# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/41 "2018-04-20T21:56:52Z")
Charles Whitman University of Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/42 "2018-04-20T21:59:06Z")
> [@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) Not only was it the first one I remember, it was the first one to be [shown live on TV.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oK72g7mfvA):eek: ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/43 "2018-04-20T22:26:06Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Five dead in Ohio. You mean four, not five. Not that that makes it any less evil. Add me to the long list of UofT tower rememberers. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/44 "2018-04-20T22:48:01Z")
If you’re talking about one that received national publicity, for me it was the McDonald’s shooting in 1984. Another thing I remember about it is that it happened just a few weeks before the Los Angeles Olympics, and some athletes, here and elsewhere, wondered if it was safe to come here to compete. I grew up in Des Moines and definitely remember this, in part because I had a friend who had just moved from the part of town where these boys lived, and she knew them. ☹ I was 14. > **[Daniel Munro | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers](http://murderpedia.org/male.M/m/munro-daniel-russell.htm)** > > Murderpedia, the free online encyclopedic dictionary of murderers. The largest database about serial killers, mass murderers and spree killers around the world ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/45 "2018-04-20T23:44:07Z")
I don’t remember the Texas tower shooting - was only 6. But I do remember watching the 1975 movie. It made an impression. And yeah - I don’t like Mondays from the Boomtown Rats. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/46 "2018-04-20T23:50:51Z")
Youngsters! I remember the My Lai massacre in 1968. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/47 "2018-04-21T00:29:38Z")
Richard Speck killed eight student nurses in a Chicago hospital in 1966. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/48 "2018-04-21T00:59:41Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Richard Speck killed eight student nurses in a Chicago hospital in 1966. Speck didn’t shot them, though. And I know that bit of trivia because the murders took place in the neighborhood where I was born. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/49 "2018-04-21T01:02:42Z")
> [@chaika](#): > > The shooting at an elementary school in Stockton, California, wasn’t the first mass shooting I can recall but it made a huge impression on me. The victims were young children, all of whom were refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam. Their families came to the US presumably in search of safety and security. And a madman murdered them on the school playground. this one I remember being in ca they stopped afternoon cartoons for it , ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/50 "2018-04-21T01:09:58Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I mean being reported when it happened not something you read about after the fact. As it happened, probably the Paris terror attack in December of 2015. I don’t spend a lot of time focused on getting news unless it’s information I can do something useful with. That’s strengthened by my assumption that the first report is always wrong thanks to my time as a staff officer. I may well have been exposed to incidents before that as they happened. They would have faded from memory pretty quick. I just wasn’t paying all that much attention until later. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/51 "2018-04-21T01:43:04Z")
San Ysidro McDonalds for me. I was on a summer exchange programme in Sherbrooke, Quebec. ---
**Author:** ![Sveltington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@Sveltington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sveltington)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/52 "2018-04-21T02:21:43Z")
> [@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) This is the first one for me too. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/53 "2018-04-21T02:40:01Z")
> [@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) He actually killed 17, because one of his victims (who herself survived) was 8 months pregnant. It appears that he aimed straight for the baby, who his mother believes died immediately. ☹ There’s a documentary about it that came out a couple years ago. It’s aired on PBS. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/tower-is-a-well-crafted-documentary-that-deliberately-leaves-out-a-major-detail/2017/02/13/d3f5433a-eef5-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882\_story.html?noredirect=on&utm\_term=.8d61ed1e61b4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/tower-is-a-well-crafted-documentary-that-deliberately-leaves-out-a-major-detail/2017/02/13/d3f5433a-eef5-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8d61ed1e61b4) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/54 "2018-04-21T03:43:52Z")
Add me to the list who remember San Ysidro first. I do remember when _I Don’t Like Mondays_ hit the radios and the discussion about the act that lead to the song, but I had no idea it happened earlier in the year the song came out. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/55 "2018-04-21T06:39:18Z")
I think I remember the Howard Unruh shooting, which was probably the first one (1949) that was covered by the media in progress., and in fact a reporter even talked to him on the phone while he was shooting. I actually remember only his name, being fascinated by spelling of it when I read it in the newspaper. I was ten. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/56 "2018-04-21T13:49:24Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#): > > The shootings in Hungerford, in 1987 - [Hungerford massacre - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungerford_massacre) - I would have been ten. Same for me, except I was 19 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/57 "2018-04-21T13:56:59Z")
The first one I remember clearly is Columbine, but I know I’d heard of at least one post office shooting before then. Probably not the one in 1986, though. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/58 "2018-04-21T14:21:21Z")
San Ysidro McDonald’s was the first I remember as it happened. If Jonestown doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/59 "2018-04-21T16:08:12Z")
The massacre at the Munich Olympics, 1972. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/60 "2018-04-21T18:01:43Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > The massacre at the Munich Olympics, 1972. This one for sure. Not positive if I actually remember Kent State or any of the Vietnam collateral damage incidents. There were also a few airline hijackings with passengers killed about the same era. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779.md?page=4)