Half the nation's worst shootings ever have occurred since 2007

With at least 27 people confirmed dead in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, the tragedy has taken the second-most lives of any such incident in American history, and stands as one of the most horrific school shootings around the world. Thirty-two people were killed by student Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech University in 2007 before he turned his gun on himself in the deadliest shooting on U.S. soil. In 2004, pro-Chechen rebels in Russia took more than 1,200 schoolchildren and adults hostage in Beslan, and at least 386 eventually died in gunfire between the rebels and security forces. In all, half of the nation's deadliest shootings have occurred in the last five years. [Source]

1. April 16, 2007: Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg; 32 dead + shooter

2. Oct. 16, 1991: Luby's Cafeteria, in Killeen, Tex.; 23 dead + shooter

3. July 18, 1984: McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif.; 21 dead + shooter

4. Aug. 1, 1966: University of Texas at Austin; 16 dead + shooter

5. Aug. 20, 1986: Post office in Edmond, Okla.; 14 dead + shooter

6. April 20, 1999: Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.; 13 dead + 2 shooters

7. April 3, 2009: Immigration services center in Binghamton, N.Y.; 13 dead + shooter

8. Nov. 5, 2009: Soldier Readiness Processing Center at Fort Hood, Texas; 13 dead

9. Sept. 6, 1949: Camden, N.J.; 13 dead

10. July 20, 2012: Movie theater in Aurora, Colo.; 12 dead

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