school shooting, In the typical case, an event in which a student at an educational institution—an elementary, middle, or high school or a college or university—shoots and injures or kills at least one other student or faculty member on the grounds of that institution. Such incidents usually involve multiple deaths. Rampage school shootings are a type of school shooting where no single or specific individual is targeted by the shooter. Although school shootings occur worldwide, the U.S. has been the scene of the vast majority of the attacks, especially since the late 20th century. Although school shootings have a long history in the U.S., the 1990s were a pivotal point, with high-profile occurrences in Pearl, Miss. (1997); West Paducah, Ky. (1997); Springfield, Ore. (1998); Jonesboro, Ark. (1998); and Littleton, Colo. (1999), in which two students at Columbine High School killed 13 people before taking their own lives. The Columbine shootings garnered massive media attention, sparking a national debate on gun violence and gun control, and prompted some schools to begin taking extra security precautions. Despite such efforts, school shootings continued, with multiple attacks taking place each year. In 2007 there were about 10 such shootings, the most notorious of which occurred at the Blacksburg, Va., campus of Virginia Tech, where 32 people were killed before the gunman took his own life. Later high-profile attacks took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. (2012), where a 20-year-old killed 27 people, including 20 young children, before committing suicide; and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. (2018), where an expelled student killed 17 people.
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