Students at Townville Elementary in South Carolina cry after a gunman opened fire on the playground in 2016 (AP)

A new statistical data report by the National Center for Education Statistics shows that the number of mass shootings in US elementary and secondary schools that either ended in injury or death broke a new record in the 2021-2022 academic year as gun violence across the country rises.

Released on Thursday, it was demonstrated that 327 school shootings at public and private elementary and secondary schools were reported in 2021-2022, which includes 188 incidents with casualties and 139 that did not report any deaths or injuries.

That same academic year, 57 school shootings resulted in death, while 131 shootings resulted in injuries.

This breaks a new annual record in US schools over the past 21 years. In 2020-2021, 93 school shootings, per the report, noted that the majority were associated with at least but not limited to drive-by incidents, accidental weapon release, intentional property damages, and general dispute escalations.

Around one-third of the reported shootings were listed with no determined cause.

Since 2000, the lowest number of school shootings was during the 2009-2010 school year, with only 14 incidents, as the report noted that 98% of school shooters for the past 21 years were identified as male.

It is worth mentioning that the rise in gun deaths among children and teens is part of a broader recent increase in firearm deaths among Americans overall. In 2021, there were 48,830 gun deaths among Americans of all ages – by far the highest yearly total on record and up 23% from the 39,707 recorded in 2019, before the pandemic.

The study, conducted by JAMA Network Open, found the median to be 45 mass shootings per state or all 50 states with 21,006 people killed or injured in mass shootings during the 9-year period.