A Gallup Poll taken immediately after the shootings reportedly showed that 58 percent of respondents blamed the students , 11 percent blamed the National Guard and 31 percent expressed no opinion . However , there was wide discussion as to whether these were legally justified shootings of American citizens , and whether the protests or the decisions to ban them were constitutional . These debates served to further galvanize uncommitted opinion by the terms of the discourse . The term " massacre " was applied to the shootings by some individuals and media sources , as it had been used for the Boston Massacre of 1770 , in which five were killed and several more wounded
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
Kent State shootings