History Of The Columbine Massacre

On April 20th, 1999, at 11:15 a.m., two gunmen opened fire outside of Columbine High School, a large suburban public school in Colorado, and started to close in on the building. The two perpetrators were not strangers to the district, in fact, they were students who were currently enrolled as seniors in the graduating class of 1999. The Columbine massacre was the first major school shooting that paved the way for many other violent attacks on masses of people in the future, left a scar on the community, and allowed smarter thinking to be implemented into active shooter situations. Eric Harris, aged 18, and Dylan Klebold, aged 17, committed an act against humanity that sparked a violent uproar consisting of mass shootings. The beginning …show more content…
Shepard stated on his website that further down the timeline of Harris and Klebold, the two both managed to secure a job at a local pizza place called Blackjack Pizza. Once employed, a long history began where they performed multiple acts of mischief including setting booby traps, lighting fireworks, and starting small fires. This workplace also became the scene of where one of the gun deals occurred between the supplier and the kids (Shepard). When asked about Eric Harris, a lot of people said that they never saw a bad side to him and that they were totally surprised with what he had done. On the other hand, there were a few people who did notice slight outbursts in Eric Harris’s behavior, one of them being his own father. His dad actually kept a journal of all of the things that had been happening with his son and kept a very close eye on him (Shepard). However, he failed to notify anybody else and rather kept it to himself, which was the wrong …show more content…
The shooters came heavily armed as they walked into the high school, basically with a mini arsenal of firearms. According to an article on a site dedicated to the Columbine event, the weapons involved in the attack were a handgun, two shotguns, and a carbine rifle. In addition to the ranged objects, they also had brought with them a selection of homemade bombs. In fact, the total number of known explosive devices they had comes out to over 90, ranging from a variety of types including carbon dioxide, pipe, propane, gas, and napalm (Shepard). They placed the devices in a few different locations, including cars, the cafeteria, and they also carried smaller ones with them and lit them as they roamed the halls of the building. As one can tell by the inexplicable amount of bombs they had created, the attackers were unquestionably looking to wipe out masses of their classmates. Once the killers were satisfied with their work, they performed their next act that shocked the community even more. Eric and Dylan both turned their weapons on themselves and took their own lives. Many view the double suicide at the end of the rampage as a tragic thing, and some may think a little different of it, but one thing is for certain. If the killers would've waited a longer time before committing their planned homicide, it very well