I think the connotation of a school shooting is somebody going to a school and shooting numerous students in a mostly random fashion with the intention of creating terror. That's why guns are so scary in this context - it's trivial to kill a person with a gun, a knife, a car, or a brick, but it's much easier to kill 10 people with a gun than it is with the other instruments - well except perhaps a car.
But when you aren't listing just these sort school shootings, but instead listing any homicide that occurred within the vicinity of a school, why is it reasonable to exclude the various incidents of non-gun homicides at Australian [1][2] (or American for that matter) schools? It just feels like a false narrative. Because what matters if we're just speaking of safety at schools is how often people are killed within the vicinity of schools, though obviously subdata including the share of each weapon in homicides would be useful/informative.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lilie_James
[2] - https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15912963/Father-dies-...
> but it's much easier to kill 10 people with a gun than it is with the other instruments - well except perhaps a car.
Or explosives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
> why is it reasonable to exclude the various incidents of non-gun homicides at Australian schools.
(when " listing any homicide that occurred within the vicinity of a school")
It isn't reasonable, and that is exactly why non shooting homicides are included in lists of all homicides but not included in lists of shooting homicides.