History UsefulNotes / Columbine

Although school shootings are a relatively, some would say distressingly, common occurrence in the US (there had been one almost every year [[OlderThanTheyThink since 1966]]) [[hottip:1: Although in a grim irony, the worst-ever US school massacre remains [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster the bombing]] of an elementary school in Bath Township, Michigan which happened in ''1927''.]], this one quickly entered the halls of infamy for the then-unprecedented scale of it and the fact that it had taken place in a high school. Future school shootings, even those with greater body counts, would find themselves in Columbine's shadow. The {{irony}} of all this media attention is that this is [[ThanatosGambit exactly what Harris and Klebold wanted to happen]] -- they desired to see their names burned into the history books. Almost immediately, a whole number of [[UrbanLegends apocryphal events]] began finding their way into the PopularHistory version of the shooting, MoralGuardians of all stripes used Columbine as an excuse to rant about whatever it was they felt was evil (or whatever would get them [[MoneyDearBoy the best book deals]]), everybody was searching for answers, and American high schools came under the thrall of a number of Columbine-related concepts, some of which had never happened. The word "columbine," once the name of the state flower of Colorado, entered the vernacular as a euphemism for a school shooting, and many future school shooting plots made reference to "pulling a columbine" and a desire to "top" Harris and Klebold. Police forces, having witnessed firsthand how ineffective traditional police tactics were against spree killers, saw themselves developing new ways to respond to such threats.

Although school shootings are a relatively, some would say distressingly, common occurrence in the US (there had been one almost every year [[OlderThanTheyThink since 1966]]) [[hottip:1: Although in a grim irony, the worst-ever US school massacre remains [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster the bombing]] of an elementary school in Bath Township, Michigan which happened in ''1927''.]], this one quickly entered the halls of infamy (as best evidenced by the fact that it has its own TVTropesWiki page) for the then-unprecedented scale of it and the fact that it had taken place in a high school. Future school shootings, even those with greater body counts, would find themselves in Columbine's shadow. The {{irony}} of all this media attention is that this is [[ThanatosGambit exactly what Harris and Klebold wanted to happen]] -- they desired to see their names burned into the history books. Almost immediately, a whole number of [[UrbanLegends apocryphal events]] began finding their way into the PopularHistory version of the shooting, MoralGuardians of all stripes used Columbine as an excuse to rant about whatever it was they felt was evil (or whatever would get them [[MoneyDearBoy the best book deals]]), everybody was searching for answers, and American high schools came under the thrall of a number of Columbine-related concepts, some of which had never happened. The word "columbine," once the name of the state flower of Colorado, entered the vernacular as a euphemism for a school shooting, and many future school shooting plots made reference to "pulling a columbine" and a desire to "top" Harris and Klebold. Police forces, having witnessed firsthand how ineffective traditional police tactics were against spree killers, saw themselves developing new ways to respond to such threats.

The general consensus among investigators regarding their motivations is that they (particularly Harris) were {{Nietzsche Wannabe}}s who wanted to leave their mark on the world. A personality profile of Harris stated that he was an anti-social, paranoid, [[ItsAllAboutMe narcissistic]] [[TheSociopath psychopath]] with unrestrained aggression, while his journal reveals a SocialDarwinist mindset, with frequent references to what he imagined to be "natural selection" (the shirt he wore during the massacre even had that slogan on the front). One entry in Harris' journal contains a discussion on how he wanted to put everyone into a super-''Doom'' game and see to it that only the strong survive. Klebold's diaries talk about how he and Harris were [[EvolutionaryLevels more highly evolved]] than the rest of humanity, but his secret journal reveals that he was self-loathing and possibly suicidal. Their diaries make frequent reference to the Oklahoma City bombing, the Waco Siege, and other disasters, noting how they wished to "outdo" these events. Their codename for the massacre was "[[NaturalBornKillers NBK]]," taken from a film that both of them were huge fans of, in which the main characters go on a killing spree and become celebrities in the process.

[[MurderSimulators Violent video games]] were one of the most popular scapegoats for the massacre, with much hay being made out of the fact that the killers were fans of ''{{Doom}}'' and ''{{Wolfenstein 3D}}''. Armchair psychologists were claiming that the killers had become desensitized to and obsessed with violence as a result of playing video games. Florida attorney Jack Thompson first emerged as an anti-video-game figure as a result of the massacre, setting himself on the trajectory that would ultimately lead to his dismissal from the legal profession. Once it came out that Harris had made [[GameMod various levels]] for the game, the media was almost immediately claiming that they had been based on Columbine High School, with the demons replaced with students and teachers. As it turned out, [[DidNotDoTheResearch they weren't]]. The most elaborate of the so-called "Harris levels," titled UAC Labs, can be read about and downloaded [[http://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/infamous.php here,]] third down the list, with commentary on the massacre and its effect on the gaming community.

Some alleged that the killers were either [[ThoseWackyNazis neo-Nazis]], or had a fascination with AdolfHitler and [[NaziGermany his regime]]. Supporters of this theory point to the fact that the attack had taken place on April 20, Hitler's birthday, and the fact that the killers were fans of Music/{{Rammstein}} and {{KMFDM}}, two bands often hit with accusations of being MusicToInvadePolandTo. Robyn Anderson, a friend of Klebold's, denies that the killers were Nazis, although she claims that there was a lot that she didn't know about them. It is worth noting here that Dylan Klebold's mother was Jewish (although he was raised Lutheran), and that, as noted above, it is likely that the attack had been planned for April 19.

The killers arrived at the school at 11:10 AM and went to the cafeteria with the large duffel bags containing their bombs, each wired to detonate at 11:17 shortly after the start of lunch. They headed back to their cars to wait for the bombs to go off... [[WheresTheKaboom which they didn't]], thanks to [[EpicFail their lack of finesse at the finer points of bomb-making]]. Realizing that their bombs were duds, the two broke out their guns (a 9mm carbine and [[SawedOffShotgun sawed-off pump shotgun]] for Harris, and a [[GoodGunsBadGuns TEC-9]] and sawed-off double-barrel shotgun for Klebold) and headed to the school's west entrance. Here, they took off their trenchcoats, killed two students and a teacher, and wounded nine others as they went through the halls. At 11:29, they headed to the library, where the main body of the massacre took place. When they walked in, Harris told everybody wearing a white baseball cap (a tradition among the school athletes) to stand up. Ten people were killed in the library, and twelve were injured. These would prove to be the last victims of the Columbine massacre, as the killers left the library at 11:42 and spent the next twenty minutes wandering the now-empty halls and cafeteria, shooting and throwing pipe bombs seemingly at random. They went back into the library (which had since emptied out) at 12:02 and briefly exchanged fire with the policemen who now surrounded the school. Harris and Klebold then committed suicide by one shooting {{his}} gun to his mouth and the other shooting [[his]] gun to his head.

The killers arrived at the school at 11:10 AM and went to the cafeteria with the large duffel bags containing their bombs, each wired to detonate at 11:17 shortly after the start of lunch. They headed back to their cars to wait for the bombs to go off... [[WheresTheKaboom which they didn't]], thanks to [[EpicFail their lack of finesse at the finer points of bomb-making]]. Realizing that their bombs were duds, the two broke out their guns (a 9mm carbine and [[SawedOffShotgun sawed-off pump shotgun]] for Harris, and a [[GoodGunsBadGuns TEC-9]] and sawed-off double-barrel shotgun for Klebold) and headed to the school's west entrance. Here, they took off their trenchcoats, killed two students and a teacher, and wounded nine others as they went through the halls. At 11:29, they headed to the library, where the main body of the massacre took place. When they walked in, Harris told everybody wearing a white baseball cap (a tradition among the school athletes) to stand up. Ten people were killed in the library, and twelve were injured. These would prove to be the last victims of the Columbine massacre, as the killers left the library at 11:42 and spent the next twenty minutes wandering the now-empty halls and cafeteria, shooting and throwing pipe bombs seemingly at random. They went back into the library (which had since emptied out) at 12:02 and briefly exchanged fire with the policemen who now surrounded the school. Harris and Klebold then committed suicide. It is unsure whether they killed themselves, or one killed the other.

-->- Andrea L. Anders, Lakewood, Colorado

->I used to think that there were some things that are so obvious you couldn't misunderstand them, but I was wrong. The Columbine is the state flower of Colorado. The state wanted to put out a license plate showing an image of the Columbine flower, with its name below, the date of the incident, and the phrase "Choose Life". Rather than reading it as a memory of what happened at the school, some people immmediately presumed it was an anti-abortion message!
->- Andrea L. Anders, Lakewood, Colorado

The Columbine High School massacre saw the deaths of fifteen people -- twelve students, one teacher, and the killers themselves -- and the injury of another twenty four people. After it happened, everybody ran around like a headless chicken trying to rationalize it. Here's [[Wiki/TVTropes our]] attempt.

Various conservative Christian groups proclaimed the massacre to be the result of the secularization of society, the [[ScienceIsBad teaching of evolution]], and the lack of religion in public schools. Many within such circles are more inclined to accept initial accounts indicating that two of the victims, Cassie Bernall and Rachel Scott, may have been killed because of their belief in God/Christian faith. Many investigators believe the Cassie Bernall story to be apocryphal, and based on the experience of Valeen Schnurr, a girl who survived the massacre. However, many continue to consider them Christian martyrs and symbols of faith in the face of death.

Some alleged that the killers were either [[ThoseWackyNazis neo-Nazis]], or had a fascination with AdolfHitler and his regime. Supporters of this theory point to the fact that the attack had taken place on April 20, Hitler's birthday, and the fact that the killers were fans of Music/{{Rammstein}} and {{KMFDM}}, two bands often hit with accusations of being MusicToInvadePolandTo. Robyn Anderson, a friend of Klebold's, denies that the killers were Nazis, although she claims that there was a lot that she didn't know about them. It is worth noting here that Dylan Klebold's mother was Jewish (although he was raised Lutheran), and that, as noted above, it is likely that the attack had been planned for April 19.

* HoYay: The kids were harassed for being homosexuals.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: They initially planned to blow up the cafeteria, escape the premises, and hijack an airliner. Yeah, this is one of those "could have beens" that turned out for the better.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: They initially planned to blow up the cafeteria, escape the premises, and hijack an airliner.

Perhaps the most important effect of the massacre was the way that it would shape American popular culture for years to come. The most noticeable and immediate change was a trend of [[MediaWatchdogs stiffer censorship]] against violence in movies and TV shows that lasted into the early TurnOfTheMillennium. The teen {{horror}} genre, popularized by the likes of ''{{Scream}}'', began to [[DeaderThanDisco die out]] as depictions of young people being brutally murdered suddenly became [[TooSoon very unsettling]]. After a period of TooSoon, school shootings became [[AxesAtSchool popular subject matter]] for RippedFromTheHeadlines programs, the canonical example being the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "School Daze" (one of the first to be advertised with such a slogan). It can be argued that the Columbine massacre marked the beginning of the end for the viewpoints and culture of TheNineties (much like how [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels the Altamont disaster]] is said to have killed TheSixties), and that the time between April 20, 1999 and [[TheWarOnTerror September 11, 2001]] was a time of transition between TheNineties and the TurnOfTheMillennium.

Some alleged that the killers were either [[ThoseWackyNazis neo-Nazis]], or had a fascination with AdolfHitler and his regime. Supporters of this theory point to the fact that the attack had taken place on April 20, Hitler's birthday, and the fact that the killers were fans of {{Rammstein}} and {{KMFDM}}, two bands often hit with accusations of being MusicToInvadePolandTo. Robyn Anderson, a friend of Klebold's, denies that the killers were Nazis, although she claims that there was a lot that she didn't know about them. It is worth noting here that Dylan Klebold's mother was Jewish (although he was raised Lutheran), and that, as noted above, it is likely that the attack had been planned for April 19.

->I used to think that there were some things that so obvious you couldn't misunderstand them, but I was wrong. The Columbine is the state flower of Colorado. The state wanted to put out a license plate showing an image of the Columbine flower, with its name below, the date of the incident, and the phrase "Choose Life". Rather than reading it as a memory of what happened at the school, some people immmediately presumed it was an anti-abortion message!

Perhaps the most important effect of the massacre was the way that it would shape American popular culture for years to come. The most noticeable and immediate change was a trend of [[MediaWatchdogs stiffer censorship]] against violence in movies and TV shows that lasted into the early TurnOfTheMillennium. The teen {{horror}} genre, popularized by the likes of ''{{Scream}}'', began to [[DeaderThanDisco die out]] as depictions of young people being brutally murdered suddenly became [[TooSoon very unsettling]]. After a period of TooSoon, school shootings became [[AxesAtSchool popular subject matter]] for RippedFromTheHeadlines programs, the canonical example being the ''LawAndOrder'' episode "School Daze" (one of the first to be advertised with such a slogan). It can be argued that the Columbine massacre marked the beginning of the end for the viewpoints and culture of TheNineties (much like how [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels the Altamont disaster]] is said to have killed TheSixties), and that the time between April 20, 1999 and [[TheWarOnTerror September 11, 2001]] was a time of transition between TheNineties and the TurnOfTheMillennium.

The general consensus among investigators regarding their motivations is that they (particularly Harris) were {{Nietzsche Wannabe}}s who wanted to leave their mark on the world. A personality profile of Harris stated that he was an anti-social, paranoid, [[ItsAllAboutMe narcissistic]] [[CompleteMonster psychopath]] with unrestrained aggression, while his journal reveals a SocialDarwinist mindset, with frequent references to what he imagined to be "natural selection" (the shirt he wore during the massacre even had that slogan on the front). One entry in Harris' journal contains a discussion on how he wanted to put everyone into a super-''Doom'' game and see to it that only the strong survive. Klebold's diaries talk about how he and Harris were [[EvolutionaryLevels more highly evolved]] than the rest of humanity, but his secret journal reveals that he was self-loathing and possibly suicidal. Their diaries make frequent reference to the Oklahoma City bombing, the Waco Siege, and other disasters, noting how they wished to "outdo" these events. Their codename for the massacre was "[[NaturalBornKillers NBK]]," taken from a film that both of them were huge fans of, in which the main characters go on a killing spree and become celebrities in the process.

The Columbine High School massacre saw the deaths of fifteen people -- twelve students, one teacher, and the killers themselves -- and the injury of another twenty four people. After it happened, everybody ran around like a headless chicken trying to rationalize it. Here's [[Wiki/TVTropes our]] shot at it.

[[MurderSimulators Violent video games]] were one of the most popular scapegoats for the massacre, with much hay being made out of the fact that the killers were fans of ''{{Doom}}'' and ''{{Wolfenstein 3D}}''. Armchair psychologists were claiming that the killers had become desensitized to and obsessed with violence as a result of playing video games. Florida attorney JackThompson first emerged as an anti-video-game figure as a result of the massacre, setting himself on the trajectory that would ultimately lead to his dismissal from the legal profession. Once it came out that Harris had made [[GameMod various levels]] for the game, the media was almost immediately claiming that they had been based on Columbine High School, with the demons replaced with students and teachers. As it turned out, [[DidNotDoTheResearch they weren't]]. The most elaborate of the so-called "Harris levels," titled UAC Labs, can be read about and downloaded [[http://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/infamous.php here,]] third down the list, with commentary on the massacre and its effect on the gaming community.

The general consensus among investigators regarding their motivations is that they (particularly Harris) were {{Nietzsche Wannabe}}s who wanted to leave their mark on the world. A personality profile of Harris stated that he was an anti-social, paranoid, narcissistic psychopath with unrestrained aggression, while his journal reveals a SocialDarwinist mindset, with frequent references to what he imagined to be "natural selection" (the shirt he wore during the massacre even had that slogan on the front). One entry in Harris' journal contains a discussion on how he wanted to put everyone into a super-''Doom'' game and see to it that only the strong survive. Klebold's diaries talk about how he and Harris were [[EvolutionaryLevels more highly evolved]] than the rest of humanity, but his secret journal reveals that he was self-loathing and possibly suicidal. Their diaries make frequent reference to the Oklahoma City bombing, the Waco Siege, and other disasters, noting how they wished to "outdo" these events. Their codename for the massacre was "[[NaturalBornKillers NBK]]," taken from a film that both of them were huge fans of, in which the main characters go on a killing spree and become celebrities in the process.

One of the most disturbing trends to happen after the shooting was the DracoInLeatherPants aura that developed around Harris and Klebold, with many students on the bottom of the high school food chain calling them [[HeroicSacrifice heroes and martyrs]] who stood up to the {{Jerk Jock}}s and bullies that ruled high schools across the nation. Trenchcoats became [[TheRedStapler a popular fashion accessary]] among such students, with schools responding by banning them under their dress codes. A series of [[FollowTheLeader copycat shootings]] took place, carried out mostly by people who wanted to get revenge on their classmates and, like Harris and Klebold, leave their mark on the world. Even eleven years later, a quick search will find a surprisingly large number of tribute sites and videos for "Reb and [=VoDKa=]."

With so many claims about them coming from every direction, what ''is'' known about the killers and their motivations deserves to be discussed. First of all, the two boys were juvenile {{delinquents}} who had a history of trouble with the law. The year before the shooting, the two had been arrested for breaking into and stealing tools from a locked van. They made such a good impression on the police that, in exchange for having their criminal records expunged, they would go through a program that included community service, psychiatric treatment and, for Harris, anger management classes. Again, they made such a good impression that they were discharged from the program a few months early. In the memoirs they taped before the shootings, they bragged about how well they had [[ISurrenderSuckers fooled the police into thinking they had reformed]]. Later, the two would make a video for a school project called "Hitmen for Hire," in which they played two {{Bully Hunter}}s, and Harris would write a violent ''{{Doom}}'' FanFic for a creative writing project. In addition, Harris had been caught the year before making threats on his website to various students and teachers, and Klebold had a long history of cursing at teachers and getting into fights with his boss at the pizza place he worked at.

The Columbine High School massacre saw the deaths of fifteen people -- twelve students, one teacher, and the killers themselves -- and the injury of another twenty four people. After it happened, everybody ran around like a headless chicken trying to rationalize it. Here's [[Wiki/TVTropes our shot at it]].

Looking for the main page? [[{{Columbine}} Click here.]]

Although school shootings are a relatively, some would say distressingly, common occurrence in the US (there had been one almost every year [[OlderThanTheyThink since 1966]]) [[hottip:1: Although in a grim irony, the worst-ever US school massacre remains [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster the bombing]] of an elementary school in Bath Township, Michigan which happened in ''1927''.]], this one quickly entered the halls of infamy (as best evidenced by the fact that it has its own TVTropesWiki page) for the then-unprecedented scale of it and the fact that it had taken place in a high school. Future school shootings, even those with greater body counts, would find themselves in Columbine's shadow. The {{irony}} of all this media attention is that this is [[ThanatosGambit exactly what Harris and Klebold wanted to happen]] -- they desired to see their names burned into the history books. Almost immediately, a whole number of [[UrbanLegends apocryphal events]] began finding their way into the PopularHistory version of the shooting, MoralGuardians of all stripes used Columbine as an excuse to rant about whatever it was they felt was evil (or whatever would get them [[MoneyDearBoy sweet book deals]]), everybody was searching for answers, and American high schools came under the thrall of a number of Columbine-related concepts, some of which had never happened. The word "columbine," once the name of the state flower of Colorado, entered the vernacular as a euphemism for a school shooting, and many future school shooting plots made reference to "pulling a columbine" and a desire to "top" Harris and Klebold. Police forces, having witnessed firsthand how ineffective traditional police tactics were against spree killers, saw themselves developing new ways to respond to such threats.