Going postal is an American English slang phrase referring to becoming extremely and uncontrollably angry, often to the point of violence, and usually in a workplace environment. The expression derives from a series of incidents from 1986 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, police officers and members of the general public in acts of mass murder. Between 1970 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed by then-current or former employees in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage. Between 1986 and 2011, workplace shootings happened roughly twice per year, with an average of 1.18 people killed per year.
The Walsh Street police shootings were the 1988 murders of two Victoria Police officers: Constables Steven Tynan, 22, and Damian Eyre, 20.
On February 16, 1988, a mass shooting occurred at the headquarters of ESL Incorporated in Sunnyvale, California, United States. 39-year-old Richard Farley shot and killed seven people and wounded four others. A former employee of the company, he stalked his co-worker Laura Black for four years beginning in 1984. Farley was convicted of seven counts of first degree murder and is currently serving a death sentence at California Health Care Facility.
James Edward "Pop" Pough was an American spree killer who killed thirteen people in two separate attacks in Jacksonville, Florida on 17 and 18 June 1990. Pough shot and killed two people at random on Jacksonville's Northside, wounded two teenagers, and robbed a convenience store. Pough shot and killed nine people and wounded four others at a General Motors Acceptance Corporation car loan office the next day before committing suicide.
A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is an armed confrontation entailing firearms between armed parties using guns, always entailing intense disagreement(s) between the fighting parties. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to describe combat situations primarily using firearms.
The Edmond post office shooting was a mass shooting that occurred in Edmond, Oklahoma, on August 20, 1986. In less than fifteen minutes, 44 year-old postal worker Patrick Sherrill pursued and shot several coworkers, killing 14 and injuring another six, before committing suicide. It is currently the deadliest workplace shooting in U.S. history, as well as the deadliest shooting by a lone gunman in the state of Oklahoma.
The Bethel Regional High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on February 19, 1997, at Bethel Regional High School in Bethel, Alaska. Sixteen-year-old student Evan Ramsey killed two people and wounded two people.
William Ray Bonner is a former service station attendant who went on a shooting spree through the South Side area of Los Angeles, California, on April 22, 1973, killing six people and wounding nine others. The rampage ended with his arrest after he had been injured in a shootout with police.
The Arms Offences Act 1973 is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that criminalizes the illegal possession of arms and ammunition and the carrying, trafficking, and usage of arms. The law is designed specifically to make acts of ownership, knowingly receiving payment in connection with the trade of a trafficked armaments and ammunition, as well as the unlawful usage of arms and ammunition a criminal offence.
On February 25, 2016, three people were killed and fourteen others injured in a series of shootings in Newton and Hesston, Kansas, including in and outside an Excel Industries building. The shooter, identified as Excel employee Cedric Larry Ford, was then killed by a responding police officer.
A shooting spree began in farming country near Exeter, California on December 16, 2018, when a man with a gun began shooting at random people, and continued to do so throughout Tulare County for 24 hours. Three people, including the shooter, died. Seven others were injured.
On May 31, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at a municipal building in the Princess Anne area of Virginia Beach, Virginia. The gunman, DeWayne Craddock, who was a disgruntled city employee, fatally shot 12 people and wounded four others before he was killed by responding police officers. It is the second-deadliest workplace shooting in U.S. history after the 1986 Edmond post office shooting and the deadliest mass shooting in Virginia since the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting.
On June 15, 2012, 21-year-old security guard Travis Baumgartner, an employee of G4S Cash Solutions, shot four of his coworkers, three fatally, in the HUB Mall building on the campus of University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He stole his employer's armored truck and money, and gave the cash or left it at the homes of his mother and two friends. Baumgartner was arrested the next day in British Columbia, as he made plans to cross the U.S. border.
The Chandler's Ford shooting was the shooting of armed robbers in the town of Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, in southern England, on 13 September 2007. Two men were shot dead by Metropolitan Police officers while they were robbing a cash-in-transit van at gunpoint. The Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad had been tracking a gang of armed robbers from South London who were estimated to have stolen £500,000 from 18 robberies of security vans. The Flying Squad received intelligence that the gang intended to target the HSBC branch in Chandler's Ford and planned to lie in wait and apprehend the suspects as they attempted the robbery.
On 11 May 2021, a school shooting and bomb attack occurred in Kazan, Tatarstan, in the western part of Russia. Nine people were murdered, all of them by gunfire, and 23 others were injured. The 19-year-old shooter, Ilnaz Galyaviev, was identified as a former student. He pleaded guilty to the murder of two or more persons on 12 May and was sentenced to life imprisonment in April 2023.
On May 26, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) rail yard in San Jose, California, United States. A 57-year-old VTA employee, Samuel James Cassidy, shot and killed nine VTA employees before committing suicide. It is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ronald Keith Allridge and James Vernon Allridge III were American brothers and serial killers who killed three people and committed numerous armed robberies in Fort Worth, Texas, during a crime spree in early 1985. For their crimes, the Allridge brothers were sentenced to death and subsequently executed by lethal injection; Ronald in 1995 and James in 2004.
On January 9, 2020, a mass shooting and robbery occurred at the Robinson Shopping Centre in the Lopburi province of Thailand. The gunman, Prasittichai Khaokaew, used a suppressed semi-automatic pistol to shoot seven people, killing three of them. He then stole ฿500,000 worth of gold jewelry before fleeing on a motorcycle. Khaokaew was arrested 13 days later on 22 January. While in custody, he confessed to committing the robbery and shooting because he was in debt and wanted to make his life more exciting. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death.
The Fresno meat plant shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on the morning of November 6, 2012, at the Valley Protein meat processing plant in central Fresno, California. Lawrence Nathaniel Jones, a 42-year-old employee, shot four of his coworkers with a stolen handgun, killing two. He then reloaded his weapon as he walked outside, where he shot himself in the head. He was pronounced dead at the hospital three hours later.
