With another school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, yesterday, U.S. schools remain the most vulnerable institutions regarding gun violence. While 2023 has already witnessed over 100 cases of mass shootings, school shootings have only seemed to increase since 1999.

Here is a look back at America’s deadliest school shootings. 

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Columbine High School Massacre

The Columbine High School massacre took place on 20th April 1999. The perpetrators were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold- two twelfth-grade students from the school. They shot and killed a teacher and 12 students. They injured twenty-one people, after which Harris and Klebold committed suicide in the school library. They had planned to detonate propane bombs within the school cafeteria. However, when the bombs failed to set off, the two boys set off on their gun rampage. This shooting is considered one of the most dangerous school shootings in the country, having inspired numerous copycat shooters. 

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Virginia Tech Shooting

Attracting international media coverage, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University shooting was carried out by undergraduate student Seung-Hui Chong. On 16th April 2007, he opened fire with two semi-automatic pistols, killing thirty-two people and severely injuring seventeen others. Six more people were injured while jumping out of the university window to escape the gunman. After chaining down several doors and killing numerous people, Seung-Hu Chong died by suicide. 

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Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

On 14th December 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza opened fire at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Lanza had attended Sandy Hook as a boy. He was responsible for gunning down twenty-first grader children, all six to seven, and six other staff members. This is considered the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. This incident was also addressed by then-President Barack Obama, who then called for stricter gun regulations. 

Robb Elementary School Shooting  

Since Sandy Hook, the Robb Elementary School shooting on 24th May last year is considered the deadliest grade school shooting in the U.S. On a fateful day in Uvalde, Texas, a former student of the school, Salvador Ramos, 18, opened fire, leading to the death of nineteen students and two teachers. He was killed in a police crossfire after the police had to wait more than an hour to breach the classroom. 

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West Nickel Mines School Shooting

On 2nd October 2006, Charles Carl Roberts killed five female students in an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. After entering the school, the gunman ordered all male students and staff to vacate the school. He then held eleven female students hostage, in the classroom. After tying them up and calling them to face against a blackboard, Charles shot all eleven of them, killing five. Following this, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.