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History of school shootings
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In Littleton, Colorado or April 20, 1999, one of the most famous shootings of this generation occurred, forever changing the lives and views of many people. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both seniors at Columbine High School, entered the school in the middle of the school day and conducted a massive assault attack on the teachers and students within the school. According to an article published by Jennifer Rosenberg, the boys had planned to kill hundreds of classmates. They walked down the halls armed with guns, knives, and several bombs (Rosenberg). When the shooting was over, Harris and Klebold had killed 13 people, 12 students and one teacher, as well as injuring 24 more, before turning the guns on themselves. Eric Harris, the first of the two shooters, was born on April 9, 1981. He was born in Wichita, Kansas, and moved to Littleton, Colorado in 1993. Harris was the son of an Air Force pilot. Because of this, he moved several times while growing up. The family lived in New York for a while before moving to Colorado. While in New York, Eric was described as a normal kid who loved...
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.
On August 01st, 1966 on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, many families lost their loved ones to the actions of Charles Whitman, a lone gunman who was only 25 years old at the time; Whitman climbed the campus tower, and with three rifles, two pistols, and a sawed-off shotgun, he shot forty-three people, (thirteen of whom died,) in just under ninety-six minutes. This historic tragic event became known as the UT Tower Shooting.
It has been made clear through police investigations, that this killing spree was premeditated and carefully planned out by Marc Lepine long before it was carried out. He had purchased a lightweight rifle from a store and claimed that it was for hunting purposes (Maser, 1987). It was the last day of the fall semester and most students were looking forward to the Christmas break, unsuspecting of what was about to transpire. Marc walked into the school and sat near the registry office for a while before moving on to a classroom on the second floor. He walked in and divided the students according to their gender, then ordered the men to leave the room. Most students thought it was a prank initially, until he fired his gun and repeated his order in a more authoritative manner. He proceeded to shoot the women left behind as he declared his hatred for feminists, despite protests from the students (Maser,...
Dylan and Eric wrote detailed murder plans in the one another’s yearbook, knowing, “his buddy could get him imprisoned at any time, though they would both go down together. Mutually assured destruction” (258). In the cold war era, an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union meant a large arsenal of atomic weaponry on each side. Launching an attack on the opposing side meant a guaranteed, immediate retaliation. Both parties would be irrevocably damaged- mutually assured destruction. Similarly, one boy choosing to show his yearbook to others would reveal his own secret soon after. The choice to indirectly reference the cold war evokes unpleasant emotions in the readers. The cold war was a fear-filled time in history, as was the aftermath of the Columbine shooting. The sympathy the readers feel towards those affected by the cold war is transposed to those impacted by the shooting, as Cullen
October 2002 was the beginning of what seemed like the longest three weeks in the Washington Metropolitan Area. No one wanted to believe that what was happening would change the lives of thousands. What appeared to be a random killing spree by an enraged lunatic, turned out to be part of a massive plan that claimed the lives of ten innocent people in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. When these shootings first began, they were believed to be linked to a white van or truck. It was later discovered that these shootings were being carried out by a man named John Allen Muhammad, and his teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, in a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan.
But Harris and Klebold planned for a year and dreamed much bigger. The school served as means to a grander end, to terrorize the entire nation by attacking a symbol of American life. Their slaughter was aimed at students and teachers, but it was not motivated by resentment of them in particular. Students and teachers were just convenient quarry, what Timothy McVeigh described as "collateral damage."” Harris and Klebold could’ve chosen any place to stage their bombing as it wasn’t about the school. The school had absolutely nothing to do with their intentions, it was just an opportunity to do what they dreamed of doing. They had no intention of starting a school shooting as was stated in the same article as above, “The killers, in fact, laughed at petty school shooters. They bragged about dwarfing the carnage of the Oklahoma City bombing and originally scheduled their bloody performance for its anniversary. Klebold boasted on video about inflicting "the most deaths in U.S. history." Columbine was intended not primarily as a shooting at all, but as a bombing on a massive scale…. It wasn 't just "fame" they were after… they were gunning for devastating infamy on the historical scale of an Attila the Hun. Their vision was to create a nightmare so devastating and apocalyptic that the entire world would shudder at their power.”
his mother was hospitalized. He continued by moving to Boston where he worked for the
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...
He lived with many different father figures before moving 40 miles south
A man carrying two revolvers and two 9mm semi-automatic handguns calmly strode into the Dunblane Primary School. Two people quickly spotted the firearms and tried to tackle the man; he shot them and left them wounded as he continued his journey down the hall of the school. Finally, the man reached his destination: the gym, where a class a kindergartners were having P.E. In the gym, he pulled out the guns and started picking off the five-year-olds one by one. The room was splattered with blood as young children broke like porcelain dolls under the power of the gun. The blood continued to flow, but the intruder did not stop; he took careful aim to make sure he didn't miss. The final insult came when he shot the teacher who was shielding kids with her body. Once he killed her, he killed the kids she was protecting. When he finished in the gym , he turned around walked out, shot at a class as he walked down the hall and walked out into the courtyard. In the courtyard, the killer ended the ordeal by taking his own life (Pederson).
1999) stated that 25 people were killed at the High School by two heavily armed
I found out that after he left New York he moved back to the Midwest. Because he saw how the love of money can ruin someone he decided not to work for his father but do something he really loved. He wanted to make a positive impact in the world as a way of making up for all the negativeness he had seen and been apart of in New York. For awhile he couldn’t figure out what that was so he he did odd jobs here and there until the Great Depression hit.
Chicago because of a job he accepted as an MD at some University. His family
“People are so unaware...well, Ignorance is bliss I guess… that would explain my depression.” (Klebold, Dylan). With that sentence, I divulged myself into the most horrendous, sad journal I have ever read, hoping to gain some insight into a disturbed young man’s mind. On April 20th, 1999, Dylan Klebold accompanied his friend, Eric Harris, in one of the most publicized and shocking school shootings of the modern day--The Columbine Massacre. With their sawed-off shotguns and godlike dispositions, the boys exacted their revenge not only on their peers, but on themselves. As the nightmare collapsed, and thirteen people lay dead, the questions began. How could two boys so young commit this crime? What forced them to be this way? For the Klebold family, one question remained: How had Dylan become involved in one of the crimes of the century?
In conclusion, School Violence is a widespread issue that must be addressed. School shootings and bullying are some of the biggest issues in today’s school system. Many times the seed of the issue begins with bullying and ends with consequences like suicide and school shootings. They affect people as early as elementary school all the way to the college level, some even ending with death. Only together can we stop school violence if we take a stand and change the world.