Face of Nation : The mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, that left at least 20 people dead and 26 injured appears to be the deadliest shooting in the United States this year.The grim tally comes less than a week after another gunman, a 19-year-old, opened fire at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California, killing two children and a man before being shot by police and ultimately killing himself.
Around 10 p.m. on Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman, 64, opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort on a crowd watching country singer Jason Aldean. Several weapons were found in the shooter’s hotel room. Police said 58 people were killed and more than 500 were injured. The gunman killed himself before officers reached his hotel room.
On June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed and dozens more were wounded after a gunman opened fire and took hostages at Pulse, an LGBT-friendly nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He was killed following a standoff with police. The shooter used weapons he’d purchased legally, according to authorities.On April 16, 2007, a Virginia Tech student shot 32 people to death on the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus before killing himself. Another 17 people were injured. On Dec. 14, 2012, a gunman killed 27 people, including his mother, 20 elementary school kids and six school staff and faculty at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. He also took his own life.On Nov. 5, 2017, a gunman entered a rural Texas church and opened fire, killing 26 people. At least 19 people were hospitalized with injuries.On Oct. 16, 1991, a 35-year-old man crashed his pickup through Luby’s Cafeteria, a packed restaurant in Killeen, Texas. He shot and killed 23 people before turning the gun on himself.On July 18, 1984, a 41-year-old former security guard who had lost his job, opened fire at a McDonald’s in San Ysidro, California. He killed 21 employees and customers, including children.
On Aug. 3, 2019, a 21-year-old suspect opened fire in a shopping area in El Paso, Texas. At least 20 people died as a result of the shooting and 26 were injured, law enforcement officials said.On Aug. 1, 1966, a former U.S. Marine killed his mother and wife, then went on top of a tower at the University of Texas at Austin and killed 15 others. He also wounded at least 30. Thirteen people died on campus, one died a week later and another victim passed away in 2001, but the cause of death was attributed to the shooting. On the afternoon of Feb. 14, 2018, police responded to reports of shots fired at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. A former student was taken into custody after the Valentine’s Day massacre that left 17 dead and wounded at least 14 others, both in and outside of the school.
On Dec. 2, 2015, 14 people were killed in an attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, a state-run facility that provides services to developmentally disabled people and trains social workers who care for them. On Aug. 20, 1986, a gunman killed 14 fellow postal workers in Edmond, Oklahoma, and then killed himself with a shot to the head. On April 20, 1999, two students killed 12 other students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. On Nov. 5, 2009, a U.S. Army Medical Corps psychiatrist, killed 13 people and injured 32 others at Fort Hood, Texas.On April 3, 2009, in Binghamton, New York, a gunman killed 13 people and injured four others at an immigrant services center before killing himself.
On Feb. 18, 1983, three robbers at the Wah Mee gambling club in Seattle killed 13 people. On July 20, 2012, a gunman opened fire during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises,” in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and injuring more than 70. On May 31, 2019, a gunman opened fire at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, killing 12 people. Police fatally shot the suspect, a longtime city engineer. All of those killed were city employees except for one person, who was a contractor, officials said.A gunman opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27, 2018, killing 11 people.
Dozens of earlier nonwar massacres in the United States have left hundreds dead. Often racially motivated, these shootings date back to before American independence. A selection of these shootings are believed to have killed numbers between five and 300 people.
In May 1921, approximately 300 black Americans were killed during the Tulsa Race Massacre, which destroyed Oklahoma’s “Black Wall Street,” according to the Smithsonian.
