The Columbine Massacre

Great Essays
THE COLUMBINE MASSACRE: A DAY TO REMEMBER
In the earlier days, schools were the safest places for students. Students were safer than they were at their homes because they were constantly being monitored by the school staffs and other fellow students. Today, school shootings are becoming a huge problem in America. It has become more common for students to express their anger with the intention of hurting or killing innocent classmates. On April 20, 1999 one of the most horrific school shooting occurred at Columbine high school. In order to better understand the Columbine Massacre, readers must get to know the shooters before the incident, acquire details of what happened the day of April 20, 1999, and go inside the mind of the shooters to learn
…show more content…
They called the day of the attack, “Judgment Day” (Cullen “Reluctant”). They chose the date April 20th. According to “Columbine, Bullying, and the Mindset of Eric Harris” written by psychologist Peter Longman, April 20th was chosen because it was Hitler 's birthday and the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Eric wrote about this plans in his diary (Biography, Eric Harris). Over a span of a couple of months, Harris designed 7 big propane tank bombs. The first step in his plan was to plant a “decoy bomb” three miles away from the school to divert police. Next, they would detonate a bomb in the cafeteria. The plan was to kill more than 600 students in the lunchroom with the bomb and wait at the exits with guns to shoot anyone trying to escape (Cullen, “Depressive”). They wanted to kill over 2000 students and more than 100 faculty members, not planning to survive the attack themselves. (Cullen “Reluctant”). The morning of Judgment Day, Dylan rose bright and early and was on out of his house by 5:30 and left for Eric’s house where they would make their last set of basement tapes in the basement of Eric Harris’ house(Cullen Columbine). After getting last minute supplies, Klebold and Harris would gather their bombs and place them in the cafeteria and also place their decoy bomb at a park. Hours later Klebold and Harris met in …show more content…
Was there any clear hints of the shooting the months or years before the shooting? Researchers went in depth to better understand the mental state of the shooters and came to realize that Klebold and Harris had different mindset. Harris was an angry person whose anger was often visible. Not only was Harris being bullied, but he also bullied people himself. Peter Longman brings up an incident where Eric Harris bullied a boy so much that he left the boy in tears, not wanting to come to school. His hatred towards others is what led to his revenge (Longman, Mindset). While Klebold on the other hand, was a hothead, but depressive and suicidal. Blaming himself for his problems, he often drank alcohol. (Cullen, Depressive). John Fuselier spent years studying the case to come to a safe conclusion that Harris was the mastermind behind the whole shooting, and executed most of the plan while Klebold kind of just followed along (Cullen, Reluctant). Their motives were very different. Cullen Writes, “Klebold fantasized about suicide for years without making an attempt. He had never spoken to the girls he dreamed of, Dylan was not a man of action, he was conscripted by a boy who was”(Cullen “Reluctant”). His Journal was filled with suicidal thoughts. Harris wanted to be remembered and wanted to leave a lasting impression on the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Sandy Hook, Columbine, and Virginia Tech are some of the most common references made when talking about school shootings. In an article by Julian Kimble, in Complex, “Memories of a Massacre: What We 've Learned 15 Years After Columbine,” Kimble states that in 1999 two shooters, both students entered the school and opened fire. There were 15 dead and 23 injured in the shooting. In 2007 one student entered the Virginia Tech University campus. The student killed 32 people and wounded 17 more before killing himself.…

    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As soon as media coverage of the tragedy started, people started spreading the news to their friends and family. Whatever was reported is what these people believed. Very few people took the time to comb through the evidence and really understand the truth of the shooting. “What most people know about the massacre is what they learned in the first few days after it occurred” (Cullen, “The Depressive”). People tried to make sense of such a large scale tragedy.…

    • 2233 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The school administration has required all schools to practice lock down drills, having anti-bullying zones, zero-tolerance policies and the practice of A.L.I.C.E. On April 20,1999 two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had planned to bomb and kill as many students in columbine high school. They have made over 99 explosive devices and had made a propane tank into a bomb, which was left in the cafeteria where…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Columbine Shooting Thesis

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Rachel replies, “You know I do” “Then go be with him” Eric put the gun to her head and shot her. Eric and Dylan went to find kids who were bullying them, shot, and killed them. Columbine Shooting: School Shootings Happen Because of Bullying.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Columbine School Massacre

    • 1499 Words
    • 6 Pages

    This event is something that will never be forgotten and will be forever changing and affecting the lives of many. It 's hard to believe something so horrific has to occur before society realizes there 's something wrong, that there 's a real problem and something needs to change. To this day there are still many who don 't understand why to two boys Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold did what they did. Going into their very own school and killing friends and teachers like its nothing, almost treating them like slaughter animals or killing like it 's a sport, that is something many cannot wrap their brains around. But recognizing the fact that these boys were suffering from a mental illness helps to bring closure, showing that the boys if had been in there right mind wouldn 't have ever killed anyone.…

    • 1499 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The United States of America is no stranger to tragedies. Whether it be the Columbine High School Massacre or the shooting at Virginia Tech, America has been plagued by terrorism and the murder of many civilians. Although often thought to be unstoppable, I have constructed a plan to end the reign of terror. By instating strict gun control, intensive outpatient therapy for military veterans, and allocating money for more intense security in public spaces, the United States government can efficiently protect the citizens from the atrocities that have plagued the country in the past.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Columbine shooting This story is about some kids that went in to a school and killed people with machine guns. This school is currently the most popular high school in the worlds. There were 12 students and 1 teacher killed. They killed a girl named Rachel that was a senior and she was such a nice girl she started a chain reaction that is all over the world. The kids that killed Rachel killed themselves at the scene.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    School Shootings

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages

    School Shootings: Can Such Murderous Tragedies be Helpful? 74 dead. 41 wounded. 3 suicides. 59 innocent children murdered.…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sandy Hook Massacre

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What is known is the shooter had significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life, as well as the ability to interact with others. What contribution this made to the shooting, if any at all, is unknown because mental health professionals who saw him did not see anything that would have indicated this future behaviour. However, a teacher told investigators that “In all my years of experience, I have known (redacted) grade boys to talk about things like this, but Adam’s level of violence was disturbing.” The teacher added “Adam’s creative writing was so graphic that it could not be shared”. He was familiar with and had…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rampage School Shootings

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages

    When reading Rampage, you get nothing less than a well researched, well written book that demonstrates the ways a community can come together to prevent plots and school shootings from occurring. As a social scientist, Newman explains how communication between students and administrators can potentially help avoid school shootings from occurring with the help of being able to ask the following questions: Why are shooters almost always white male? Why do most school shootings occur in rural areas? I personally enjoyed the way Newman presented an in-depth analysis of school mass shootings at Westside, Arkansas and Heath, Kentucky. She created an illustrative model of what she calls school rampage shootings as well as, consults data collected from several other similar tragedies.…

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Columbine The tragedy among youth, April 20, 1999; two troubled young men lash out their rage and depression on the high school they were cast out from; Columbine High, Littleton, Colorado. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were the two adolescents that committed this heinous crime. Over all, these murders had caused thirteen deaths and twenty one, brutal injuries. Although, most of the deaths and injuries were by gunshot, many explosives were also used. The explosive were manufactured by Klebold and there were roughly ninety nine of these devices planted throughout the campus.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On April 20, 1999, Littleton held their breaths as thirteen lives were torn from unsuspecting arms. In the rush of the moment, memories were whisked away by blindsiding bullets and two boys with one malicious dream. Attempts were made in vain to try to make sense of the massacre but none would come close for some time. Through words, Cullen disentangles the violent psyches of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as they imagined, illustrated, and executed the attack in his nonfiction novel, Columbine. Disturbing accounts from the mouths of victims and parents of the shooters are also included to assure that no detail was spared.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Massacre At Columbine

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages

    7 Eric and Dylan Had Been Arrested Before Huffingtonpost.com In January 1998, one year before the massacre Eric and Dylan were charged with criminal mischief, trespassing, and theft for breaking into a locked van and stealing computers. Surprising they both made a good impression on the juvenile officers who oversaw their assigned classes and treatment. They were so well behaved that they were discharged from a program a few months early.…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The author, Dave Cullen, was inspired to write this book by the massacre that occurred on April 20th, 1999 in Columbine High School. The events that took place before and after the massacre gave the shooting a whole new different meaning and feel to the community. Cullen was able to capture so many visuals and explanations about people’s stories and the investigation of the shooters along with their reasoning. This book was very well written in the sense that it made the reader understand why this was so much more than just a school shooting.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On April 16, 2007 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado one of the deadliest school shootings in the history of the United States took place. Two teenagers by the name of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold rigged two bombs fitted inside duffel bags to explode in the middle of Columbine High School, when these bombs failed to detonate Harris and Klebold began there killing spree. Resulting in thirteen casualties and twenty injured before committing suicide (History.com). People have come up with many theories but none have been proven. ,…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays