Major U.S. school shootings from 1927 to 2006

April 16th 2007: BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, in a classroom across campus Monday, killing at least 32 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history, government officials told The Associated Press. The gunman was killed, bringing the death toll to 33.

October 9, 2006 ?? Joplin, Missouri. October 9, 2006. A 13-year-old boy, obsessed with the Columbine school shootings, brought a MAC-10 semiautomatic assault rifle to school, pointing it at students and firing it into the ceiling until the gun jammed.

October 2, 2006 • Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. October 2, 2006. A truck driver walked into a one-room Amish schoolhouse with two rifles, a semi-automatic handgun, and 600 rounds of ammunition, selected all the female students, and shot them execution-style, killing five and seriously wounding six. The man then shot himself, apparently having left suicide notes beforehand.

September 29, 2006 ?? Cazenovia, Wisconsin. September 29, 2006. A student walked into a rural school with a pistol and a rifle and shot the principal several times, critically injuring him.

September 27, 2006 ?? Bailey, Colorado. September 27, 2006. A lone gunman enters a high school and holds six female students hostage, sexually assaults them, kills one of them, and then himself after a four-hour standoff.

September 17, 2006 ?? Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. September 17, 2006. Five Duquesne University basketball players are wounded after a shooting on campus after a dance. One of the two shooters was allegedly upset that his date had talked to one of the athletes.

September 14, 2006 ?? Green Bay, Wisconsin. September 14, 2006. Two boys obsessed with the mass killings at Columbine High are arrested for amassing an arsenal of guns and bombs and planning an attack on East High School.

September 2: 2006 Eric Hainstock, 15 . fatally shot his principal 49 year old John Klang, at Weston Schools in rural Cazenovia, WIS. after Klang had given him a disciplinary warning for having tabacco on school grounds.

August 30, 2006 ?? Hillsborough, North Carolina. August 30, 2006. After shooting his father to death, a student open fires at his high school, injuring two students. Deputies found guns, ammunition, and homemade pipe bombs in the student’s car. The student had emailed Columbine High’s Principal, telling him that it was “time the world remembered” the shootings at Columbine.

August 24, 2006 ?? Essex, Vermont. August 24, 2006. A gunman shoots five people, killing two of them, in a rampage through two houses and an elementary school, before wounding himself.

April 22, 2006 North Pole, Alaska, USA Six middle-school students were arrested after it was revealed they planned to kill students and faculty members. The students intended to use knives and guns, while also disabling the power and telephone systems at the school. Unlike most other school shootings, the students planned to kill selected students and faculty and then escape the school. The plot was exposed when a student told one of his parents about rumors of the upcoming school shooting and the parent contacted authorities. According to authorities, the six students could face charges for first-degree conspiracy to commit murder.

March 21, 2005 ?? Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota. March 21, 2005. The worst school-related shooting incident since the Columbine shootings in April of 1999. Ten killed and seven injured in rampage by high school student.

March 16, 2005 ?? Bellflower, California. March 16, 2005. Another Columbine was averted when two juveniles were arrested for plotting to shoot up their high school.

March 2, 2005 ?? Cumberland City, TN. March 2, 2005. School bus driver shot and killed while driving a school bus carrying approximately 20 students by a 14-year-old student who had been reported to administrators by the driver for chewing tobacco on the bus.

December 10, 2004 ?? Nine Mile Falls, Washington. December 10, 2004. A 16-year-old high school junior committed suicide at the high school's entryway. A canister holding fireworks, shotgun shells, and rifle cartridges was found in a backpack belonging to the student.

Nov. 22, 2004: Sixteen-year-old Jalil Speaks was fatally shot and three other students were wounded outside Strawberry Mansion High in Philadelphia. Sixteen-year-old Desmond Keels is set to stand trial on murder charges later this month. The shooting apparently was over a $50 (€40) debt in a rap contest

March 17, 2004 ?? Joyce, Washington. March 17, 2004. A 13-year-old student shot and killed himself in a school classroom where about 20 other students were present. The boy reportedly brought a .22-caliber rifle hidden in a guitar case and pulled it out during the 10 a.m. class.

February 11, 2004 ?? Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. February 11, 2004. A 10-year-old student was shot in the face and died after being shot outside a Philadelphia elementary school. A 56-year-old female school crossing guard was also shot in the foot as she tried to scurry children across the street as bullets were flying and children were on the playground.

February 2, 2004 ?? Washington, D.C. February 2, 2004. A 17-year-old male high school student died after being shot several times and another student was injured after shots were fired near the school’s cafeteria.

January 21, 2004 ?? Henderson, Nevada. January 21, 2004. Gunman shoots and kills a hostage in his car on school campus. The gunman was allegedly looking for his ex-girlfriend as he searched the school full of children in an after-school program.

November 8, 2003 Sugar Land, Texas. November 8, 2003. A 17-year-old female high school student was shot and killed as a fight broke out at the side of a stadium at a high school football game.

September 24, 2003 ?? Cold Spring, Minnesota. September 24, 2003. Two students shot and killed by a 15-year-old boy at Rocori High School. Fifteen-year-old John Jason McLaughlin fatally shot two fellow students - Aaron Rollins, 17, and Seth Bartell, 14 - at Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota. McLaughlin was sentenced in August to life in prison. He will not be eligible for parole for nearly 40 years

September 16, 2003 ?? Hopkinsville, KY. September 16, 2003. A 16-year-old girl fatally shot another teen and then killed herself as the two sat in a car parked at a shopping center across from their school.

September 10, 2003 ?? Fort Worth, TX. September 10, 2003. A 16-year-old boy fatally shot a classmate, then dumped his body in a nearby construction site.

September 5, 2003 ?? San Diego, CA. September 5, 2003. A 14-year-old boy jogging with his high school cross-country team is shot and killed in an ambush by his father, who then killed himself after a standoff with police.

April 24, 2003 ?? Red Lion, Pennsylvania. April 24, 2003. Principal of Red Lion Area Junior High is fatally shot in the chest by a 14-year-old student, who then committed suicide, as students gather in the cafeteria for breakfast.

April 14, 2003 ?? New Orleans, Louisiana. April 14, 2003. One 15-year-old killed and three students wounded at John McDonough High School by gunfire from four teenagers in a gang-related shooting.

October 7, 2002. Bowie, Maryland. A 13-year-old by was shot and critically wounded by the DC-area sniper outside Benjamin Tasker Middle School.

April 26, 2002 GERMANY ; Robert Steinhäuser (January 22, 1983 - April 26, 2002) was the 19 year old expelled student who opened fire at the Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany in the Erfurt massacre on April 26, 2002. After killing 13 teachers, two students and a police officer, he committed suicide.

January 15, 2002 ?? New York, New York. January 15, 2002. Two students at Martin Luther King Junior High School in Manhattan were seriously wounded when an 18-year-old opened fire in the school.

November 12, 2001 ?? Caro, Michigan. November 12, 2001. A 17-year-old student took two hostages and the Caro Learning Center before killing himself.

May 15, 2001 ?? Ennis, Texas. May 15, 2001. A 16-year-old sophomore upset over his relationship with a girl, took 17 hostages in English class, and shot and killed himself and the girl.

March 30, 2001 ?? Gary, Indiana. March 30, 2001. 17-year-old expelled from Lew Wallace High School kills classmate.

March 22, 2001 ?? Granite Hills, California. March 22, 2001. One teacher and three students wounded by a student at Granite Hills school.

March 7, 2001 ?? Willamsport, Pennsylvania. March 7, 2001. Classmate wounded by a 14-year-old girl, in the cafeteria of Bishop Newuman High School.

March 5, 2001 ?? Santee, California. March 5, 2001. A 15-year-old student killed two fellow students and wounded 13 others, while firing from a bathroom at Santana High School in San Diego County. Charles "Andy" Williams, 15, killed two fellow students and wounded 13 others at Santana High School in Santee, California, in San Diego County. Williams was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison

January 17, 2001 ?? Baltimore, Maryland. January 17, 2001. 17-year-old student shot and killed in front of Lake Clifton-Eastern High School.

September 26, 2000 ?? New Orleans, Louisiana. September 26, 2000. Two students wounded in a gun fight at Woodson Middle School.

May 26, 2000 ?? Lake Worth, Florida. May 26, 2000. A 13-year-old honor killed his English teacher, Barry Grunow, on the last day of classes after the teacher refused to let him talk to two girls in his classroom.

May 11, 2000 ?? Prairie Grove, Arkansas. May 11, 2000. Seventh grade student injures police officer in a hay field north of the student’s school after leaving campus in an apparent fit of rage.

March 10, 2000 ?? Savannah, Georgia. March 10, 2000. Two students killed by 19-year-old while leaving a dance sponsored by Beach High School.

February 29, 2000 ?? Mount Morris Township, Michigan. February 29, 2000. A 6-year-old boy shot and killed a 6-year-old girl at Buell Elementary School with a .32 caliber handgun. Dedrick Owens (born in 1993) killed Kayla Rolland in his Mount Morris Township, Michigan school, Theo J. Buell Elementary School, while 6 years old and in the first grade. Owens lived with his mother, Tamarla Owens, and her uncle, after the boy's father was jailed for a parole violation. He acquired the .32 caliber semi-automatic pistol used to commit the crime from his uncle's house and brought it to school to show off. On the day of the shooting, (February 29, 2000) he pulled the gun from his pants and pointed it at his six-year-old classmate Kayla Rolland and yelled, "I hate you, Kayla!" before fatally shooting her in the neck. Apparently they had gotten into a playground scuffle the day before. Rolland died soon after being shot, despite the teacher's call for emergency services. Owens' name was not revealed to the press for some time after the shooting because of his age.

December 6, 2000 ?? Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. December 6, 2000. A 13-year-old boy, armed with a handgun, opened fire outside Fort Gibson Middle school, wounding four classmates.

November 19, 1999 ?? Deming, New Mexico. November 19, 1999. 12-year-old boy came to school dressed in camouflage and shoots 13-year-old girl with a .22 caliber as students were returning from lunch. 13-year-old girl shot in the head in school at Deming, New Mexico, and died the next day. A 12-year-old boy later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to at least two years in juvenile prison

May 20, 1999 ?? Conyers, Georgia. May 20, 1999. 15-year-old sophomore opens fire with a rifle and a handgun on Heritage High School students arriving for classes, injuring six.

April 20, 1999 Littleton, Colorado.. Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 before killing themselves at Columbine High School.

May 21, 1998: Two teenagers were killed and more than 20 people hurt when a teenage boy opened fire at a high school in Springfield, Ore., after killing his parents. Kip Kinkel, 17, was sentenced to nearly 112 years in prison.

May 19, 1998: Three days before his graduation, an honor student opened fire at a high school in Fayetteville, Tenn., killing a classmate who was dating his ex-girlfriend. Jacob Davis, 18, was sentenced to life in prison.

April 24, 1998: Andrew Wurst, 15, opened fire at an eighth-grade dance in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, killing a science teacher. The boy pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and other charges and is serving 30 to 60 years in prison

March 24, 1998: Two boys, ages 11 and 13, fired on their Jonesboro, Ark., middle school from nearby woods, killing four girls and a teacher and wounding 10 others. Both boys were later convicted of murder and can be held until age 21.

Dec. 1, 1997: Three students were killed and five wounded at a high school in West Paducah, Ky. Michael Carneal, then 14, later pleaded guilty but mentally ill to murder and is serving life in prison.

Oct. 1, 1997: Sixteen-year-old Luke Woodham of Pearl, Miss., fatally shot two students and wounded seven others after stabbing his mother to death. He was sentenced the following year to three life sentences.

Feb. 19, 1997: A 16-year-old boy took a shotgun and a bag of shells to school in Bethel, Alaska, and killed the principal and a student and injured two others. Evan Ramsey is serving a 210-year sentence.

May 1, 1992 Olivehurst, California, USA Armed with a pistol, 20-year-old Eric Houston took hostages at his former high school, killing four people and wounding 10. His motive was his inability to find a good job due to the fact that he had failed a grade at school. He was given the death penalty for the shooting. The 1994 Hostage High is directly based on the shooting.

Nov. 1, 1991 Gang Lu (Chinese: ?? ) was a Chinese physics student enrolled in the Ph.D. program at the University of Iowa. On Friday, Nov. 1, 1991 with a .38 caliber revolver and a .22-caliber handgun , he shot five people to death and seriously wounded another before committing suicide.
The people he killed were Christoph K. Goertz (his advisor), Linhua Shan (a fellow Ph.D student from China), Dwight R. Nicholson (department chair), Robert Alan Smith (associate professor, Lu's co-advisor), and T. Anne Cleary (vice President of UI). A student employee, Miya Sioson was shot in her spine, permanently paralyzing her arms and legs.
Gang Lu wrote five letters explaining his reasons and plans months before his actions. According to university officials, four of the letters were in English and were intended to be sent to news organizations, and one was written in Chinese.

January 17, 1989 The Stockton Massacre refers to the killing of five schoolchildren in Stockton, California on January 17, 1989. On that date, Patrick Edward Purdy, a disturbed drifter and former Stockton resident, opened fire on the Cleveland Elementary School playground with a Chinese-made semi-automatic rifle, similar to the AK-47, killing five children and wounding twenty-nine others and a teacher. The victims, Raphanar Or (9), Ran Chun (8), Sokhim An (6), Oeun Lim (8) and Thuy Tran (6), were all Cambodian immigrants, except for Tran who was born in Vietnam. [1] Purdy, who had carved the words "freedom", "victory", and "Hezbollah" on his weapon and written "PLO", "Libya", and "death to the Great Satin" (sic) on his flak jacket, then took his own life.[

September 26, 1988 Greenwood, South Carolina, USA 19 year old James Wilson opened fire at Oakland Elementary School, killing two eight year old girls and wounding nine others, seven of whom were children. He had been taking several psychiatric drugs at the time, including Valium, Halcion, and Xanax.

May 20, 1988 Winnetka, Illinois, USA 30-year-old Laurie Dann walked into a second grade classroom at Hubbard Woods Elementary School carrying three pistols and began shooting children, killing eight-year-old Nicholas Corwin and wounding five others before fleeing. She entered a nearby house where she shot and wounded a 20-year-old man before killing herself.

March 2, 1987 Missouri, USA After constant teasing and humiliation about his weight, Nathan Ferris armed himself with a pistol and killed a fellow student after he bullied him in class. He then turned the gun on himself.

January 21, 1985 Kansas, USA Armed with an M-1A Semi-Automatic Rifle and a .357 Pistol, 14 year old James Kearbey fatally shot his principal and wounded 3 other teachers and a student at Goddard Junior High School.

January 29, 1979 San Diego, California, USA Armed with a .22 rifle she had been given for Christmas, 17-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire at Cleveland Elementary School. She wounded eight children and one police officer and killed two adults. When the six-hour incident ended, she was asked of her motive for the killing, to which she shrugged and replied "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day." Soon after, the Dublin punk band Boomtown Rats wrote the song "I Don't Like Mondays" which was based on the incident

July 12, 1976 On July 12, 1976 Edward Charles Allaway, a custodian at the Cal State Fullerton library, shot nine people in the basement and first floor of the library with a .22 rifle. Seven of these died. The shootings occured shortly before 9:00 am, when the library was scheduled to open for students. The victims were fellow employees of the library. Allaway fled the building after the shooting to a nearby hotel where his wife worked. He called police and confessed to the shootings. Police picked him up and found the .22 rifle in the back of his car. He was later found guilty of six counts of first degree murder and one count of second degree murder. However, a second phase of the trial determined that he was not sane. Five different professionals diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. He had a history of mental illness. He was commiteed to the State mental hospital system, where he remains. Allaway's motive was that he thought pornographers were forcing his wife to appear in movies. His wife filed for divorce just before the shooting. The defense established that commercial pornographic movies were being shown by library staff members before opening and in break rooms, but Allaway's wife was not in them.

May 28, 1975 Brampton, Ontario, Canada Michael Slobodian, 16, kills a teacher and student and wounds 13 others at Centennial Secondary School in Brampton, Ont., before shooting himself.

December 30, 1974 Olean, New York, USA 18-year-old honor student Anthony Barbaro blockaded himself into a third story classroom at his high school and opened fire on those below, killing three people and wounding eleven. He later hanged himself while awaiting trial. A drama was written about the incident entitled Sniper.

August 1, 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) is known for ascending The University of Texas at Austin's 27-story tower on August 1, 1966, and shooting passersby in the city and on the campus below, after having killed his mother and his wife the night before. In all Whitman killed 15 people and wounded 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin police. (Some accounts allege 16 or 17 victims, citing a later suicide stemming from the attacks, and a pregnant woman who subsequently miscarried.) At autopsy Whitman was found to have suffered from a brain tumor affecting the limbic system.
September 15th, 1959 The Poe Elementary School Attack was a school massacre that occurred in Houston, Texas on September 15th, 1959. Six people, including the perpetrator, were killed. Paul Orgeron was a tile-setter from South Houston, Texas who had been attempting to enroll his son Dusty into elementary school. Orgeron and his son had been living in a boarding house under the psuedonym of Bob Silver, for reasons unknown, in the timeframe prior to the massacre. They were said to have been quiet and never made any trouble. On September 15, around 10:00 AM, Orgeron and his son approached a teacher who was about to enter one of the classrooms. At the time he was carrying a brown suitcase with unknown contents. The teacher was given two pieces of paper by Orgeron and asked to read them. According to the teacher the papers were completely illegible, and she was unable to understand them. While she tried to read the notes Orgeron mumbled under his breath about "having power in a suitcase," and the will of God.

May 18, 1927 The Bath School disaster May 18, 1927
The Bath School disaster was a series of bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School. The bombings constituted the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history, claiming more than three times as many victims as the Columbine High School massacre.
The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe, who was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building. He blamed the additional tax for financial hardships which led to foreclosure proceedings against his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to plan his attack.
On the morning of May 18, Kehoe first killed his wife and then set his farm buildings on fire. As fire fighters arrived at the farm, an explosion devastated the north wing of the school building, killing many of the people inside. Kehoe used a detonator to ignite dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol which he had secretly planted inside the school over the course of many months. As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent and killing and injuring several others. During the rescue efforts, searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of unexploded dynamite and pyrotol planted throughout the basement of the school's south wing.