Columbine Revisited

It has been nearly nine years since Columbine, which was, at the time, the deadliest school shooting, but it is still widely talked about today. It was truly one of the most shocking events in history and will never be forgotten. On April 20, 1999, two seniors students launched an all-out assault on Columbine high school. The results were devastating and the incident had a drastic affect on American society. Consequently, everyone who has ever heard of the event is left with the question, "Why?"

The Event

Two Columbine students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, had been planning an assault on their high school for over a year before the plan was actually launched. Therefore, many preparations were made. Although everything did not go how they planned, here is how the event unraveled. Before arriving at the school on the designated day, April 20th, the pair planted a bomb in a field a mile away from school set to go off at 11:14 a.m. in order to thwart police (it eventually started a small fire). They then arrived at Columbine high school at 11:10 a.m. and met in the parking lot where they finalized their plan, which was to be highlighted by two propane bombs that would do catastrophic damage. They planted these bombs in the cafeteria and met back at their cars which were positioned in two separate spots where an excellent view of the cafeteria could be seen. After the bombs were to go off at 11:17 a.m., they would shoot down fleeing survivors exiting the cafeteria. Fortunately, the bombs never went off due to poor assembling. If they would have detonated, the bombs had enough explosive power to destroy the cafeteria and send the library above crashing down. The two students admired the Oklahoma bombing and wanted to not only imitate it, but outdo it. At 11:19 a.m, realizing that their bombs were not going to detonate, Harris and Klebold made their way to the highest stairs outside the building, and started shooting students who were at lunch. Armed with shotguns, a rifle, and a semi-automatic handgun, Harris and Klebold began the massacre.

Both gunmen wore trench coats to conceal their weapons. Without any notice, the pull out their weapons are begin spraying bullets. Rachel Scott, the first victim, was shot four times and died instantly. Her friend Richard Castaldo, who was with her at the time, was shot eight times before being rescued over an hour later. Both gunmen eventually removed their trench coats and started firing down the staircase they were on. Daniel Rohrbough, Sean Graves, and Lance Kirklin were all shot and fell immediately to the ground wounded. The shooters then started shooting away from the school, injuring two more students before returning their attention to the three previously wounded students. Daniel Rohrbough, who was badly injured at the time, was attempting to escape but was shot dead by Klebold at close range. While his partner, Harris, continued to shoot, Klebold entered the cafeteria apparently to see why the propane bombs did not detonate. Upon his return, both proceeded shooting across the school and also littering their paths with improvised explosives such as CO2 and pipe bombs. At 11:24 a.m., an officer finally arrived and had a brief gunfire with Harris before he fled into the school. Over ten shots were fired, but no one was hit. The worst was still yet to come.

Harris and Klebold walked down the hallways shooting at anyone they saw and throwing more pipe bombs. They patrolled the hallways several times before heading toward the library hallway. Along the way, teacher and coach, Dave Sanders, who was trying to lead students out of the building, momentarily appeared and was shot in the chest. Sanders was assisted by another student into a science classroom, but died from blood loss a staggering three hours later at 3:00 p.m. before medical help could arrive. He was the only teacher killed throughout the massacre. Before entering the library, the shooters made there way back to the cafeteria where they continued to examine the bombs they had left earlier. Throwing more bombs, the two headed to the library where the most grisly part of the whole incident took place. Fifty-two students, two teachers, and two librarians were all hiding here.

Immediately upon entering the library, the gunmen started taunting the students. They then asked everyone one with a white cap to stand up (athletes at Columbine wore a white cap). No one followed the command and the two began shooting randomly. The first one in the library to die was Kyle Velasquez. After this, the pair set down the duffel bags filled with bombs and reloaded the weapons. They made their way to the window where they noticed police evacuating and rescuing students. Angered by this, Harris and Klebold began firing at police and other law enforcements. Police returned fire. Klebold turned away from the window and fired his shotgun at a nearby table, injuring Patrick Ireland, Daniel Steepleton, and Makai Hall. Harris followed by shooting students under desks, killing Steven Curnow and injuring Kacey Ruegsegger. He then went over to a student under a desk, tapped the desk twice, said "Peek-a-Boo" and shot Cassie Bernall in the head, killing her. There was some debate that he asked her if she believed in God and when she said yes, he shot her, but it actually was an exchange between Klebold and Valeen Schurr. However, he never shot her. Harris later asked Bree Pasquale if she wanted to die and she responded by pleaing for her life. He only laughed and called her pathetic. Witnesses report that, at this time, Harris was disorientated from a broken nose sustained in an earlier incident, which was now bleeding heavily. While this was going on, Patrick Ireland attempted to assist injured Makai Hall. His head appeared and Klebold shot him, twice in the head and once in the foot. He was left unconscious but remarkably survived. The shooters at this time appeared to be shooting indiscriminately. Klebold proceeded to another set of tables where Isaiah Shoals, Matthew Kechter, and Craig Scott (Rachel Scott's brother). hid. Harris and Klebold taunted and ridiculed Shoals for being black and consequently, Harris knelt down and shot him in the chest at close range. Klebold did the same, killing Kechter. Craig Scott remained safe by pretending to be dead. A CO2 bomb was thrown across the room onto a student, but was thrown away from the shooters, with no one injured. After a brief moment of congregating, Harris and Klebold start firing again, killing Lauren Townsend. Harris moved once again to another table and shot twice underneath it, injuring Nichole Nowlen and John Tomlin. Tomlin tried to crawl out from under the table but Klebold kicked him. Harris taunted the escape attempt and Klebold shot him several times, leaving him dead. Kelly Flemming was then killed by Harris under the same table. At 11:37 a.m., the pair moved to the center of the library in order to reload. Nearby, Klebold noticed an acquaintance who asked what they were doing. Klebold responded with "Oh, just killing people." Savage then asked if they were going to kill him. After a brief hesitation, Klebold told him to leave. After he was gone, Harris fired his rifle, hitting Daniel Mauser in the face, killing him. The two then fired randomly under the tables, injuring Jennifer Doyle and Austin Eubanks, and fatally wounding Corey Depooter, the last victim. Several witnesses claim that the gunmen then lost interest in shooting, and were considering knifing people, but they decided otherwise. Harris and Klebold left the library at 11:42 a.m., ending the brutal massacre. Almost immediately, thirty-four uninjured and ten injured people evacuate the room.

After leaving the library, the pair went to a science room, where they tried to blow up the room by turning on all the gases and throwing a pipe bomb. The attempt was unsuccessful and the two headed toward the cafeteria where the massacre was supposed to originally occur. They tried to figure out why the propane bombs never exploded and even tried to detonate them right there. One of the gunmen fired a bullet at the bombs and another threw a pipe bomb at it. Eventually, one of them partially detonated, blowing out the cafeteria's windows and igniting gallons of fuel, which was put out by the cafeteria's sprinklers. They headed back upstairs and wandered around the hallways shooting aimlessly. Several times they looked into the classrooms and even made eye contact with several of the students, but for whatever reason, they never tried to enter. After a brief revisit to the cafeteria, they returned back to the library at 12:02 p.m., where very few remained. Once inside, they again shot at police through the windows without success. Then at approximately 12:08 p.m., Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot themselves, committing suicide. It was just shortly after that when SWAT began to enter the building. By then, it was already way to late. The damage had been done. They moved from room to room, evacuating students and faculty. At 3:30 p.m., they discovered the library. At 4:30 p.m., the school was declared safe, but because bombs were found in the parking lot, the school was declared a crime scene. At 10:45 p.m., a bomb in Klebold's car went off after an officer tried to defuse it, but no one was hurt. Harris and Klebold are estimated to have committed suicide forty-five minutes after it all began.

What Was Supposed to Happen

Unlike most school shootings, the Columbine shooters dreamed bigger. They would be dismayed to find out that they just created one of the worst school shootings. They wanted to create the worst act of violence in American history. They expected to kill at least 600 between the bombs and shootings. Although they didn't expect everything to work out, their plan was to blow up the school cafeteria, shoot students and faculty fleeing, have a major shoot-out with police, hi-jack a plane and crash it into New York, and later have their car bombs explode while the media and police were still present at the school. They, by no means, thought all this was going to happen, but one thing is clear, they didn't expect to come out of the incident alive. There whole plan was to die in the incident. However, in early journal entries, Harris indicates that if they did survive, they would go to an island with no government policies. He later dismissed this idea. Harris and Klebold were very angry and depressed and wanted to show the world how they felt.

The Students

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold appeared to be normal, if occasionally troubled, students. They were highly in depth with computers and made good grades. Harris was even in some of the upper level classes. The problem was that they kept their problems and thoughts to themselves. There journals indicated them to be suicidal several years before the incident and both had thoughts of mass murder. The combination of them proved to be a deadly result. They had already planned the school incident over a year before it actually happened. Contrary to popular belief, neither of the boys were outcasts. They hung out with a wide group of fans, participated in bowl-a-thons, and attended concerts. Harris had many dates and Klebold attended the prom. Their burning desire to kill was all locked inside or confiding between the two, maybe a few others. Honestly, neither of the two look like outcasts. However, one of the events that may have triggered the whole incident is a prior arrest of the pair for breaking into a van and stealing electronics. Instead of serving jail time, both were assigned programs to help better themselves. It is at about this time, when Harris and Klebold start to form the plan. Everything could have evolved from here.

The Preparation

Due to the fact that the assault was planned a full year ahead of time, both Harris and Klebold were able to exchange thoughts and ideas on how they wanted to execute it, which is why their plan is so elaborate. It also may be why they were able to go undetected. During this time period, the pair built homemade bombs, wrote in journals, made videos describing their motives, and drew graphic pictures, which comes to show how obsessed they were with their plan. According to them, this was the highest a person can get in life. They often quoted themselves as gods or elite.

Motives

What makes Columbine as wide-known is nobody knows fully why they did it. They never fully indicated why they were doing what they were doing in their writings. A recent medical analysis diagnosed Eric Harris as a psychopath and Dylan Klebold as just a depressed person, but that doesn't explain why. Nobody is ever going to know they actual reason because the only people who know are dead. They can't stand trial and tell all the results. For some reason, everything in this world has got to be blamed on something and therefore the massacre has provoked debate regarding gun control laws, the availability of firearms in the united states, gun violence involving youths, the nature of high school cliques, bullying, violent movies, and violent games. The shooting also resulted in an increased emphasis on school security and a moral panic aimed at goth culture, social pariahs, the use of pharmaceutical antidepressants by teenagers, teenage Internet use, the gun culture, and graphic music. The only visual evidence that anyone has is the tapes Harris and Klebold made describing why they were how they were, and these tapes will not be released to the media anytime soon.

Aftermath

Columbine was one of the most shocking events in U.S. history and has gotten a ton of media coverage. After the massacre, schools adopted various rules, including the zero tolerance policy, in which a school can not let any act of violence go untended to. Even so, now days, the incident has provoked more deadly shootings and has consequently fallen to the fourth worst school killing. Everyone wants to outdo them, such as the Virginia Tech murderer. Columbine is the event that highlighted school violence and will never be forgotten. It has changed the mindset of Americans and they way America operates today.

Significance of the Date

Columbine occurred on April 20th, the birthday of Adolf Hitler. However, the original date, indicated by Harris Klebolds' journals, specifies April 19th as the designated date, which is the anniversary of the Oklahoma Bombing and the Assault on Waco, both of which they admired. It is not sure of why they switched the date, but it was definitely in honor of one or more of the events.

My Opinion

Everyone is going to have their own opinion on Columbine, so I'm going to give you mine. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were highly angry and depressive people, but this isn't uncommon. Most people don't got out and do something like they did. Then, why would they do something like this? First of all, both were suicidal and no one wants to die without being remembered. By doing what they did they assured they would have their place in history. Whatever it took, the wanted to game fame. Still, I don't think this is the main reason, it's just a side reason. I truly believe the following: 1) They wanted to show the world how the felt 2) They wanted to expose some of the world's problems 3) They wanted to help others who had problems like they did. This is just an opinion, but according to their profiles, it fits them well. They were not the evil people everyone makes them out to be. True, the were definitely bad people but they had good motives too. No matter what their goals were, the seemed to have accomplished at least some of them. Look at how well known the incident is and how much they've influenced others. It's not uncanny.