified location and time,” according to statements from the FBI field office in Atlanta and local law enforcement officials. The threats included photographs of guns and came from the shooter. 

What We Know About the Firearm Used

Chris Hosey, the director of the GBI, said at Wednesday night’s briefing that an AR-15-style assault weapon was used in the incident. Authorities are investigating how the 14-year-old was able to obtain the semi-automatic rifle. Georgia state law does not prohibit the sale or possession of assault weapons like AR-15s. Nor does it have any age restrictions in place to prevent minors from purchasing rifles or shotguns from unlicensed sellers, or a child access prevention law requiring that gun owners secure their firearms when they are not being used to prevent theft and misuse.

Remembering the Victims

Mason Schermerhorn, 14, was a freshman at Apalachee High School. Family friends described him as “a lighthearted teenager who spent time with his family, reading, telling jokes, playing video games, and visiting Walt Disney World.”

Christian Angulo, also 14, was a freshman at Apalachee High School. According to a GoFundMe page set up for Angulo’s funeral services, his older sister, Lisette remembered him as a “very sweet and so caring” individual loved by many. 

Richard Aspinwall, 39, was a math teacher at Apalachee High School and the defensive coordinator for the school’s football team. He was a husband and father of two daughters. Friends and colleagues honoring his memory remembered him as an “amazing husband, father, teacher and coach.” 

Christina Irimie, 53, was a math teacher at Apalachee High School and was described by students as “patient and caring.”

Another nine victims — eight students and one teacher — were taken to hospitals with injuries following the shooting, the GBI said earlier in the day. All nine of the injured victims are expected to survive. 

What We Know About Georgia’s Weak Gun Laws

Georgia has some of the weakest gun laws in the country, including the Republican led-legislature passing a law requiring colleges and universities to allow guns on campus in 2017 and two years ago, passing permitless carry despite 88% of Americans being in favor of policies requiring gun owners to obtain a permit before carrying a concealed weapon in public. 

Georgia does not have several foundational gun laws in place including requirements for background checks, Extreme Risk laws, and Secure Storage laws. Georgia also allows the purchase of assault weapons and does not require School Threat Assessment Teams – programs that identify students at risk of violence. While it’s too early to say whether any of these laws might have stopped this tragedy, research shows that these laws are preventing tragedies in other states. 

Last session, the Georgia General Assembly created a study committee to propose secure storage policies. The committee held its first meeting on August 20, where Everytown and other advocates presented on the importance of secure storage in households with minors. Georgia lawmakers have the opportunity to utilize this committee to take action to keep children safe. Additionally, this committee can serve as a vehicle to pass much-needed secure storage policies in the upcoming legislative session.

What We Know About Mass Shootings in America

According to the Gun Violence Archive, the shooting in Winder was the 385th mass shooting of the year in the U.S. and the 139th instance of gun violence on school grounds so far this year.

Everytown for Gun Safety tracks the firearms recovered by law enforcement in our nation’s deadliest mass shootings, an overwhelming majority of the time, the gun used was an assault weapon. In fact, eight of the ten deadliest mass shootings from 2015-2022 were committed with an assault weapon. Read more about the weapons recovered from America’s deadliest mass shootings here.

What We Don’t Know: Questions to Ask

Many questions still remain about how a 14-year-old was able to obtain a semi-automatic rifle:

• How did the underage shooter obtain the firearm?
• Where was the gun purchased? 
• Was the gun taken from home? Had it been securely stored?
• What make, model, and caliber of firearm was used?
• Was the firearm equipped with accessories, such as high-capacity magazines?