What we know about mass school shootings in America — and gunmen who commit them

WHEN THE COLUMBINE High School massacre took place in 1999 it was seen as a watershed moment in the United States — the worst mass shooting at a school in the country’s history.

Now, it ranks fourth. The three school shootings to surpass its death toll of 13 — 12 students, one teacher — have all taken place within the last decade: 2012’s Sandy Hook Elementary attack, in which a gunman killed 26 children and school staff; the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which claimed the lives of 17 people; and now the Robb Elementary School assault in Uvalde, Texas, where on May 24, 2022, at least 19 children and two adults were murdered.