# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/61 "2018-04-21T21:38:53Z")
> [@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. I was in college at the time, not _that_ college. ---
**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, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/62 "2018-04-21T22:30:25Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > 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. An MSD student who was not directly affected by the shooting is the granddaughter of a little boy who survived this because his family hid in a closet while Unruh was on his rampage. Even before the Unruh incident was this. I never knew about it until I Googled the town for another reason (my BFF interviewed for a job there) and saw it on the Wiki page. > **[How A Forgotten 1903 Killing Spree Became America's First Modern Mass Shooting](https://www.buzzfeed.com/sarahweinman/how-a-forgotten-1903-killing-spree-became-the-first-modern-m)** > > On August 13, 1903, Gilbert Twigg opened fire during a concert in Winfield, Kansas, killing nine and injuring dozens. There was no motive, and no one had ever seen anything like it before, or for decades after. Yet it's the archetype for the kind of... ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/63 "2018-04-22T00:20:14Z")
> [@Darth\_Sensitive](#): > > The 1998 Jonesboro middle school shooting. I would have been 9. Same here. I would have said Columbine before reading this, though, but apparently I’ve temporarily conflated them in my mind. Stuff from when I was 13 and 14 are a bit jumbled up, as this was well before I paid any regular attention to any news. I think I was either too young or not born for previous ones. Edit: I think it may not have been until after Columbine that it clicked that it was Jonesboro in Arkansas, i.e., my home state. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/64 "2018-04-22T04:50:44Z")
I definitely remember the one in Paducah in 1997 (the school had a very memorable name for me), but I think I remember thinking it was _another_ school shooting in a short period of time. I’m not sure what the first was, though. Maybe [Pearl, Mississippi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_High_School_shooting) two months before? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/65 "2018-04-22T05:40:36Z")
Oklahoma PO, but watching the story in the moment, Kip Kinkel at Thurston High (1998). ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/66 "2018-04-22T07:41:08Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Five dead in Ohio. Thought it was 4 dead in Ohio, ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/67 "2018-04-22T07:43:05Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > The massacre at the Munich Olympics, 1972. This is my first memory of one as well, I was 9 ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/68 "2018-04-22T08:11:53Z")
Dunblane, 1996. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/69 "2018-04-22T12:02:52Z")
Does Anwar Sadat’s assassination from October 1981 count? 11 other people also died. I was only 7, but it was a really big deal here. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/70 "2018-04-22T13:33:51Z")
I was going to say Columbine, but it must be one of the post office shootings, because I’d heard of going postal before Columbine happened. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/71 "2018-04-23T16:36:55Z")
Also San Ysidro for me. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Brenda Ann Spencer shooting up the school playground at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego on January 29th 1979. And in the category of surprisingly depressing things I read today: I was refreshing my memory of this incident on the [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Elementary_School_shooting_(San_Diego)). The first sentence is “Not to be confused with Cleveland Elementary School shooting (Stockton).” ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/72 "2018-04-23T17:48:16Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Charles Whitman University of Texas. Same here. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/73 "2018-04-23T19:16:04Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Same here. Me, too. Family in Texas, so we paid attention. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/74 "2018-04-24T18:53:42Z")
I remember Sadat’s assassination very well, but I didn’t learn until later that other people were killed. I remember hearing about the MacDonald’s shooting, but I don’t remember much about it, and I know the expression “going postal” came about because a postal worker had gone nuts with a weapon, but I never remembered the details of the crime. What I remember vividly actually happened in Canada, of all places. It was in 1989, when Marc Lepine killed 14 women, and wounded 10 others at an engineering school, while shouting that feminists had ruined his life. ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779/75 "2018-04-24T23:02:36Z")
[The Hoddle St massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoddle_Street_massacre) in Melbourne in 1987. There was another one nearby a few months later. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-mass-shooting-you-remember/812779.md?page=3)