Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to rampage around firing weapons, to destroy a place with gunfire.

1893		Dly Yellowstone Jrnl (Miles City, MO) 18 Nov. 2/2: Junction has always been a frontier town [...] We are not at all surprised, then, at hearing occasionally of some person or persons ‘shooting up’ the town.
1890		Stock Grower and Farmer 18 Jan. 5/2: This so enraged the boys that they began shooting up the town [DA].
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘Past One at Rooney’s’ in Strictly Business (1915) 257: He told the police he was tired of having his place shot up.
1930		E. Caldwell Poor Fool 152: Salty Banks ain’t going to shoot nothing up when I’m around.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 353: The police are still pretty handy at shootin’ ’em up.
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 97: You shot up everything in sight, didn’t you?
1959		J. Osborne World of Paul Slickey Act II: If I could be a soldier man, / Shooting up black men whenever I can.
1973		in C. Browne Body Shop 96: He [...] shot and shot. He shot a guy’s leg off and shot other people up.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 76: Remember the First and Kennedy Crew? The kid who shot up the police station a few years back, he was a member.

2. in fig. use, to defeat, to destroy.

1894		D.J. O’Malley ‘The Cowboy Wishes’ in Stock Grower’s Journal 7 Apr. 🌐 I’ll get plumb full of bug juice / And shoot up the whole town / When I start out to have a time, / You-bet I’ll do it brown.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 295: Every Floribel hopped out in the Morning with only one Idea hidden under the Coiffure, and that was to pick out some new Angle from which to shoot up the Check-Book.