On April 16, on the peaceful campus of Virginia Tech University in rural Virginia, US, a 23-year-old student perpetrated the deadliest school shooting in American history, killing 32 students and faculty members before turning the gun on himself.
The gunman, Seuing-Hui Cho, who came to the US from South Korea when he was 8, was a senior English major at the school, and months from graduation. Two Indians died in the attack, Professor G V Loganathan from Tamil Nadu and student Minal Panchal from Mumbai.
Then, on November 7, an 18-year-old student in Finland, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, shot and killed seven of his fellow students and a teacher. Several parallels between Cho and Pekka were established, and many considered Pekka a copycat criminal.
But the Virginia Tech massacre wasn't the only random, senseless carnage in America this year.
On February 13, an 18-year-old gunman killed five people in a mall in Salt Lake City, Utah before being killed by police.
On April 29, less than two weeks after the Virginia Tech incident, a 51 year old gunman in a mall in Kansas City, Missouri, shot and killed two shoppers before being killed by police.
On December 5, a 19-year-old gunman killed eight shoppers and employees in a mall in Omaha, Nebraska, before killing himself.
Finally, on December 9, 2007, a 24-year-old man shot and killed two people at a missionary training centre in Denver, Colorado, then killed two more outside a church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, some 12 hours later. Church security killed the gunman, preventing what could have been a horrific massacre, as 7,000 worshipers were inside.
These incidents have raised questions about America's lax gun control laws, and sparked serious debate in America's Congress.
Image: Robinson Secondary School seniors join hundreds of other people for a memorial ceremony for the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre in the secondary school's gymnasium April 20, in Fairfax, Virginia. The shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, and five of his 32 victims attended Fairfax County Public School.
Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Also read: A massacre at Virginia Tech
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