Two High School Football Game Shootings Over the Weekend

September 15, 2025

2–3 minutes

Arkansas, Edgecombe County, football, North Carolina, North Little Rock, North Little Rock High School, school shooting, South West Edgecombe High School

For the second time in as many weeks, high school football was cut short by gunfire. After a brief lull, as far as I know, where the past two weekends didn’t see shootings at games, the headlines were instead consumed by two major school shootings, the Annunciation Catholic School shooting and the Evergreen High School shooting. Both reminded us that no matter the setting, the violence follows.

This past Friday night, it happened again, not once but twice. In Edgecombe County, North Carolina, a gunman managed to bring a weapon into a Tarboro versus Southwest Edgecombe football game. That was despite metal detectors at the gate, weapons detection systems, and a significant law enforcement presence. A 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl were shot and taken to the hospital. Both are expected to recover. The game was evacuated in the third quarter, and the sheriff’s office admitted that the weapon slipped through security designed to stop exactly this sort of thing.

In North Little Rock, Arkansas, the shooting came from a different angle. A parent in the visitor’s bleachers was struck by gunfire during halftime of the Benton matchup. Police still don’t know whether the shot came from inside or outside the stadium. The victim’s injury was reported as minor, but the game was canceled on the spot. The Benton School District even went so far as to offer counseling and, for once, send out ‘thoughts and prayers’ to the injured parent’s family, a phrase that has become shorthand for shrugging at the epidemic of gun violence while pretending to mourn it.

Both games ended early, and not because of the scoreboard. The same story played out twice: police on site, security checks in place, and yet bullets still found their way into the stands. The cycle repeats so predictably that the specifics almost don’t matter anymore.

The truth is as blunt as it is ignored: nothing can stop the guns from showing up at schools, stadiums, or gyms unless you actually stop the guns. Everything else is just theater until that happens.

(Sources)