mass shooting — Bunk History

Collage of security camera image and newspaper articles from the Columbine shooting.

The Columbine-Killers Fan Club

A quarter century on, the school shooters’ mythology has propagated a sprawling subculture that idolizes murder and mayhem.

by Dave Cullen via The Atlantic on April 19, 2024

Police standing outside Luby's Cafeteria after the 1991 mass shooting.

The Massacre That Turned Texas Into the Most Gun-Friendly State in America

The effects of the 1991 mass shooting at a Luby's in Killeen can still be felt today—in the legislature and on our streets.

by Emily McCullar via Texas Monthly on November 14, 2023

Collage showing people gathering at the site of school shootings.

The Second Generation of School Shootings

The fear that overtook us that day in 1988 was unfamiliar to most Americans. Now all too many know how it feels.

by Sarah Churchwell via The Atlantic on May 23, 2023

The Decade America Terrorized Itself

The next 9/11 never came. Instead, we got Sandy Hook, and Las Vegas, and Parkland…

by Patrick Blanchfield via Gen on December 10, 2019

New Memorial Day: Remembering Children Killed in School

It’s an exhaustive list. Far longer and deeper than you might suspect.

by Akim Reinhardt via 3 Quarks Daily on May 28, 2018

Presidents and Mass Shootings

How Consoler-in-Chiefs respond to senseless gun violence.

by Tevi Troy via National Affairs on April 1, 2018

1996 Photograph of Robert B. Smith, 18, is escorted from jail to arraignment for the 1966 slayings of five people in Mesa, Arizona.

The Story of the First Copycat Mass Shooter

Robert Benjamin Smith inaugurated murder for the media age.

by Meagan Day via Timeline on November 7, 2016

Police officer, yellow tape, and abandoned bikes and lawnchairs after the Highland Park shooting.

How Gun Violence and the Supreme Court Have Shaped Second Amendment Rights

Supreme Court rulings on gun laws highlight the struggle to balance individual rights and public safety.

via Retro Report on January 24, 2025

Illustration of John Tanton

The Ghosts of John Tanton

Today’s contentious immigration debate is the construct of one man’s effort to halt overpopulation.

by Abrahm Lustgarten via ProPublica on October 19, 2024

Mother of school shooter enters courtroom

The Problem With Punishing Parents for Their Kids' Crimes

Americans have long tried to hold parents responsible for their children’s misdeeds—but it never really works.

by Victoria E. M. Cain via Made By History on February 16, 2024

The War on Ecoterror

Environmental radicalism, left and right.

by Gaby del Valle via The Drift on November 8, 2023

AR-15 with the American flag attatched.

The Curse of the AR-15

How the gun became a cultural icon—and unmade America.

by Colin Dickey via The New Republic on October 23, 2023

Police beating young people with nightsticks.

"A Trap Had Been Set for These People"

A companion to a new PBS film, "The Memorial Day Massacre," the first oral history exploring the murder of 10 workers in Chicago.

by Greg Mitchell via Between Rock and a Hard Place on May 13, 2023

Image of an AR-15

The Gun that Divides a Nation

The AR-15 thrives in times of tension and tragedy. This is how it came to dominate the marketplace – and loom so large in the American psyche.

by Alex Horton, Josh Dawsey, Todd C. Frankel, Shawn Boburg, Ashley Park via Washington Post on March 27, 2023

Flowers and balloons surround Memorial at Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas.

How Many Pandemic Memorials Does it Take to Remember a Pandemic?

Calls for Covid-19 memorials echo Pericles' Athenian moratorium, prompting reflection on the appropriateness of commemoration for ongoing crises.

by Andrew M. Shanken via Platform on August 29, 2022

Photo from the January 6th Capitol Attack, with rioters raising a flag in front of a cloud of smoke by the capitol.

How the Republican Party Embraced Political Violence Before January 6th

On the alarming origins of the current political moment.

by Dana Milbank via Literary Hub on August 15, 2022

Kyle Rittenhouse waves to cheering fans as he appears at a panel discussion at a Turning Point USA America Fest event on Dec. 20, 2021.

Bernhard Goetz and the Roots of Kyle Rittenhouse’s Celebrity on the Right

Why vigilante violence appeals politically.

by Pia Beumer via Made By History on June 15, 2022

People looking down at words written in chalk on the street as a makeshift memorial of the Buffalo shooting.

The Terrifying Familiarity of the Buffalo Shooting Suspect’s Extremist Screed

The new fascists don’t wear uniforms; they make memes.

by Jeff Sharlet via The Hive on May 17, 2022

Photograph of candles, bouquets and signs left at a memorial for the Buffalo Shooting victims, May 2022.

The Buffalo Shooting Exposes How History Shapes the Present

This northern city was shaped by racial terrorism and persistent advocacy for Black liberation.

by Chad Williams via Made By History on May 17, 2022

A woman lights a candle at a memorial for the Buffalo shooting victims, May 2022.

The Mass Shooting in Buffalo Reflects Deeply Rooted American Ideas

Until we grapple with our history, white supremacist terrorism will keep happening.

by Jesse Curtis via Made By History on May 16, 2022

People looking at the Tops grocery store where police are in the parking lot after a mass shooting.

Making Sense of the Racist Mass Shooting in Buffalo

An expert on the white-power movement and the “great replacement” theory puts the act of terror in context.

by Kathleen Belew, Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on May 15, 2022

Extremism in America: A Surge in Violence

During the 2010s, violent attacks by white supremacists and other extremists increased, including at a church in Charleston, S.C. and a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

via Retro Report on May 10, 2022

Charlton Heston (left), then president of the NRA, meets with fellow leaders Wayne LaPierre (far right) and Jim Baker (center) on April 30, 1999, ahead of the NRA's annual meeting in Denver. Around the same time, leaders discussed how to respond to the shooting at Columbine High School in nearby Littleton, Colo. More than 20 years later, NPR has obtained secret recordings of those conversations.

A Secret Tape Made After Columbine Shows the NRA's Evolution on School Shootings

In 1999, NRA leaders agonized over what to do about Columbine, paving the way for the group's approach to mass shootings ever since.

by Tim Mak via NPR on November 9, 2021

Postal workers comfort each other after a 1991 mass shooting

“I Understand Why He Did It”

On the origins of "going postal."

by Aaron Gordon via The Mail on September 22, 2020

The Massacre That Spawned the Alt-Right

Forty years ago, a gang of Klansmen and Nazis murdered five communists in broad daylight. America has never been the same.

by Peter Keating, Shaun Assael via Politico Magazine on November 3, 2019

Janet Jackson performing.

How a White Nationalist Mass Shooting Inspired Janet Jackson’s Masterpiece

Thirty years ago today, Janet Jackson released “Rhythm Nation 1814," her most topical album yet and one inspired by a horrifying mass shooting.

by Stereo Williams via The Daily Beast on September 19, 2019

Young men play a shooting video game in a French arcade (2009).

Why We Scapegoat Video Games for Mass Violence and Why It’s a Mistake

It lets us avoid harder questions about our culture.

by Carly A. Kocurek via Made By History on August 9, 2019

A Lynch Mob of One

The assault rifle has enabled racists to act alone.

by Ibram X. Kendi via The Atlantic on August 8, 2019

Columbine at 20: Media Attention and Copycat Killers

The impact of Columbine on today's youths -- and how the media has shifted its coverage of school shootings.

by Anne Checler, Erik German, Olivia Katrandjian via Retro Report on April 18, 2019

Illustration of video of Columbine shooters

20 Years Later, Columbine Is The Spectacle The Shooters Wanted

Searching for meaning in the shooters’ infamous “basement tapes.”

by Andy Warner via The Nib on April 17, 2019

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