Because pedantry is one of my ways of dealing with tragedy

[xiphias]

People are calling the Virginia Tech massacre the deadliest school massacre in American history. It's actually "only" the deadliest school shooting. In 1927, in Bath Township, Michigan, school board member Andrew Kehoe dynamited the local school while class was in session, and then, after rescuers had gathered, drove up in his car, and detonated THAT in one of the first suicide car bombings. Forty-five dead, and still the deadliest school attack. I pray that that "record" still stands tomorrow, and that the death toll today doesn't surpass that.

Comments

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

The Tech massacre is actually the deadliest civilian shooting of any kind, school or otherwise, in U.S. history. The previous deadliest was a shooting at a cafeteria in Texas in 1991 that killed, I think, 24.