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The columbine high school shooting was a horrid event that took place on the twentieth of April 1999, at the columbine high school in columbine, Colorado, United States. It is generally known as the columbine high school massacre because of the awful events that took place that day.
Two teenagers; Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold took it upon themselves to cleanse the world( the world in this scenario being their school) because to them humans were robots who were conned into believing the false notions of societal order(Harris) or zombies who were lucky because they were so ignorant(Klebold).
That day, these two boys, seventeen and eighteen respectively, murdered thirteen people. Twelve students and one teacher, William Sanders. They then proceeded to blow their brains out. It was known as the deadliest school shooting of that time. It also opened up a lot of flaws in the police and school systems. Debates where held on gun control and school safety across the nation. The columbine high school and many others developed a zero tolerance policy, when it came to violence.
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The tragedy that occurred that day created a term, ‘The columbine Effect’. It is known as the legacy and impact of the columbine high school massacre. Many people have tried to re-enact that event in several places, calling Harris and Klebold icons, heroes and martyrs. ‘Columbine’ is also used as a word for mass shooting.
After the terrible event, reporters, detectives and much more tried to figure out why two, very young, smart boys would do such an awful thing and they came up with many theories that the people bought quickly, most likely because people, especially victims and their families needed to understand what all that had happened, happened.
They needed there to be a good reason, tgwy needed to find some closure. It wasn’t until the year 2006 that the real ‘reason’ came out but by then it didn’t matter much. The people had lost interest. People believed these myths about the columbine high school massacre;
- The killers were believed to have been a part of the trench coat mafia. Most likely because on the day of the event, they wore trench coats. However, this was untrue. The trench coat mafia was a small clique of social outcasts who wore trench coats. Although Harris and Klebold were found associating with them, occasionally, they were not a part of the group.
- They were believed to be social outcasts. This was also quite wrong, seeing as both had friends, they attended events, they joined clubs and even went on dates.
- There were also reports stating that these boys were trying to get revenge on the people who bullied them but it turns out that they weren’t bullied and the few who did make fun of them, were not harmed in the shooting.
Facts and Victims
Facts
- The boys knew exactly what it is they were doing. They were not coerced or cajoled. They planned everything.
- The operation did not go as planned. If it did, tons of more people would be gone today. The boys had made bombs but as brilliant as they were, they just couldn’t pull this one off. They dropped two bags with bombs in the cafeteria. One each in their cars and another a few miles away. The plan was to bring the roof down in the cafeteria, killing as many people as possible and then shooting those that tried to flee. The bomb that was a few miles away was meant to go off first to draw the attention of the officials but that bomb only, partially went off. So they had to improvise.
- Thirteen people were killed on that day and twenty-four were injured.
- Harris and Klebold had been planning the operation for almost a year and proof of all of it were in their journals.
- Harris was seen as a budding psychopath by one psychologist but another saw him as a full-grown psychopath and many agreed.
- This massacre could have been prevented if the local authority had taken better precautions. The parents of Brookes Brown, Klebold’s childhood friend and the one person he told to leave before he started his operation, filed a report against Harris and officials found evidence that he was building pipe bombs. They also found tons of threats on internet. However, the sheriff’s department covered the whole thing up.
- Some reporters regretted the way the two murders were painted before the whole truth came out. They wished they had told the world exactly who they were, psychopaths.
- Videos were made by the murders, explaining exactly what it is they were going to do later on.
- SWAT teams entered the school 47 minutes after the shooting started and they couldn’t do anything about it until 5 hours later. Their slow response caused a young boy to bleed out and die.
- The shooting is ranked one of the worst mass shooting in US history and also one of the deadliest episodes of school violence.
- The man who sold the boys the guns and the one who introduced to the man were both sentenced to prison.
Victims
- Cassie Bernall, 17
- Steven Curnow, 14
- Corey DePooter, 17
- Kelly Fleming, 16
- Matthew Kechter, 16
- Daniel Mauser, 15
- Daniel Rohrbough, 15
- William ‘Dave’ Sanders, 47
- Rachel Scott, 17
- Isaiah Shoels, 18
- John Tomlin, 16
- Lauren Townsend, 18
- Kyle Velasquez, 16
