# What's the First Mass Shooting You Remember? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 20, 2018, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779 "2018-04-20T14:29:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/1 "2018-04-20T14:29:32Z")
I mean being reported when it happened not something you read about after the fact. A lot of people today are tweeting that Columbine is the first one they remember. For me it was an older one. In the 80s a guy shot up a McDonald’s in, I think, California. I believe several people died. It was all over the News and was a huge story for some time. I was a kid or just barely a teenager when that happened I think. What is the first one you remember? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/2 "2018-04-20T14:34:02Z")
University of Texas tower shooting in 1966. Charles Whitman killed 16 and injured 31. > **[University of Texas tower shooting](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting?wprov=sfla1)** > > The University of Texas tower shooting was an act of mass murder which occurred on August 1, 1966, at the University of Texas at Austin. The perpetrator, 25-year-old Marine veteran Charles Whitman, indiscriminately fired at members of the public both within the Main Building tower and from the tower's observation deck. He shot and killed 15 people, including an unborn child, and injured 31 others before he was killed by two Austin Police Department officers approximately 96 minutes after first ... ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/3 "2018-04-20T14:36:08Z")
Off the top of my head, I remember a mass shooting at a McDonald’s in California in the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/4 "2018-04-20T14:37:42Z")
The McDonalds one. I actually went to San Ysidro years later and saw the monument (they tore that one down and built a new one close by). Seems to have shifted from workplace violence to random and school shooting since then, Columbine being the “big one”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/5 "2018-04-20T14:39:25Z")
The Oklahoma Post Office one. Looking it up, it was in 1986. 15 dead (including the shooter.) ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/6 "2018-04-20T14:39:46Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > University of Texas tower shooting in 1966. Charles Whitman killed 16 and injured 31. > > [University of Texas tower shooting - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting?wprov=sfla1) Same one for me. Even though it was basically across the country, it was heavily covered and carried in our corner of north-east PA. I had relatives in San Antonio who went to Austin a fair bit so it really burned itself into my young brain. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/7 "2018-04-20T14:41:01Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > The Oklahoma Post Office one. Looking it up, it was in 1986. 15 dead (including the shooter.) And spawned the term “going postal”. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/8 "2018-04-20T14:41:51Z")
I was ready to answer with Columbine, but after reading the OP, I’m reminded of another McDonald’s shooting that happened in the early 90s in Killeen Tx. Actually, I think I remember the incident that coined the phrase “Going Postal”. Can’t remember if that happened before or after the McDonald’s incident though. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/9 "2018-04-20T14:43:02Z")
The McDonalds one was in San Ysidro, CA in 1984. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/10 "2018-04-20T14:50:49Z")
Okay, I was thinking of the Luby’s shooting that happened in 91. [Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_shooting) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/11 "2018-04-20T14:54:08Z")
“I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” Brenda Ann Spencer shooting up the school playground at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego on January 29th 1979. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/12 "2018-04-20T14:57:06Z")
The Texas tower is the oldest one I have read about but it happened before I was born. San Yisdro is indeed the one I was thinking of, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/13 "2018-04-20T15:03:54Z")
Five dead in Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/14 "2018-04-20T15:04:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” > Brenda Ann Spencer shooting up the school playground at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego on January 29th 1979. Flashback memory, I had forgot about this. I was in the Navy stationed in San Diego at the time. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/15 "2018-04-20T15:07:02Z")
I remember the post office shooting (I was 7) most likely because it spawned “going postal.” The first one I remember intensely watching news about was Columbine. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/16 "2018-04-20T15:11:47Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > And spawned the term “going postal”. I would have thought that as well, but, apparently, “going postal” as a term doesn’t show up until 1993. [At least in print](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_postal). Which makes sense to me, as the first few incidents of something like this would most likely be treated as an anomaly, but it looks like by 1993, there had been enough incidents to inspire a term for it. Now, granted, the Oklahoma one wasn’t the first postal killing, but the early 90s events were probably the catalyst for creating expression “going postal.” I certainly don’t remember the term before the early 90s. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/17 "2018-04-20T15:13:19Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > University of Texas tower shooting in 1966. Charles Whitman killed 16 and injured 31. > > [University of Texas tower shooting - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting?wprov=sfla1) Same here. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/18 "2018-04-20T15:19:20Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > University of Texas tower shooting in 1966. Charles Whitman killed 16 and injured 31. > > [University of Texas tower shooting - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting?wprov=sfla1) Me, too, fellow geezer! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/19 "2018-04-20T15:20:42Z")
ETA: [Another article about the term “going postal.”](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/09/the-origin-of-the-term-going-postal/) Also pinpoints its first use in print to that St. Petersburg times article. Now, granted, print use is usually going to trail spoken usage by a bit, but I can’t find anything nearly contemporaneous to the 1986 incident. You would think that there would be some print or other media usage of it (contemporaneous TV shows, news programs, documentaries, radio, MTV) of it if it really entered out vocabulary back then, but I find no evidence of this anywhere. I do find a few web pages claiming that’s when the term entered the language, but all of the pages with citations have the 1993 St. Petersburg Times article as a reference. I could believe maybe after the 1991 incidents, it wormed its way into the lexicon and only showed up in 1993 in print or other media, but not all the way back to 1986. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/20 "2018-04-20T15:22:59Z")
The shootings in Hungerford, in 1987 - [Hungerford massacre - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungerford_massacre) - I would have been ten. I remember being a bit creeped out by that town-name if I heard it after that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779.md?page=2)