2010 University of Alabama in Huntsville shooting

On February 12, 2010, three people were killed and three others were wounded during a shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). During a routine biology department faculty meeting attended by approximately twelve to thirteen people, Amy Bishop, a biology professor at the university, sat quietly for 30 to 40 minutes before pulling out a Ruger P95 9mm handgun just before 4:00 p.m. and beginning to shoot those nearest to her. Witnesses described the shooting as targeted rather than random, with Bishop moving down a row of colleagues seated on one side of an oval table.

During the attack, biochemistry professor Debra Moriarity said she pointed a gun at her and pulled the trigger, but it either jammed or ran out of ammunition. Associate professor Joseph Ng said Moriarity then approached Bishop and asked her to stop, helping other survivors push Bishop from the room and block the door; Ng credited Moriarity with saving the group's lives. The suspected murder weapon was later found in a second-floor bathroom of the science building, and Bishop was arrested outside the building shortly afterward. She did not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Police also interviewed Bishop's husband, Jimmy Anderson, who had escorted her to an indoor shooting range in the weeks before the incident and who was not charged.

Bishop had been denied tenure at UAH in March 2009, making spring 2010 her final semester there under university policy. She had appealed the denial, and colleagues later said she had exhibited erratic behavior and generated student complaints in the period before the shooting. The faculty meeting at which the shooting occurred was unrelated to her tenure case.

Bishop was charged with one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder. Prosecutors initially said they would seek the death penalty, but did not pursue it after some victims' families expressed opposition. In September 2011, Bishop pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but on September 11, 2012, she pleaded guilty to the charges. A condensed version of the evidence was presented to a jury on September 24, as required under Alabama law, and Bishop was sentenced that day to life in prison without the possibility of parole. An appeal filed in February 2013 was rejected by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in April 2013.

Following the shooting, past incidents involving Bishop were reevaluated, including the 1986 fatal shooting of her brother in Braintree, Massachusetts, which had been ruled accidental at the time, and a 1993 pipe-bomb incident directed at her former lab supervisor, for which no charges were filed and which remains unsolved. Bishop was later indicted for first-degree murder in her brother's 1986 death; Norfolk County, Massachusetts, declined to seek her extradition from Alabama. A memorial service for the UAH shooting victims was held on campus on February 19, 2010, attended by approximately 3,000 people.