After the Connecticut school massacre, Ken Larson and his wife have decided to buy their son an armoured backpack – even though the one-year-old won’t be in school for a few more years.

The shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut are the latest in the United States’ long history of massacres at schools and colleges.

One of the worst school shootings in US history has left 20 children and eight adults dead. The children were all aged between five and 10.

A gunman killed 27 people, including 18 young children, at a US school today, an official said, in one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history.

Is the Colorado shooter delusional, depressed, or psychotic? And why does this type of tragedy keep happening? Dave Cullen, author of ‘Columbine’, searches for clues in the latest research on mass murderers

The man arrested in connection with today's fatal shootings in a Colorado cinema has been named by police as local man James Holmes.

The Virginia Tech gunman who shot dead a police officer then killed himself was a part-time college student.

A UNIVERSITY in the US was again the scene of a fatal shooting yesterday after a gunman shot dead a police officer and then apparently killed himself.

A gunman shot dead a police officer and then apparently killed himself at Virginia Tech today, US police and school officials said.

A gunman's on the loose after shooting dead two people on the campus of Virginia Tech in America.

Two people, including a police officer, have been killed in a shooting on the US’s Virginia Tech university campus, scene of America’s worst gun massacre four years ago.

A police officer is reported to have been shot at the Virginia Tech university campus, scene of the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

Gunshots have been reported on the campus of Virginia Tech where 32 people died in a massacre four years ago.

More than four years after the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, the horrors of that day on the Virginia Tech campus are about to be relived in court.

A MAJOR university in the US was locked down yesterday when three teenage girls attending a summer camp said they saw a man holding what looked like a gun on the Virginia Tech campus where a 2007 massacre left 33 people dead.

LAST Saturday’s attempted murder of Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic Party congresswoman from Arizona, and the shooting dead of six onlookers by deranged gunman Jared Lee Loughner has triggered a fierce debate about the health of American democracy and gun laws. For some in Europe the tragic shootings only confirm their prejudice that America is a violent and uncivilised society.

A PAIR of disaffected teenagers inspired by the Columbine school massacre planned a copycat killing spree in Britain, a court heard yesterday.

IT IS doubtful if the profession of teaching would be enjoying a new popularity — as revealed by this week’s CAO figures — if those studying to become teachers knew they would have to carry a gun in the classroom.

AS THEY struggle to overcome tragedy, the students and staff at Virginia Tech came together yesterday to mark a year since the deadliest school shooting in US history with flowers, candles and prayers.

Another person shot when a suicidal gunman opened fire at an American university has died, bringing the toll to six.

The family of a young man who went on a deadly shooting rampage in two Colorado religious centres before killing himself said they were "groping for answers" and praying for the victims' families.

US police officers have been seen running into a Cleveland high school where a suspected shooter is a 14-year-old student who was apparently upset about a suspension.

Rapper Nas has slammed US talk show titan Bill O'Reilly as a "racist" for criticising his appearance at a Virginia Tech memorial concert as insulting to the victims of the April massacre.

Virginia Tech shooter Seung Hui Cho might have made a practice run two days before the massacre, even chaining the doors to the building where he killed 32 people, police said today.

The piano former Beatle John Lennon used for his song Imagine will be taken to a house near the scene of an American university massacre as part of a tour to highlight peace and non-violence.

BUBBA LUDWIG can't walk, talk or open the refrigerator door — but he does have his very own Illinois gun permit.

To prevent school shootings, some South Carolina legislators want more guns on campuses.

Teachers at a US school have been criticised for staging a fake gunman attack during a class trip.

A series of emails threatening violence against a community college in Pennsylvania led officials to close all five of its campuses for a third day of classes.

NOW that the knees have stopped jerking and the anti-gun cliches have been holstered, it might be worthwhile to take a closer look at the terrible events at Virginia Tech.

Plans are being made for the Queen to visit with some survivors of last week’s shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, according to reports from the US tonight.

The family of Seung-Hui Cho might be able to help authorities understand the troubled 23-year-old who killed 32 people at a university last week, Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine said.

A timeline of the Virginia Tech shootings in America has emerged as police provided new details about what happened on that fateful morning 10 days ago.

The US Ambassador to South Korea today urged South Koreans to set aside their culture of collective guilt and not assume responsibility over the murder of 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech University.

US President George Bush has fallen short of his role as leader of the free world, and the 2008 election is a chance to change that, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama said today.

The families of Columbine school shooting victims pledged to appeal against a judge’s decision to seal information about the two killers that they say might have helped prevent the Virginia Tech massacre.

The family of university campus killer Cho Seung-Hui apologised for the tragedy, saying they “never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence”.

As experts analysed the disturbing materials left behind by the Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung Hui today, it became increasingly clear that Cho was almost a classic case of a school shooter.

As experts pored over Cho Seung Hui's twisted writings and his videotaped rant today, parents and officials urged people to instead focus on the victims of the deadliest rampage by a lone gunman in modern US history.

POP mogul Simon Cowell yesterday denied being disrespectful to the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre.

US President George Bush said tonight that mass shootings are a reminder that people must be willing to raise a red flag about others’ disturbing behaviour.

While the parents of the Virginia Tech gunman have kept silent and out of public view, his uncle met an official from a Korean-American association and said he "assumes" the parents are doing fine.

Oklahoma City is marking the 12th anniversary of the bombing that killed 168 people by reaching out to victims of the Virginia Tech shootings and victims of violence everywhere.

American news network NBC today aired another round of videos Cho Seung-Hui posted to them in the middle of the killings of 32 people at Virginia Tech.