On April 20, 1999, within the tiny, suburban city of Littleton, Colorado, two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, enacted a full-scale assault on columbine high school throughout the middle of the school day. The boys' idea was to kill many of their colleagues. With guns, knives, and a large number of bombs, the two boys walked the hallways and killed. Once the day was done, twelve students, one teacher, as well as the two murderers were dead; and 21 of them were wounded. The haunting question remains: why did they decide to do this?
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were very intelligent; they each came from solid homes with a loving mother and father, and they had older brothers as well. In school, Klebold and Harris had each competed in sports like baseball and soccer. They also enjoyed operating computers for fun.
Harris was born in Wichita, Kansas. His father Wayne Harris was a U.S. Air Force transport pilot who commanded eleven completely different positions in six bases at Ohio, Michigan, and New York. This forced the Harris family to relocate often before Wayne was forced to retire in 1993 thanks to cutbacks and he became a part-time supplier. At this time, on the month of July, the family settled down in Littleton, Colorado. They lived on a where they became best friends. In 1995, Harris started attending columbine high school, in the following year; the Harris family had bought a house very close to columbine high school.
Klebold was born in Lakewood, Colorado. His father Tom ran a little business from home and his mother Susan was an employment counselor. The Klebolds attended a Lutheranism church however additionally he had seen some Russian human rituals, as Klebold's grandparent believed in the relig...
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...ce officers and paramedics that were outside.
Sometime between 12:05 and 12:08, Klebold and Harris went to the side of the library and shot themselves in the head, ending the columbine massacre.
It is difficult to pinpoint one trigger that started these two boys on a bloody rampage. They worked very hard to fool all those around them for over a year. Astonishingly, a few months before the event, the Klebold family took a four-day road trip to the University of Arizona, and Dylan had been accepted for next year. Throughout the trip, the Klebold's did not notice anything strange or uncommon regarding Dylan. Counselors and others did not notice them acting weird.
Looking back, there had been telltale hints and clues that there was seriously wrong. Videotapes, journals, guns and bombs in their rooms would where not hidden and could easily be found if they had looked.
Two boys by the names of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris walked into Columbine High School around 11:19 A.M. with 99 home-made explosives, a 9mm carbine, a pump shotgun, and a double barrel shotgun. As well as being accompanied by four knives. Both managed to murder thirteen innocent people in total, twelve students and one teacher.
The minds of these killers prove to be nothing short of fascinating to thousands of people. While many might read this book and see two cold-blooded teenagers that killed their peers for fun, there is definitely some gray area concerning whether or not the youngest killer, named Dylan Klebold, should
"Columbine High School Shootings." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. Eighteen year old Eric Harris and seventeen year old Dylan Klebold were two boys with a fascination of violent video games and music. These young men were known to be “goth” and were bullied all throughout their high school careers because of their different interest. In 1999, on April 20th these boys went into their high school with mixed emotions and a devious plan to get revenge. The two teens went into the high school with handguns and killed both students and faculty members, before they turned the guns around on themselves. This is a reliable source because it informed us of both previous emotion, and the aftermath of the tragedy with detail about the boys, the school and the lives affected. This source was relevant for me because of how thoroughly it described the shooting, and gave me background information as to why and how it happened.
The deadliest school shooting to have ever happened in the United States at a high school or grade school, happened less than two years ago. On December 14th, 2012, Adam Lanza, who was twenty years old at the time, shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, four times and then brought firearms to his former grade school Sandy Hook Elementary, and fatally shot twenty children and six adults. Then the shooter put his own gun to his head and fatally shot himself. All of the children were between the ages of six and seven years old, and all six adults who were shot and killed were females who worked at the school. Lanza's father believed that if he were there himself, his son would have had no trouble shooting and killing him too. He also theorized that Adam shot his mother four times for each of them; himself, his mother, his father, and his brother. After the tragedy, the school was torn down and many gun-control debates heated up and schools greatly improved their security to prevent anymore potential attacks. To this day, the motive of Adam Lanza, is still unknown but the effects are still felt in the world today.
The article titled “At last we know why the Columbine killers did it” shows an in-depth look into the minds of Harris and Klebold. Cullen explained that people went on to believe one of two wrong conclusions about the Columbine shooters. One: they were taking revenge on the bullies or two: that the “massacre was inexplicable: we can never understand what drove them to such horrific violence” (At last we know, Cullen).
The columbine massacre the day where no one is safe in school or out of school. The columbine massacre is about two students named Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris both seniors 17 years old both two weeks before graduating they killed 12 students, one teacher, and 21 injured to their shooting on April 20, 1999. Both Dylan and Eric were some believe they were bullied by the sport teams in their school so they planned to kill the people who bullied them and other mostly anyone who gets in their way but that wasn’t really why the FBI he said that there target was everyone no one in pacify we will not get in to more details now. Dylan and Eric were both intelligent boys with solid parents and a good home and both had brothers younger than them. They played soccer, baseball, and both enjoyed to work on computers. Both boys were thinking on commit suicide on 1997 but instead started to plan a massacre in 1998 a year before it happened. Then the two boys had got into some trouble for breaking into a van on January 30, 1998 trying to steal some fuses and wires for bombs for them to make, but they got caught in trouble. So the court put them in a program called the juvenile diversion program, but even if they were there they were still planning the massacre and the court also put Eric in some angry management classes and people believe it worked but it didn’t he just did it to look like it work and both boys made it look like they were really sorry but they weren’t. Dylan and Eric both really hated everyone in their school and the court as well after they got caught breaking in to that van that’s when they really started to plan the massacre more and that’s when Harris started he’s journals no one really knows way but they didn’t hate a hand...
One of the most obvious characteristic of a school shooter would be parental neglect. This neglect was evident in both the Columbine shooters as well as fictional character, Peter Houghton. If Dylan and Eric’s parents took interest in their sons, they would have recognized the boys’ obvious dysfunctional thinking. Written on the front of Harris’s journal was, “I hate the fucking world.” (Rosenburg). He continued to write that he hates racists, martial arts experts, and people who brag about their cars. Through out the following pages, he continued to state what else he hates, including Star Wars fans, people who mispronounce words, and other ridiculous things. If parents believed that their sons were normal, the boy’s yearbook should have definitely raised a red flag. In 1988, the boys wrote about killing and retaliation, and even drew a picture of a person holding a gun with dead bodies surrounding them. A caption stated, “The only reason you’re still alive is because someone has decided to let you live.” Videotapes as well as guns and bombs were also in the boys’ rooms. Harris also made a w...
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were average teenagers. They were very social, they worked, and they partied. Where Eric was outgoing and charismatic, he could get out of any situation, Dylan was shy and had a temper; he would easily get mad over someone or something. They became friends quickly and did most of their activities together. They were “math wizards and technology hounds,” Eric played soccer, Dylan was a huge fan of the Boston Red Sox, and they worked at Blackjack Pizza. These two were a team; Eric craved attention and approval when Dylan was unreliable. No one knew that they had one big secret that was about to get detonated.(Cullen 8-10)
On April 20, 1999 in a suburban town called Littleton, Colorado one high school was about to have one of the most tragic and deadly days in US history. Columbine High School was in the forefront of this tragedy. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, opened fire on their fellow classmates and teacher. These two students cut the lives short of thirteen students and one teacher. They then turned their guns onto themselves leaving the nation with no answers as to why? They did leave videotape. This videotape contained Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planning their attack on Columbine High School. This piece of evidence showed two students that were not part of the "in crowd". They were outsiders, losers, as some would consider them. They were taunted, humiliated, and disrespected by their classmates. But how can two intelligent students do something as deadly as they did. Was it because they had bad parents? Not at all, they even went out of their way to save their parents the blame by repeatedly saying that it was not their fault that they were about to do what they did. So what was the cause of all this tragedy and how can it be stopped so it can never happen again in our middle schools and high schools? Elliot Aronson a social psychologist wrote a book called Nobody Left to Hate, Teaching Compassion After Columbine. This book represents his ideas on how to use certain strategies to have a better school environment that teaches compassion, tolerance while putting education in a winning situation.
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold both thought they had something no one else did, Self Awareness (Eric Harris Journal Page 1) they believed that were higher than everyone else because they had this gift, they knew they were going to die soon and so was everyone else (Eric Harris Journal Page 1). After the massacre was over the final body count was fifteen killed (including Eric and Dylan) with twenty-one injured. No one knows exactly what went through the minds of the shooters that lead them to commit such an unspeakable mind but many conclude that, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were influenced to commit the Columbine Killings by: violent entertainment, obsession with weapons, and conflicts with other students.
Harris attended Johns Hopkins University to earn a criminal justice degree while continuing to work in the school system. It was while working as a member of a school’s security team that he realized he’d rather work with students than criminals. “I spent my day watching kids and watching the dynamics in schools,” said Harris. “I saw the value of teaching and that the right teacher and the right approach can determine whether or not the kids were engaged and if they got benefit out of the instruction.”
Seventeen years ago on April 20th, Dylan Klebold said a hasty goodbye to his mother and left for school earlier than normal. His mother, Sue Klebold, who believed that he had rushed out the door because he was in a hurry to pick up a classmate, was unaware that would be the last time she ever spoke to him. Eventually, at 11:19 am, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire, murdering thirteen people at Columbine High School in suburban Denver. In a CBS News article, Sue Klebold later revealed that: “[F]rom the writings Dylan left behind, criminal psychologists have concluded that he was depressed and suicidal. When I first saw copied pages of these writings, they broke my heart. I'd had no inkling of the battle Dylan was waging in his mind.”
One student was hit nine times with shrapnel from the library explosion. Two students who went to Columbine were discovered to be the gunmen; Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Their bodies were found after the carnage with self-inflicted gunshot wounds. This catastrophe is known as The Columbine High School Massacre. The Columbine shooting is unique based on that it isn’t that similar to a regular terrorist attack like the 2016 Orlando Nightclub Shooting or 9/11 – this calamity had more complexity, particularly when accessing the two perpetrators. The Columbine High School massacre impacted school systems, society and student’s alike – changing people’s lives all across the United
Authorities found where the pair made home videos prior to the attack where they made references to what they were going to do and apologizing to their parents for it (CNN Wires 1). Investigators discovered that Harris and Klebold had been planning to carry out the attack on Columbine High School for a year (“Columbine High School Shooting” 3). They wanted the attack to be similar to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings (3). During the investigation of the shooting, investigators interviewed witnesses. “They are really strange, but I’ve never seen them do anything violent” said classmate Jason Greer (NY Daily News 3). Later in the investigation, investigators discovered that Mark Manes was the man who sold a gun to Eric Harris and bought him one hundred rounds of ammunition the day before the murders occurred (“Columbine High School Shooting 5). Manes was sentenced to six years in prison (5). Some victims and families of those killed in the shooting filed a lawsuit against the school and the police (5). Most of these suits were dismissed later in court (5). The Columbine High School reopened from the tragedies in the fall of 1999
What made them even think about committing a massacre. Dylan Klebold was a depressant, he was depressed all the time and felt that everyone was intentionally leaving him out of everything. I think dylan killed all those kids people because he may have felt like he didn’t mean anything to anyone or that nobody liked him.