Title: Was Columbine The First School Shooting In The United States? Sue Klebold Finally Speaks Out On The Tragedy
Headings: Columbine Wasn't The First Mass School Shooting
Columbine Wasn't The First Mass School Shooting
Content: They also planted bombs, although the explosives never detonated. All in all, they killed 12 students, one teacher, and themselves, and they wounded 21 others. On Friday, Klebold's mother, Susan, gave her first-ever television interview, speaking with ABC News's Diane Sawyer. Her memoir, reportedly titled A Mother's Reckoning, will be published next week, with profits going to mental health charities and research. Klebold has had several years to reflect on her son's violent act and tragic death, but the story that follows her around has perhaps never been more relevant. Now, talk of her book has reignited the conversation not just about Columbine, but about the long history of mass shootings in the U.S., including recent tragedies at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, and Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. ERIC GAY/AFP/Getty Images
A mass shooting is defined by the FBI as a shooting that kills four or more people, excluding the shooter or shooters. Using this definition, the history of mass school shootings in the United States dates back to even before the U.S. officially became a country. In 1764, three men entered a schoolhouse near present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania, and reportedly killed 10 people. It wasn't until 1966, though, that the next mass shooting — or, at least, the next incident that would readily be recognized as a mass shooting today — occurred.