Trend: Are school shootings becoming more frequent?

SpookyWriter · Oct 2, 2006

After reading about the Amish tragedy, I did a little research and came up with this timeline of school shootings worldwide (but a majority are in the U.S), not including the most recent events.

So why is this happening? Why school kids?

A Time Line of Recent Worldwide School Shootings

Feb. 2, 1996
Moses Lake, Wash.Two students and one teacher killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra class.March 13, 1996
Dunblane, Scotland16 children and one teacher killed at Dunblane Primary School by Thomas Hamilton, who then killed himself. 10 others wounded in attack.Feb. 19, 1997
Bethel, AlaskaPrincipal and one student killed, two others wounded by Evan Ramsey, 16.March 1997
Sanaa, YemenEight people (six students and two others) at two schools killed by Mohammad Ahman al-Naziri.Oct. 1, 1997
Pearl, Miss.Two students killed and seven wounded by Luke Woodham, 16, who was also accused of killing his mother. He and his friends were said to be outcasts who worshiped Satan.Dec. 1, 1997
West Paducah, Ky.Three students killed, five wounded by Michael Carneal, 14, as they participated in a prayer circle at Heath High School.Dec. 15, 1997
Stamps, Ark.Two students wounded. Colt Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot.March 24, 1998
Jonesboro, Ark.Four students and one teacher killed, ten others wounded outside as Westside Middle School emptied during a false fire alarm. Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, shot at their classmates and teachers from the woods.April 24, 1998
Edinboro, Pa.One teacher, John Gillette, killed, two students wounded at a dance at James W. Parker Middle School. Andrew Wurst, 14, was charged.May 19, 1998
Fayetteville, Tenn.One student killed in the parking lot at Lincoln County High School three days before he was to graduate. The victim was dating the ex-girlfriend of his killer, 18-year-old honor student Jacob Davis.May 21, 1998
Springfield, Ore.Two students killed, 22 others wounded in the cafeteria at Thurston High School by 15-year-old Kip Kinkel. Kinkel had been arrested and released a day earlier for bringing a gun to school. His parents were later found dead at home.June 15, 1998
Richmond, Va.One teacher and one guidance counselor wounded by a 14-year-old boy in the school hallway. April 20, 1999
Littleton, Colo.14 students (including killers) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at Columbine High School in the nation's deadliest school shooting. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. At the end of their hour-long rampage, they turned their guns on themselves.April 28, 1999
Taber, Alberta, CanadaOne student killed, one wounded at W. R. Myers High School in first fatal high school shooting in Canada in 20 years. The suspect, a 14-year-old boy, had dropped out of school after he was severely ostracized by his classmates.May 20, 1999
Conyers, Ga.Six students injured at Heritage High School by Thomas Solomon, 15, who was reportedly depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend.Nov. 19, 1999
Deming, N.M.Victor Cordova Jr., 12, shot and killed Araceli Tena, 13, in the lobby of Deming Middle School.Dec. 6, 1999
Fort Gibson, Okla.Four students wounded as Seth Trickey, 13, opened fire with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at Fort Gibson Middle School.Dec. 7, 1999
Veghel, NetherlandsOne teacher and three students wounded by a 17-year-old student.Feb. 29, 2000
Mount Morris Township, Mich.Six-year-old Kayla Rolland shot dead at Buell Elementary School near Flint, Mich. The assailant was identified as a six-year-old boy with a .32-caliber handgun. March 2000
Branneburg, GermanyOne teacher killed by a 15-year-old student, who then shot himself. The shooter has been in a coma ever since.March 10, 2000
Savannah, Ga.Two students killed by Darrell Ingram, 19, while leaving a dance sponsored by Beach High School.May 26, 2000
Lake Worth, Fla.One teacher, Barry Grunow, shot and killed at Lake Worth Middle School by Nate Brazill, 13, with .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol on the last day of classes.Sept. 26, 2000
New Orleans, La.Two students wounded with the same gun during a fight at Woodson Middle School.Jan. 17, 2001
Baltimore, Md.One student shot and killed in front of Lake Clifton Eastern High School.Jan. 18, 2001
Jan, SwedenOne student killed by two boys, ages 17 and 19.March 5, 2001
Santee, Calif.Two killed and 13 wounded by Charles Andrew Williams, 15, firing from a bathroom at Santana High School.March 7, 2001
Williamsport, Pa.Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14, wounded student Kimberly Marchese in the cafeteria of Bishop Neumann High School; she was depressed and frequently teased.March 22, 2001
Granite Hills, Calif.One teacher and three students wounded by Jason Hoffman, 18, at Granite Hills High School. A policeman shot and wounded Hoffman.March 30, 2001
Gary, Ind.One student killed by Donald R. Burt, Jr., a 17-year-old student who had been expelled from Lew Wallace High School.Nov. 12, 2001
Caro, Mich.Chris Buschbacher, 17, took two hostages at the Caro Learning Center before killing himself.Jan. 15, 2002
New York, N.Y.A teenager wounded two students at Martin Luther King Jr. High School.Feb. 19, 2002
Freising, GermanyTwo killed in Eching by a man at the factory from which he had been fired; he then traveled to Freising and killed the headmaster of the technical school from which he had been expelled. He also wounded another teacher before killing himself.April 26, 2002
Erfurt, Germany13 teachers, two students, and one policeman killed, ten wounded by Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, at the Johann Gutenberg secondary school. Steinhaeuser then killed himself.April 29, 2002
Vlasenica, Bosnia-HerzegovinaOne teacher killed, one wounded by Dragoslav Petkovic, 17, who then killed himself.April 14, 2003
New Orleans, La. One 15-year-old killed, and three students wounded at John McDonogh High School by gunfire from four teenagers (none were students at the school). The motive was gang-related. April 24, 2003
Red Lion, Pa. James Sheets, 14, killed principal Eugene Segro of Red Lion Area Junior High School before killing himself.Sept. 24, 2003
Cold Spring, Minn.Two students are killed at Rocori High School by John Jason McLaughlin, 15. Sept. 28, 2004
Carmen de Patagones, ArgentinaThree students killed and 6 wounded by a 15-year-old Argentininan student in a town 620 miles south of Buenos Aires. March 21, 2005
Red Lake, Minn. Jeff Weise, 16, killed grandfather and companion, then arrived at school where he killed a teacher, a security guard, 5 students, and finally himself, leaving a total of 10 dead. Nov. 8, 2005
Jacksboro, Tenn. One 15-year-old shot and killed an assistant principal at Campbell County High School and seriously wounded two other administrators. Sept. 26, 2006
Bailey, Colo.Adult male held six students hostage at Platte Canyon High School and then shot and killed Emily Keyes, 16, and himself.

Christine N. · Oct 2, 2006

The one in Colorado I don't get. How did a homeless man a) get a gun and b) get into the school. Around here it's lockdown. You have to always enter through the main door and I know in the elementary and middle schools, be buzzed in.

cree · Oct 2, 2006

Another thought I had since posting in the other thread re: amish shootings. Are these shootings evolving suddenly from being something disgruntled teens do, to something ADULTS do? The last three I have heard about (happening within the last month) include shooters age 25 and up.

blacbird · Oct 2, 2006

Christine N. said:
The one in Colorado I don't get. How did a homeless man a) get a gun and b) get into the school. Around here it's lockdown. You have to always enter through the main door and I know in the elementary and middle schools, be buzzed in.

He evidently got the gun, somehow, from his brother. Regards the school, security really depends on where you live. In my son's high school, just down the street from me, a big school in a fair-sized city with attendant urban problems, anybody can walk in the front door, even check in at the front desk and get a sticker to put on your shirt, and walk freely through the school. It's that way at every public school in town. Most rural schools in the nation have no real security at all.

This crap keeps up, it could change, right quick. Of course, increased security will cost money, and we all know how taxpayers will react to that.

caw.

cree · Oct 2, 2006

blacbird said:
This crap keeps up, it could change, right quick. Of course, increased security will cost money, and we all know how taxpayers will react to that.

caw.

How does that old bumper sticker go....schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber...

Christine N. · Oct 2, 2006

Makes me want to lock my son inside and not let him out. He goes to daycare at a high school. Fortunately the door to the room is locked all day, and they have a fenced in outdoor play yard where they could go should someone enter.

But it scares me. And I work in a middle school. We have a card with the 'codes' on it that I keep with my ID. Red means fire, evacuate, green is OK. Code Blue means lock yourself in your room and keep away from the doors and windows.

I am afraid of code blue. I can handle fire.

Rolling Thunder · Oct 2, 2006

Is this thread in regards to the shootings in Lancaster, PA. today?

Christine N. · Oct 2, 2006

There'a a whole other thread dealing with that directly, but this one is about the alarming trend of shootings in schools.

Guns are just too accessible, and in the case of the kids shooting classrooms, anger issues are not being dealt with. Bullies are allowed to run rampant, and victims of bullying not taught how to deal, fight back, or move past it.

The adults doing it are just nuts.

Wordworm · Oct 2, 2006

At the risk of pointing out the obvious...isn't it time the U.S. got serious about gun control?

We up here in Canada, living right next to you with a similar population mix and culture, don't seem have the same degree of problems you have down there (Exhibit A: only one Canadian incident on Spooky's list). Here, we keep seeing the stories about kids accidentally blowing away other little kids with guns they've found, and incidents like this one in Pennsylvania, and all we can do is shake our heads when the only response to the problem seems to be the old saw "Guns don't kill people...etc"

Christine N. · Oct 2, 2006

Problem is, is that anyone who really REALLY wants a gun is going to get one, no matter what kind of control you put in place. Gun control only affects the people who obey the law.

I'm not a fan of guns, either. I won't have one in my house. My dad has a couple, but keeps them in a locked gun safe on the second floor of his house, well out of reach of his grandchildren.

Trigger locks are also mandatory I think now too - again, anyone who really wants to shoot a gun will find one without one.

This man was not wanted for anything and did not have any kind of record. I'm assuming he owned his guns legally and there was no reason to deny him a permit to own them. He just flipped out.

SpookyWriter · Oct 2, 2006

Wordworm said:
Here, we keep seeing the stories about kids accidentally blowing away other little kids with guns they've found, and incidents like this one in Pennsylvania, and all we can do is shake our heads when the only response to the problem seems to be the old saw "Guns don't kill people...etc"

My son mentioned to me yesterday how he found my gun (previous home) in the attic when he and a friend went up to explore. Now I kept it hidden, no bullets, and would never think that he'd find it. So, what scares me is that had I not kept the bullets somewhere else what would have happened that day?

I will never own another gun because I believe we don't need them in our society. We are not the same people two hundred years ago and so why should we need guns for a militia?

I am afraid that getting killed in America by gun owners, outlaws, and thugs is far easier than anywhere else in the world -- except the obvious countries -- and the thought that I could be killed because a driver got upset with me is spooky.

Wordworm · Oct 2, 2006

Christine N. said:
Problem is, is that anyone who really REALLY wants a gun is going to get one, no matter what kind of control you put in place. Gun control only affects the people who obey the law.

Yeah, I think we figured that out, too. And of course, you're right. But you know, that's no reason to avoid controlling access to more guns. Ya gotta start somewhere.

We all know that the real problem is the fact that in the U.S. there are so many guns floating around in the first place, and that owning a gun is so "socially acceptable," if I can use that phrase. And that's a problem.

Now me, I don't even know anybody who owns a gun. I wouldn't know where to find a gun if I had to. Guns have never been front and centre as an accepted part of life. I don't know anyone who has been shot, or anyone who knows anyone who has been shot. Somebody getting shot is front page news here in Toronto, even if they don't die—and we're a city of over 2 million people. And the only difference is tougher accessibility and tighter laws.

It may sound simplistic to say: pass some laws. But given enough time, I think that approach works better than just shrugging and saying, "we gotta have 'em 'cause all the bad guys have 'em." The rest of the civilized world has somehow managed to live without guns. I think the U.S. could, too.

SpookyWriter · Oct 2, 2006

Wordworm said:
The rest of the civilized world has somehow managed to live without guns.

And there lies the problem. Is America really civilized or just a wild west show that hasn't managed to settle down into a true republic. Maybe the problem is that Americans feel as though they still live in the old west.

When I came into Phoenix a week ago, I saw a biker with a gun strapped to his side. Now that's something I wouldn't see in many parts of America, but heck Arizona had Mechum gum for governer.

Wordworm · Oct 2, 2006

SpookyWriter said:
And there lies the problem. Is America really civilized or just a wild west show that hasn't managed to settle down into a true republic. Maybe the problem is that Americans feel as though they still live in the old west.

When I came into Phoenix a week ago, I saw a biker with a gun strapped to his side. Now that's something I wouldn't see in many parts of America, but heck Arizona had Mechum gum for governer.

One time a few years ago, I went to a four-day event in Phoenix (all expenses paid as a member of the press, I might add, but those invitations are getting rarer) where I saw cowboys walking around just like the Old Wild West days, guns in holsters hanging from their hips. I was told that Arizona is one of the few states that allows guns to be worn on the outside of your clothing.

As "tourists" we were driven out into the desert, where I shot a gun at a target for the first (and only) time in my life. It was clear that guns and shooting were an accepted part of the lifestyle there, but to me it was pretty amazing. Lethal weapons apparently as common as flies, and folks casually accepting the idea that everyone should walk around displaying their hardware like jewelry. But I get the impression that most Americans would listen to me and think, geez, silly Canadian, what's wrong with him?

Christine N. · Oct 2, 2006

I'd have to say that in rural Arizona and parts of the desert that a gun would do you more good - coyotes and mountain cats still do attack people out there.

There's just no need for them in cities. Every day there are reports of innocent people caught in the crossfire from some drug war, gang war, whatever. The last one was a five year old girl, who was in her mother's car when the bullet pieced it and went into her head. The responsible party actually fessed up to it, acted like a man and turned himself in. Of course if he were a man in the first place he wouldn't be involved in such things.

So the criminals here have all the guns - you know none of them are legal.

SpookyWriter · Oct 2, 2006

I wonder how many of the school shootings could have been prevented had we (Americans) bothered to take hand guns out of the hands of civilians.

I wonder if we really need to have hand guns at all considering they are the most common weapon of choice for murder and violent crimes.

I wonder when someone is going to walk up to me and shoot me because I cut in front of them at the bank.

I wonder when the next school shooting will occur and what will it take for people to wake up and realize that we have a serious problem that won't go away with frivolous background checks.

I wonder...who's next? When will another John Hinckley finally succeed.

AnneMarble · Oct 2, 2006

cree said:
Another thought I had since posting in the other thread re: amish shootings. Are these shootings evolving suddenly from being something disgruntled teens do, to something ADULTS do? The last three I have heard about (happening within the last month) include shooters age 25 and up.

And don't forget the time the DC snipers shot and wounded a boy outside a school in Rockville, Maryland (in October 7, 2002). While Malvo was (apparently) a minor at the time, the other sh!thead (John Allen Muhammad) was an adult in his 40s. If that boy's aunt (who brought him to school) hadn't been a nurse who knew to drive him right to the hospital, he'd be dead like so many of the other Sniper victims.

cree · Oct 2, 2006

Say what you want about Michael Moore, but Bowling for Columbine has some valid points. I agree with the Canadian posters, since I live my life "straddling the border" -- an American citizen who writes and spends a lot of time in Canada. The fundamental culture of guns is different.

Rolling Thunder · Oct 2, 2006

SpookyWriter said:
I wonder how many of the school shootings could have been prevented had we (Americans) bothered to take hand guns out of the hands of civilians.

I wonder if we really need to have hand guns at all considering they are the most common weapon of choice for murder and violent crimes.

I wonder when someone is going to walk up to me and shoot me because I cut in front of them at the bank.

I wonder when the next school shooting will occur and what will it take for people to wake up and realize that we have a serious problem that won't go away with frivolous background checks.

I wonder...who's next? When will another John Hinckley finally succeed.

Case in counter point, Spooky:

I could have never imagined in my entire life that a few, determined animals could use utility knives to bring down an airplane.

The tool used is of little significance; we write about various methods that are far more insidious. Murder is a trait human beings have been practicing since the dawn of our time. That might sound cold, but it is an inconvenient truth.

I doubt anyone of sound mind will ever figure out an answer to the simple question: Why?

Sheryl Nantus · Oct 2, 2006

I'm more worried about the sudden trend of separating the women from the men and then killing the females.

Marc Lepine did it twenty years ago in Montreal and we thought it was a crisis then... is there that much hatred against women getting an education or what?

Christine N. · Oct 2, 2006

I think this particular maniac had something against one particular woman or girl and took it out on the first bunch he could get his hands on.

That's the trouble - anyone who really wants to harm will find a way to do it.

9-11 was carried out with boxcutters, remember. Then airplanes became bombs. No guns involved, but mass destruction.

Wordworm · Oct 2, 2006

Christine N. said:
I think this particular maniac had something against one particular woman or girl and took it out on the first bunch he could get his hands on.

That's the trouble - anyone who really wants to harm will find a way to do it.

9-11 was carried out with boxcutters, remember. Then airplanes became bombs. No guns involved, but mass destruction.

I'm not so sure this is a valid comparison. Clearly 9-11 was one ideology attacking another ideology in a premeditated act of destruction.

Guns-as-part-of-the-culture, on the other hand, enables an environment where people can be killed at random by individuals who simply lose their tempers on the freeway, or because they happen to get in the way in a convenience store robbery, or because someone forgot to lock a drawer, or any number of similar "controllable" situations (I couldn't think of a better word than controllable).

Christine N. · Oct 2, 2006

My point was that they really want to harm someone. Clearly the incident today was someone who was hellbent on harm, and would have found another way could he not have gotten his hands on a gun.

I agree though, that it takes quite a bit of the thought process out - guns are instant and detatched. If you have to hack someone with a big knife, that's much more personal and messy.

Wordworm · Oct 2, 2006

Yes, I think that was the point I was trying to make. It seems to me that the easy availability of weapons is the issue, and that's the big difference in Canada and Europe. We'd have to work a lot harder to lay our hands on a gun.

BradyH1861 · Oct 2, 2006

I'm a police officer. My wife teaches High School Math. Her job, in my opinion, is more dangerous than mine. I have the capability and the training to defend myself. She does not. I've been working with her on some defensive moves, etc. But they really don't work when someone is outside of arms reach and pointing a gun at you.

B.

Trend: Are school shootings becoming more frequent?

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