School shootings are a " uniquely American crisis " , according to '' The Washington Post '' in 2018 . School shootings are considered an " overwhelmingly American " phenomenon due to the availability of firearms in the United States . Between the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado and the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut , there were 31 school shootings in the United States and 14 in the rest of the world combined . Between 2000 and 2010 , counting incidents from 37 countries in which someone was injured or killed on school grounds , with two or more victims , and not counting “ single homicides , off-campus homicides , killings caused by government actions , militaries , terrorists or militants ” , the number of such incidents in the United States was one less than in the other 36 countries combined ; in the vast majority of the United States incidents , perpetrators used guns
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
School shooting