The Guns Used in the 20 Worst School Shootings in US History

In the first of three California school shootings on the list, three men — 20-year-old Abraham Molina, 20-year-old Mark Aceves, and 19-year-old Cesar Lopez — were arrested and charged with the deaths of three young men, slain in the parking lot of Golden West High School. The three alleged assailants were suspected Sureno gang members.

It is not known why the victims were shot at the parking lot. Police said none were known gang members and no weapons were found in their cars.

In one of the most shocking episodes in Essex County history, three Delaware State University students were executed on the grounds of Mount Vernon Elementary School in Newark by six gang members. A fourth student was wounded and survived. The four friends were listening to music in the schoolyard when they were robbed by gang members and then shot. All six of the assailants received life sentences.

Barry Dale Loukaitis, 14, killed his algebra teacher and two students and held his classmates hostage before he was subdued by a gym coach until police arrived. The assailant, dressed as a cowboy, had planned the shooting. He had made references to a Pearl Jam song about commiting suicide at school, a Stephen King book “Rage,” and the movie “Natural Born Killers.” His friends described him as smart and nerdy, but his parents were in the middle of a bitter divorce before the incident.

Loukaitis, 16 years old when his trial ended, was tried as an adult. He was convicted of murder and kidnapping and sentenced to two life terms plus 205 years with no chance of parole. On April 19, 2017, he was re-sentenced to 189 years in prison.

T.J. Lane, wearing a T-shirt with the word “killer” written on it, walked into the cafeteria of his former high school and began firing a handgun at random students. After the 18-year-old was apprehended, he said had no reason for picking out any of them.

At his sentencing, he wore another T-shirt with “killer” written on it, showed no remorse, and even made obscene statements and gestures to the victims’ families. Lane pled guilty and was sentenced to life without parole.

Michael Carneal was 14 years old when he wrapped up a rifle, shotgun, and .22 pistol in blankets and went to school. He stopped at a prayer circle and as students concluded their prayers, took out the pistol and fired eight shots killing three and wounding five.

Carneal claimed voices in his head told him to fire the weapon. He was sent to a mental health institution where he was diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder and later paranoid schizophrenia. In 2022, the Kentucky Parole Board denied parole to the 39-year-old Carneal, who is serving a life sentence.

Anthony Barbaro, a champion rifle team member and honor student, began firing at random targets in the street from the third and fourth floor windows of Olean High School in New York, which was in recess for the holidays. He killed a janitor in the school, a man walking in the street, and a woman driving a car past the school. He wounded seven others, most of them firemen trying to retrieve the fatally wounded man in the street. After a 2.5-hour standoff, police stormed the school and seized Barbaro, who had thrown the guns out of the window.

School officials said there were no prior indications that Barbaro was capable of the atrocity. Police later found a detailed plan in a diary. Barbaro hanged himself in prison a year later.

Clemie Henderson shot and killed two people in an auto parts store in Chicago, then fatally wounded a police officer and a custodian at Moses Montefiore Public School before he was killed by police. No students were injured. Witnesses said Henderson, a former Army soldier, carried with him anger from his time in Vietnam. Henderson, 40, who was under medication for depression, had a long list of criminal charges.

Jaylen Fryberg, a 15-year-old boy, brought a group of fellow students to a lunch table at the Marysville Pilchuck High School cafeteria and then shot them in the head, one by one, to take them with him to “the other side.” Among the four fatalities was a cousin. Then Fryberg killed himself.

Before the horrific incident, Fryberg had sent a series of text messages, including telling his family how he wanted to be buried, and then apologizing to the families whose children he was about to kill. Fryberg may have become upset following a fight he had with a fellow student and a breakup with an ex-girlfriend.

Ethan Crumbley, a 15-year-old student at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, killed four students and wounded six others and a teacher. Crumbley was arrested by police and pleaded guilty in October 2022 to terrorism and murder charges. He faces up to life in prison without parole.

Court filings revealed that Crumbley’s mother knew about her son’s unhealthy mental state when the parents bought him a gun the previous November. In an unusual action, prosecutors arrested the parents and accused them of giving their son easy access to a firearm and disregarding signs that he was a threat. They pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges.

Eric Houston, a 20-year-old dropout from Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst, California, who blamed his former history teacher, Robert Brens, for giving him a failing grade, returned to the school and killed Brens and three other students. Dressed in camouflage and brandishing a 12-gauge shotgun, a .22-caliber rifle over his back, and a band of ammunition on a belt, he also wounded 10 others. Then he took 80 students hostage for eight hours before surrendering to police.

Houston had been recently fired from an assembly line job and blamed the school and the teacher he killed for failing him. He planned the attack and waited until he got his unemployment check to buy more ammunition before the shooting. Apparently Houston had no previous mental health history. He was sentenced to death and is on death row in San Quentin State Prison in California.

Heavily armed and with supplies recently purchased to be used for a siege, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, entered the West Nickel Mines School in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, an Amish school, and barricaded the door. He released male students and older women and tied girl students’ feet together. Roberts called his wife and told her he was not coming home and that he left notes for her and their children. State police arrived and tried to talk him out of the perilous situation. Roberts demanded that the police leave in 10 seconds. Moments later, shots rang out — Roberts shot five girls ages 7 to 13 to death, wounded five others, and killed himself.

Police speculated that the shooting was to avenge something that had happened to Roberts when he was 12 years old. Roberts also claimed he had molested some young family members long ago. State Police Commissioner Col. Jeffrey B. Miller said, “He was an angry man – angry with life, angry at God.” The West Nickel Mines school was demolished and less than a year later, the New Hope School opened 200 yards away.

Andrew Golden, 11, and Mitchell Johnson, 13, killed five people and wounded 10 others in a school shooting at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1998. Johnson took his parents’ car, and he and Golden went to Golden’s grandparents house where they knew guns were unlocked. After excusing himself from his classroom to use the bathroom, Golden pulled a fire alarm and ran outside to join Johnson at a nearby construction site. From that vantage point, they had nine weapons and opened fire on the students and teachers as they filed out of the school. Four students ages 11 and 12 and a teacher were killed, and nine students and a teacher were wounded. The boys later surrendered to police.

Both boys were known bullies who aspired to join street gangs. They were released when they turned 21 because of state laws. Johnson was arrested shortly after his release for drug possession, having an unregistered handgun, and theft.

The massacre of five children ages 6 to 9 at the Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California, was a hate crime. It was committed by Patrick Purdy, a white man and drifter who had had run-ins with the law. Pury had attended the school years earlier and according to those who knew him complained about the increase in Asians in the community. The school’s student body was largely Cambodian and Vietnamese.

Purdy lit a van of fireworks near the school on fire and then shot students as they exited the building, killing five and wounding 30 other people before turning the gun on himself. The massacre led to the California legislature ban of assault-style weapons, and then to the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which took effect in 1994 before the legislation sunset 10 years later.

The most recent school shooting tragedy took place at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. The attacker was Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old former student who was under care for an emotional disorder. Three students and three adults were slain at the private Christian school, an attack that lasted about 14 minutes before the shooter was shot and killed by police. No apparent motive has been determined. Nashville police said that after meeting with the shooter’s parents and school officials, they have yet to uncover any issues or problems in the assailant’s past.

Jeffrey Weise, 16, started Minnesota’s worst mass murder by first killing his grandfather, a tribal police officer, and his grandfather’s companion. Then he donned his grandfather’s Kevlar vest and took his grandfather’s squad car to Red Lake Senior High School. He shot to death an unarmed security guard, a teacher, and five students. Weise and police exchanged gunfire and Weise was hit in the abdomen and arm. He retreated to a classroom and shot himself.

Weise was obsessed with Columbine and dressed like the Columbine killers, wearing a black trenchcoat and dark makeup. School officials knew of his violent journal online entries where he wrote about mass shootings. Apparently, Weise told other students about his plan to attack the school. His father had committed suicide and Weise’s mother was severely injured in car accident. He was in the custody of grandparents.

Dimitrios Pagourtzis, clad in a black trench coat, walked into an art classroom at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, and started firing his weapons. Eight teenage students and two teachers were killed and 13 were wounded. He spared those students he liked. Pagourtzis barricaded the classroom for 30 minutes before surrendering to the police. Police found documents in his home about the planned attack as well as improvised explosive devices, which were also found at the school. In addition, there were online posts about being “born to kill.”

This past February, a judge in Galveston County ordered Pagourtzis to remain at a state-run hospital for up to 12 more months, further delaying the trial.

The Columbine High School massacre in 1999 was the worst school shooting in the nation’s history to that point, igniting a national debate about gun control and serving as the subject matter for Michael Moore’s anti-gun polemic “Bowling For Columbine.” The perpetrators were high school seniors Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. They had intended to set off a 20-pound propane bomb in the school cafeteria during the late morning of April 20, 1999. When it failed to detonate, the pair, wearing trench coats and armed to the teeth, began shooting fellow students outside the school. They then went inside and gunned down others, many in the library. They had killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 24 others in less than 20 minutes. Shortly after 12 p.m., the two teens killed themselves after the police had surrounded the school.

Investigators eventually discovered that Klebold and Harris had been planning for a year to bomb the school in an attack similar to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Valentine’s Day in 2018 was seared with heartbreak when gunman Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people and wounded 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Law enforcement authorities said Cruz activated a fire alarm to bring people outside to increase casualties. The attack by the former Parkland high school student prompted a wave of student-led protests, including a huge demonstration in Washington, D.C. It led to bipartisan legislation in Florida that was signed by Gov. Rick Scott that raised the age to buy firearms in the state and increased mental health resources for students. The atrocity also led to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act that allows some teachers to be armed.

Cruz, who had a history of mental issues, including depression, had posted his interest on school shootings online. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The worst school shooting in Texas occurred last year when Salvador Ramos, 18, fatally shot 19 students ages 8 to 11 and two teachers and wounded 18 others at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Ramos, armed with a Daniel Defense DDM4 V7 rifle, barricaded himself inside adjoining classrooms, where he shot and killed children and their teachers who tried to shield them. Ramos was eventually killed by responding officers. The reaction by law enforcement remains a controversial subject. Among the questions asked were how and why the shooter managed to remain inside the school for more than an hour before law enforcement shot him dead.

Just before he initiated the horrific attack, Ramos allegedly sent text messages to a teenage girl in Europe whom he had met online about how he had just shot his grandmother and would “shoot up a(n) elementary school.” In earlier online posts, Ramos had displayed an AR-platform rifle, a backpack with rounds of ammunition, and several ammo magazines via online to a classmate. He also threatened to attack women he met online who rebuffed his sexual advances.

No school shooting has affected the national psyche quite like the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. On Dec. 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, in their home in Newtown with a .22-caliber rifle. She had purchased the rifle and an AR-15 and several other firearms that Lanza would use later. Before leaving the house, Lanza destroyed his computer’s hard drive, which would make evidence gathering difficult for law enforcement.

Lanza drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School for kindergarten through fourth grade where he shot 26 people, 20 of them children – the majority of whom were 6 or 7 years old. He fired 156 shots in five minutes, shouting “Look at me” and screaming obscenities before killing himself. At his home, police found a 7×4 spreadsheet listing the top 500 mass killings with weapons used and a scoresheet. Police also discovered a safe with more than 1,400 rounds of ammunition, other weapons, and a photo of Lanza holding a gun to his head. The school would be demolished in 2014 and replaced by a new building in 2016.