Colobine

Columbine With every generation, there is some sort of tragedy that can alter ones life. Through the events that occurred on April 20, 1999 many people have become suspicious of anyone that displays signs of oddness, such as withdrawal from friends, change in physical appearance, or anyone who is an outcast or is different from everyone. On this unforgettable day in history, two Columbine high school students fatally shot 12 of their classmates, one teacher, and wounded 24 others before they took there own lives however it is not clear why they did it but it is clear what they wanted to achieve which was to wipe out as many students as they could. The events of Columbine where both tragic and horrific but also gave a clear understanding of what can happen at any school anytime and anyplace and as a result affected the whole country in the security and safety of students and teachers. On April 20th. At 6:15 a.m., on Tuesday 1999 Eric Harris 18 years old and Dylan Klebold 17 years shot twelve of their schoolmates and a teacher at Columbine High School on that day. What happened on this day was a tragedy that affected not only Columbine, but the whole country as well. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold arrived at the local bowling alley for their early morning class. The class was bowling and they never missed it. Dylan wore a shirt with the label "Serial Killer" in the front, but the shirt had been seen before and nobody thought anything of it. After all neither of them gave any indication of what they were planning to do that day. They acted as they would've acted on any regular day at school. Except that after class ended they left the bowling alley, and did not return to Columbine as they were supposed to until about 11:10 a.m. At 11:10 a.m. both shooters pulled into the parking lot but the parked their cars in a position so that any law enforcement that would respond would have trouble getting in. In their cars were bombs, set to explode after they entered the school. Both were armed with sawed off-shotguns, 9mm pistols, TEC-9 Uzis, grenades, breaching charges, pipe bombs, propane tanks, and other flammable gasses. The plan was to detonate two backpacks full of explosives in the middle of lunch. Their main plan of attack was not a shooting, but to wait outside the cafeteria for the bombs to explode and then shoot anyone who attempted to escape. The bombs had enough explosive power to take out the entire cafeteria and bring the library above crashing down. Both Eric and Dylan returned to his car to wait until the bombs exploded so they could follow with their plan, which was to kill at least 500 students after 11:15 a.m. when the first lunch period began. They planned to plant propane bombs in the cafeteria timed to explode at 11:17 and in addition shoot any survivors as they came running out. (Rosenberg page 1).When the cafeteria bombs failed to explode both met up near Eric’s car and armed themselves and then headed toward the cafeteria. They went to the top of the entrance steps, the highest point on campus. From this point the cafeteria entrance was at the bottom of the staircase, the school's main entrance was to their left and the athletic fields to their right so they had a clear shot from every direction. At 11:19 a.m., a witness saw Eric Harris yell "GO! GO!" and at that moment they pulled out their shotguns, aiming them at two students Rachel Scott and Richard Castaldo, who were sitting on a grass to their eating lunch. Both were hit and critically injured. After the first shots, one of the shooters shot again, killing Rachel Scott. Then from a window, they opened fire to policemen and ambulance men who were trying to rescue wounded people. Then they lit a Molotov cocktail for the last time and killed themselves with shots to their heads (CNN). At the same time the media was quick to respond and soon there was news broadcast of the incident around the nation. How could this happen' Weren’t there any signs' These were two normal kids that just killed 13 people (Susan Candiotti page 1 ).None really can say what really triggered this except for the students themselves. Many say because of the people who picked on them the music the listened to and even the games they played. One thing is certain humiliations may have caused the mentally unstable Harris to think that the whole world was against him for instance, he announced on his website that he would appear one day armed to the teeth and kill all and everything as said here: “...im comin for EVERYONE soon, and i WILL be armed to the fuckin teeth and i WILL shoot to KILL and i WILL f*****g KILL EVERYTHING!... My belief is that if I say something, it goes. I am the law, if you don’t like it, you die. If I don’t like you or I don’t like what you want me to do, you die... So that’s the only way to solve arguments with all you f**kheads out there, I just kill! God I cant wait till I can kill you people...” (Cyn Shepard page 1). How was it possible that two teenagers were able to commit such a horrible crime' There are some strong evidence such as the humiliations by schoolmates, Eric and Dylan choice for weapons and bombs, and an addiction to violent video games, films and songs. Both were mentally unstable and depressed and filled with hate. Influenced by the Nazis, they believed they had the right to kill all people that they disliked and hated. They wanted to obtain as much attention by the media as the fictional killer pair in the movie “Natural Born Killers” and go down in history. Unfortunately, they succeeded. As a result the shootings caused concerns about school safety and gun control, fears that were still very real for many Americans years later. Just days before the one-year anniversary of the Columbine shooting, a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 70 percent of Americans believed such a shooting could occur at a school in their own community. Today, the name Columbine still has an air of death and loss behind it, as does the school. Since this event, schools have become tougher on security. Some large schools have even seen fit to install metal detectors at their main entrances to sense any possible guns or weapons coming into the building. The country has not forgotten this event, but learned from the events on that infamous day in the spring of 99. None will forget what happened that day.