An Emotional Shep Smith Lists Every Fatal School Shooting Since Columbine

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith took several minutes out of his live coverage of the devastating mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida to list every fatal school shooting that has occurred in the 19 years since Columbine.

“Since Columbine in 1999, there have been 25 fatal, active school shootings at elementary and high schools in America,” an emotional Smith told Fox viewers. Calmly, he read the years and locations of each incident, pausing to emphasize the severity of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that many believed would change the national conversation about guns.

“And just today, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, in the town of Parkland, where many students and teachers and administrators have died today,” Smith concluded. “We do not yet know how many.” He then repeated, “The 25th fatal school shooting since Columbine High School in America.”

Since Smith made his remarks, law enforcement sources in Florida confirmed that the gunman, reportedly a former student of the high school, killed at least 17 people and is currently in police custody.

Three years ago, after the deadly shooting in San Bernardino, California, Smith spoke out on Fox about Congress’ inaction on gun violence prevention.

“These sorts of mass shootings with the regularity where they occur in the United States, you don't find that in other countries,” Smith said at the time. “That's not to say anything except that fact. You can extrapolate from that whatever you want. But that part right there, that this happens more in the United States than anywhere else on Earth is just a true thing. That's all there is.”