Virginia Tech shooting — shooting on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States
The deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, killing 32 people, and prompted federal and state gun law reforms.
Key Facts
- People killed
- 32
- People wounded
- 17
- Additional injured (window escapes)
- 6
- Perpetrator
- Seung-Hui Cho, undergraduate student at Virginia Tech
- Federal gun law signed
- January 5, 2008, by President George W. Bush
- Deadliest U.S. mass shooting record held
- 9 years, until 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Seung-Hui Cho had a history of mental illness, including selective mutism and severe depression, and had been ordered to seek treatment after a 2005 stalking investigation. Privacy laws prevented Virginia Tech from knowing his diagnoses, and a legal loophole allowed him to legally purchase firearms despite a mental health adjudication.
On April 16, 2007, Cho first shot two people at West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory, then two hours later chained the doors of Norris Hall classroom building shut and fired into four classrooms and a stairwell, killing 30 more. He committed suicide as police stormed the building, bringing the total death toll to 32 with 17 others shot and wounded.
The shooting prompted Virginia to close loopholes allowing mentally adjudicated individuals to purchase handguns undetected through the NICS, and led to the first major federal gun control legislation since 1994. It sparked widespread national debate on gun violence, mental health care gaps, university responsibility, and privacy laws, and remains the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.