Major Mass Shooting Timeline

Introduction

Since the turn of the century, the United States has experienced scores of mass shootings. Using the mass shooting definition from the Gun Violence Archive (three or more people shot or killed), the United States has averaged roughly ten mass shootings per week in 2021. Globally, the United States has one of the highest incidents of mass shootings, especially for a developed nation.

1966: University of Texas Clock Tower

CBS News

The University of Texas clock tower shooting was the first mass shooting to be covered in the era of mass media. It was aired repeatedly on major news networks. A student and former marine camped atop the tower and killed 14 individuals after killing his wife and mother. He killed the majority of his victims within 15 minutes of arriving at the clock tower. Before his rampage, he visited a psychiatrist, where he expressed concern regarding his recent feelings of violent impulses but never returned after that session. It was later revealed that a tumor was potentially pushing against his amygdala, hindering his ability to control his fight-or-flight responses. While little was done to respond to the potential correlation between mental health and mass shootings, the shooting led to new preventive security measures nationwide and across college campuses. These measures included creating more Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams and introducing new terminology like “active shooter” to make communication easier for law officials.

1999: Columbine High School

The Columbine High School shooting was the worst high school shooting to its date and added fuel to the rising political debate regarding gun control. Two students began their rampage outside the school: After only 16 minutes, the pair had killed 12 students and one teacher, in addition to injuring 20 others. Their original plan was to set off two propane bombs in the school, but they began their shooting spree when the bombs did not detonate. The tragedy had a lasting impact on the gun control debate, as it was the first major mass shooting to happen at a high school. Additionally, people across the nation watched the shooting unfold on national news networks, watching the police search the campus and urgently evacuating students. The shooting felt personal even to those who did not have a direct connection to Columbine.

2007: Virginia Tech

Britannica

Britannica

The Virginia Tech shooting is the most deadly school shooting in U.S. history. The shooter used two handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition to take the lives of 31 people, injuring over a dozen others as well. In the wake of the shooting, universities and colleges took significant steps to ensure the safety of their students, such as enforcing new emergency student response protocols and text messaging alert systems. The shooter had been diagnosed with selective mutism and had seen a counselor prior to the shooting. It rekindled concerns about the potential relationship between mental health and gun violence.

2012: Sandy Hook Elementary School

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting prompted an especially visceral public response due to the age of the victims. Twenty children (mostly aged 6 and 7) and six adults were killed with two semiautomatic pistols, an AR-15, and a shotgun. The tragedy sparked debate about the relevance of the Second Amendment in the era of high-capacity assault rifles. Many gun control activists drew attention to the type of weapon and the magazines the shooter obtained, which would have been illegal under the Federal Assault Weapons Ban that expired in 2004.

2015: Charleston Church Shooting

In 2015, a white supremacist targeted a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing eight church attendants and the pastor. He attended the congregation that night, appearing as an average churchgoer, before opening fire. A survivor recalled the shooter saying African Americans were “taking over the country” before shooting, a clear racially-driven motive. The trial unveiled the shooter’s white supremacist beliefs and radicalization, which contributed to his death sentence. The shooting was the first mass shooting in recent history that overtly targeted a racial minority and sparked debates surrounding race and the confederate flag, which was featured in photos the shooter published of himself online.

2016: Pulse Nightclub

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The Pulse nightclub mass shooting was, at the time, the worst mass shooting in modern United States history. Over three hours, 49 people were killed, and 53 others were injured. Because the shooting took place at a known gay bar during Pride month, it sparked a tremendous response online. It is unclear if the act was rooted in prejudice. Despite the horrific nature of the shooting, the Florida legislature rejected four gun-control measures the day after the massacre. Gun sales increased in the days after the shooting.

2017: Las Vegas Music Festival

During a Las Vegas country music festival, a man began shooting from a hotel room 32 floors above ground towards the large crowd below. He continued for 10 minutes, leaving 58 dead and over 500 people injured. After the shooting, police uncovered 23 firearms in his room and 19 more in his home. It remains the worst mass shooting in American history, prompting heated political debate which emphasized the lethality of bump stocks. The addition of a bump stock on his semiautomatic weapon allowed the shooter to continuously fire into the crowd without having to reset his trigger.

2017: Sutherland Springs Church

Shortly after the Las Vegas music festival shooting, another mass shooting occurred at a rural church in Texas. A young man began shooting outside the church and ended up taking the lives of 26 people. During an exchange of gunfire with an armed civilian, he was killed. An investigation revealed that the shooter had multiple weapons in his car and had previously applied for a right-to-carry permit but was denied. Additionally, he was discharged from the Air Force for bad behavior and had two charges of assaulting his spouse and child. With the newly revealed information, debates ensued about the efficacy of background checks. It simultaneously raised the question of what would have happened had the civilian not been armed.

2018: Stoneman Douglas High School

Vanity Fair

Years after the last deadly school shooting, another tragedy occurred on Valentine’s Day in Parkland, Florida. An expelled student arrived at Stoneman Douglas High School with a legally purchased AR-15 and proceeded to kill 17 people, injuring 17 others. Following the shooting, concerns surrounded his legal purchase of these weapons and past behavior. The school shooting led to the most profound response from gun control activists yet, initiating student walkouts across the country and creating March for Our Lives, a demonstration led by survivors of the shooting. Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a bill requiring all buyers to be 21 years of age and a 3-day waiting period for any firearm transaction.

2019: El Paso, Texas Walmart

A man began opening fire on customers and workers at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, 650 miles from his residence in Allen, Texas. Armed with an AK-47, the shooter killed 23 people and injured 23 others. Unlike other mass shootings, authorities strongly considered this a hate crime considering the distance the shooter traveled and the high Hispanic population in El Paso. Additionally, they suspected the shooter of writing an online white nationalist manifesto. Local and state representatives called for greater gun control. However, Attorney General Ken Paxton believed gun control would have done little to prevent the attack.

2021: Boulder, Colorado Supermarket and Atlanta, Georgia Spa Shootings

In one week, the country grieved the victims of two tragic mass shootings. On March 16, 2021, a man went from spa to spa in Atlanta, Georgia, killing anyone he saw. At the end of the rampage, he had killed six women of Asian descent and two others. Prosecutors sought to indict him with hate-crime charges in addition to charges of murder. His defense labeled the act as an aggressive outburst against his sex addiction, for which he had visited the spas for prostitution.

Six days later, on March 22, 2021, another tragedy occurred at a local grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. A shooter entered the store with a Ruger AR-556 pistol he legally purchased just a week before the incident, killing 10. While not related to each other, the unlikely proximity of the two shootings in the same week was worrisome for many gun control proponents. The Biden administration subsequently called for stricter gun laws.

2022: NYC Subway Violence

Daily News

Daily News

On April 12, 2022, a tragic scene unfolded in a New York City subway. A shooter wearing a gas mask entered the subway throwing smoke bombs and opening fire. The gunman shot 10 commuters, with an additional 13 injured from smoke inhalation or the crowd fleeing the subway car. Authorities launched a citywide search for the shooter as he escaped into America’s most populous metropolis.

According to law enforcement, the suspect left numerous clues at the crime scene, including the gun used in the attack, a credit card in his name, and keys to a U-Haul he rented. Authorities released photos of the individual, asking for the public’s help to locate him. A bystander Zack Tahhan saw the Brooklyn subway shooting suspect walking down the sidewalk with a bag over his shoulder and alerted nearby officers. Authorities arrested the 62-year-old suspect, ending the nearly 30-hour search. Federal prosecutors charged him with a federal terrorism offense shortly after his arrest. When convicted, he faced life in prison.

With the suspected gunman in custody, many have turned their attention to how the gunman got away undetected. According to authorities, the shooter was able to get onto a separate train after the incident and escaped into the city after it reached the next station. In addition, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) surveillance camera in the Sunset Park station was not working during the shooting, making it easier for the suspect to escape prompting an investigation.

Many have questioned the shooter’s motive, as authorities never publicly revealed one. On a now-removed YouTube account, the suspect criticized Mayor Eric Adams’ public safety and homeless policies. As a black man, he also posted bigoted tirades claiming a looming race war between white and Black people in the United States. He repeatedly threatened violence and made hateful remarks about white people, Black people, Jewish people, and Mexicans. YouTube took down the suspect’s channel for violating the platform’s community guidelines. Some on the Right pointed to this incident as evidence of the rise of Black Identity Extremism, which the FBI classified as a terrorist threat, and call back to the Waukesha Christmas parade; where a black indentity expremist drove a vehicle into a crowd killing a group of grandmothers and injuring 62 others, including children, in a racially motivated attack. Those on the Left say the attack highlights the need for stricter gun laws, as the suspect had a history of criminal activity and mental health struggles.

A year before the attack, then-candidate Eric Adams faced a crowded Democratic primary but emerged victorious in July. Adams, a former police captain, heavily campaigned on reducing crime in NYC — specifically subway crime. While many of Adam’s opponents called for cutting the police department’s budget, he vowed to increase police patrols. Amid growing violent crime in NYC and across the country, several high-profile incidents in the subways have shocked the city during Adams’ tenure. There was an uptick in assaults on the subways in 2021 and an incident in late January 2022 brought national attention to subway crimes as an attacker pushed a woman to her death on the tracks. These cases have drawn renewed scrutiny to Adams’ approach to crime in NYC. As Adams argued for more police presence, activists criticized the plan and saying it would only worsen existing problems.

2022: Buffalo, New York Tops Market Shooting

Supermarket Attack. A gunman killed 10 patrons and injured three others at Tops Supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York. He was wearing tactical gear while a helmet camera live-streamed the attack. Police say a store security guard fired at the suspect, but the gunman was unaffected in his bulletproof vest. The shooter drove over 200 miles to the Buffalo grocery store.

Hate Crime. The incident is the city’s worst mass shooting ever. Eleven of the 13 victims were Black. Authorities investigated the incident as a hate crime after several officials — including FBI personnel, the Erie County Sheriff, and the regional U.S. Attorney — said the shooting was racially motivated. The gunman plead not guilty to murder in the first degreeand faced a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole.

Race Replacement. According to the shooter’s manifesto, he specifically targeted the supermarket as it was in a zip code with a high density of Black residents. The shooter’s calls for violence against Black and Jewish people arose from his belief in Replacement Theory, a racist argument claiming the government intentionally dilutes white people’s power by increasing non-white birthrates and encouraging immigration.

In-Justification. Authorities say the gunman had extensively researched other white supremacist attacks, like the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand. The shooter cited a series of racially motivated statistics and racially essentialist theories used to paint Black people and Jews as inferior. These selectively edited statistics fail to account for secondary factors influencing the outcome of the stat. The various memes and images the shooter sourced from 4chan are commonly cited misconceptions by white supremacists.

To learn more about how online message boards like 4chan can influence politics, view Civil’s coverage here.

Making a Point. According to the 18-year-old’s manifesto, the shooting was meant to illustrate the ineffectiveness of gun control laws in preventing an act of terror. To this end, he used the Bushmaster rifle manufactured during the federal Assault Weapons Ban, illegally modified his gun to exceed New York’s 10-bullet limit, and used a hunting rifle commonly exempted from gun control laws. While officials say the guns were purchased legally, New York prohibits selling the magazines he used.

Mayor Responds. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown (D) called on Congress to pass gun reform and regulate hate speech on social media sites. He said those “on one side of the aisle” who continuously block such legislation seemingly “believe owning a gun is more precious than the sanctity of human life.”

Federal Inaction. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said congressional Democrats and the Biden administration remained committed to gun law reform but blamed Republican opposition and the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold for federal inaction.

Tech’s Responsibility? New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) echoed her fellow Democrats’ calls for gun reform. She also slammed social media platforms, arguing that the live-streaming of the attack proved these outlets do not sufficiently monitor extremist content on their sites. A Twitch spokesperson said the platform took down the video two minutes after the shooting began and highlighted its “zero-tolerance policy” against violence.

Rising Crime. Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-NY), who was running against Hochul to become governor, tweeted a statement of grief and suggested the shooting exemplified a broader rise in hate and violent crime in the state. Some Republicans have further argued that hate crimes from the Waukesha Christmas Attack to the NYC Subway Shooter have shown a broader pattern of racially motivated attacks.

2022: Uvalde, Texas Elementary Shooting

Facts on the Ground. A gunman entered an elementary school through an unlocked side door in Uvalde, Texas, barricaded himself inside a classroom, and killed 19 students and two teachers. It was the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Texas officials have since confirmed that the 18-year-old gunman legally purchased the rifle days before the shooting. Authorities also say he killed his grandmother after a contentious argument before traveling to the school.

Strange Behavior. The shooter had attended Uvalde’s high school and worked at a local Wendy’s. The manager stated that he “kept to himself mostly. […] He felt like the quiet type, the one who doesn’t say much. He didn’t really socialize with the other employees.”

A young woman who had worked with Ramos said he appeared to be aggressive: “He would be very rude towards the girls sometimes, and one of the cooks.” A former friend of the shooter indicated that they had been friends until the shooter’s behavior started to “deteriorate,” adding that he was often bullied because of a stutter and a lisp. The gunman allegedly “slowly dropped out” of school after this bullying. Another person who knew the gunman claimed he would shoot at strangers with a BB gun from a car.

Online Messages. Hours before the attack, the shooter messaged a young woman, who was a total stranger, on Instagram after tagging her in a photo of his newly purchased guns. That Instagram account also posted pictures of two rifles and ammunition, with another image showing an individual holding a magazine.

A former classmate stated that the shooter had posted videos to Instagram of himself screaming at his mother and cursing at her as she tried to kick him out of the house. Another classmate said that he texted him photos of ammunition and firearms.

40 Minute Spree. Many scrutinized law enforcement’s response to the shooting, questioning whether officers acted quickly enough. Authorities were focusing on an early timeline of law enforcement’s convergence on the school, as some community members pleaded for officers to storm the building. In a video shared online, parents and family members screamed at the heavily armed officers standing outside the building, demanding they do more. Officers prevented those around from entering the school — even detaining one father — for 40 minutes before a Border Patrol agent breached the classroom and killed the shooter.

A major element of the investigation was focused on the district resource officer, who allegedly fired at the shooter as he entered the school. Texas Department of Public Safety officials initially said that the officer and shooter exchanged fire but later said that they could no longer be confident that he discharged his weapon; causing confusion for those seeking answers.

Beto Barging In. At a news conference on Wednesday, May 25, Beto O’Rourke (running for Governor against Abbott) called on state officials to take accountability for the Uvalde shooting. O’Rourke said to Governor Abbott: “This is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything.” O’Rourke later advocated for better mental health measures in the state of Texas. O’Rourke was frustrated with the lack of efforts by Republican leaders to prevent mass shootings. Despite Beto advocating for better gun control, much of the audience at the news conference disagreed. The Mayor of Uvalde shouted back at O’Rourke: “You are out of line!” for interrupting the press conference in an apparent political stunt.

Increased School Security. At the time, many proposed potential solutions to prevent future mass shootings in schools. One such solution was an increase in armed security guards at schools. Some schools had already “hired armed guards” while other security measures had been taken, including locking classroom doors, using bulletproof windows, and metal detectors. Now in Texas, teachers are trained to have handguns in their classrooms through a school marshall program.

A small-scale solution posited by Republican Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is the use of a “single door policy.” This suggestion was brought forward by the Senator citing that the shooter used an unlocked side door to enter the school with ease. The idea, however, has been criticized as impractical for fire drills by opponents.