The Hungerford massacre was a spree shooting in Wiltshire and Berkshire, England, which occurred on 19 August 1987 when 27-year-old Michael Ryan shot and killed sixteen people, including his mother and an unarmed police officer, before killing himself. No motive for the killings was established.

A report on the massacre, commissioned by Home Secretary Douglas Hurd, found that understaffing and telecommunication problems may have hampered the police response to the developing incident. The killings were committed using legally owned handguns and semi-automatic rifles, and the report stated that existing firearms legislation should be more stringent. Consequently, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed in the wake of the massacre, banning unlicensed ownership of semi-automatic centre-fire rifles and restricted the use of shotguns with a capacity of more than three cartridges.

The shootings have been compared to those in Dunblane in 1996, and in Cumbria in 2010, and the Hungerford massacre remains one of the deadliest firearms incidents in British history.

On the morning of Wednesday 19 August 1987, 27-year-old Michael Ryan drove his silver Vauxhall Astra GTE to Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, seven miles (11 km) to the west of his hometown of Hungerford. In his car were his Beretta pistol, M1 carbine rifle, and the Type 56 assault rifle. That day, 35-year-old Susan Godfrey and her two pre-school children had travelled from Burghfield Common near Reading and were picnicking in the forest. At 12:30 BST, Ryan, openly armed, approached the family. Godfrey placed the children in her car before Ryan walked her at gunpoint 75–100 yards (70–90 m) into the forest and shot her 13 times with the Beretta. A woman walking in the woods found the children, who introduced themselves to the woman and said "[a] man in black killed my mummy".

Ryan left the forest and drove east on the A4, stopping to fill both his car and a petrol can at the Golden Arrow petrol station near Froxfield at approximately 12:35. After another customer at the station left, Ryan shot at the cashier from the forecourt using the M1 carbine. He entered the store and attempted to shoot her at point-blank range; either his gun had jammed or the magazine had inadvertently detached. He left the petrol station, driving east into Berkshire. The cashier telephoned 999; this call had been preceded by another emergency call from the previous customer who believed they had seen an armed robbery. Thames Valley Police (TVP) sent two patrol cars to the A4 to investigate. They were at that point unaware of the murder in Savernake Forest, which had been responded to by officers from Wiltshire Police, and there were initially two manhunts underway.

After leaving Froxfield, Ryan returned to the home he shared with his mother on South View in Hungerford. Arriving there at approximately 12:45, he was seen by neighbours who described him as looking upset. Soon after Ryan entered the house, a witness heard him shoot the two family dogs. He exited the house with ammunition, survival equipment, and a flak jacket. He failed to start his car, and instead returned to the house and set the living room alight using the petrol he purchased from Froxfield. Leaving the house, he headed east on South View towards school playing fields. En route he shot and killed two of his neighbours, Roland and Sheila Mason, with the Type 56 and Beretta respectively. A fourteen-year-old girl, who also lived nearby, heard the noise and went to see what it was; Ryan shot her four times in the legs. She sought first aid from her mother and another nearby resident and survived. Ryan was chastised by a 77-year-old neighbour for "scaring everybody to death" for making noise, although he did not shoot her. Ryan then wounded Marjorie Jackson, one of the people who had seen him arrive home, in her back. She telephoned her friend George White for help, and asked him to collect her husband Ivor from work in Newbury.

Past the playing fields, Ryan walked along a footpath towards the town's common. He shot and killed 51-year-old Kenneth Clements with the Type 56. Clements had been walking his dog with his family; the family escaped without injury. At this time, approximately 12:50, police had linked the incident in Froxfield to the many calls they received in Hungerford and instead focused on South View. Ryan returned to South View from the common, and the first police officers to arrive aimed to close both ends of the road to contain a possible gunman. These officers were unarmed, and when Ryan saw the police response he shot one of the officers, PC Roger Brereton, in the chest with the Beretta. Brereton, who was in his patrol car, crashed into a telegraph pole. At 12:58, Ryan shot and killed him with the Type 56 while he was using his radio to report an active shooter.

Still on South View, Ryan next shot at a mother and daughter who had just turned onto the lane in their Volvo. Both were struck, although the mother was able to reverse the car out of the road. Ryan next fired at the two-person crew of an ambulance that was responding to 999 calls on South View; both escaped without major injury. After this, two of Brereton's colleagues securing the east end of South View came upon Kenneth Clements's son, who informed them that the shooter had continued west on South View. They headed to investigate and Ryan shot at them; one took shelter in a house and the other – with Clements's son – drove across the common to safety. At 13:12, this officer radioed to request support from TVP's Tactical Firearms Unit (TFU) having seen the firearms Ryan was using. The TFU was on a training exercise in Otmoor, Oxfordshire (approximately 40 miles (60 km) from Hungerford) and would not have all its members in attendance until 14:20. The officer, PC Jeremy Wood, set up a makeshift command post on the common, approximately 500 yards (460 m) from South View.