Twenty-six lives lost in less than three minutes? This was a record for school shootings set on December 14, 2012 during the Newtown shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. School shootings reached their highest point in U.S. history in 2012. The increase in these tragedies has led schools to move forward and develop new ways to keep them safer. Although many things have been done to improve safety conditions, some believe that these improvements are not enough. Many efforts have been made to protect schools and prevent major shootings in the 21st century, but many people believe that these methods do not solve the problem. Crime in the 21st century has ranged from incidents like cyberbullying to public mass shootings. These crimes differ in the number of people killed and affected by them, but they are still important. Although many different types of crimes have been committed in the 21st century, one of the major crimes that has increased is school shootings. School shootings have happened hundreds of times throughout history, but over the last century the incidents have increased and become more massive. These shootings have become highly controversial over the past decade. School massacres have occurred throughout history, but have become more frequent and massive over the past century. School shootings have ranged from wounding one student to killing thirty-three people and injuring twenty-five students. Some of the school shootings that have a high number of deaths and injuries are the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Virginia Tech massacre, and the Oikos University shooting. After these tragic and massive school shootings, researchers began to examine what is... .... middle of paper ......violent and mass crime in the 21st century. Many things are being done to try to prevent these events. With a one in a million chance of a shooting occurring on a campus you might belong to, there is still a chance it could happen. It is important that the nation is aware of this serious crime occurring across the country. It has changed schools in several ways and provided students with a new environment to attend school. The motivations that the gunmen may have had before committing this crime have been and are still being investigated. Schools are the safest they have ever been in history and will continue to increase security levels over the years to prevent these occurrences. The amount of deaths that have occurred in the 21st century is devastating but will hopefully decrease in the next couple of years as new methods are created to protect schools and campuses.