Overview

• Roughly 50 campuses have received false reports of gunmen or other violence in recent weeks, prompting lockdowns and class cancellations.
• The FBI is coordinating with state and campus authorities on the hoax calls, with no arrests reported so far, and the Education Department says it is monitoring and offering support.
• Several threats targeted historically Black colleges and universities, and the surge followed the killing of Charlie Kirk, which left campuses on edge.
• Nonprofit researchers have linked some incidents to an online group called Purgatory within The Com, but federal authorities have not confirmed the attribution.
• Callers often exploit spoofed numbers, VoIP and VPNs or use non-emergency lines, complicating tracing, and one response led to a midshipman being shot at the U.S. Naval Academy.