Editing School shooting (section)

== History ==
While school shootings did occasionally occur before the 20th century, the true first school shooting was Enoch Brown school massacre which was done by 4 men which are Native Americans, the first incident of what is today widely considered a school shooting (in which a current or former student of a school perpetrates an act of gun violence at an educational institution) is thought to be the University of Texas Tower shooting of 1966. The perpetrator, [[Charles Whitman]], was a student of architectural engineering at the university, and killed 31 people. This incident was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman at the time.

Though there were several school shootings in the 70's and 80's, few of these resulted in multiple deaths. Some that did, including the CSU, Fullerton massacre and the Stockton schoolyard massacre were perpetrated by adults who either had never attended the institutions they attacked, or had passed out/dropped out long ago.

The 90's saw a surge in school shootings. The archetype of the school shooter as an angry, alienated young person (young man, mostly) was established in this decade. School shooters sought to emulate former shooters by wearing the same clothes as them, and, in some cases (mainly black trench coats) , using the same weapons (pipe bombs/ specific guns). The most tragic school shooting of this decade, as well as the deadliest High School shooting at the time, was the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre Columbine High School shooting], in which perpetrators [[Eric Harris]] and [[Dylan Klebold]] killed 13 people and injured many more, before taking their own lives.

Several school shooters were inspired by Columbine, with copycats appearing as soon as a month after it. Copycat shooters donned black trench coats and even imitated the dialogue of the Columbine shooters during their sprees (for example, some shooters asked their victims whether they believed in God before shooting them). The copycat effect is in part due to the excessive focus of the media on the background of the shooters, and the easy availability of journals/manifestos written by previous shooters online.

Among the deadliest of school shootings of the 21st century are the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_shooting Virginia Tech Shooting], the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Hook_Elementary_School_shooting Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting], and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoneman_Douglas_High_School_shooting Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting], all of which surpassed Columbine in the terms of numbers of deaths. Each of these shootings resulted in debates about firearm possession and increased background checks during gun purchases in the United States of America.

From the mid-2000s onward, copycat attacks have been perpetrated in other countries as well. Incidents of shooting and stabbing sprees in countries like Finland and Russia have been perpetrated by people inspired by Columbine.