Columbine High School Massacre : The Facts, Theories, Issues, And Solutions Essay

On April 20, 1999 Columbine school would face a devastating attack. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold commit a school shooting that changes the lives of Columbine students and staff. Two best friends that make a deadly combination. They show up to the school with a plan to kill as many people as possible.

April 20, 1999, is a day of remembrance for many people. The Columbine massacre had an effect not only on the Littleton, Colorado community but also on the entire country. In the book Columbine by Dave Cullen, the author tells the story of the tragedy that started with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The book begins with an introduction into both Eric and Dylan's thoughts, actions, and reasoning behind their plan to attack their high school. Throughout the book the author points out how the media gave a different view for the motives of the attack which caused false accusations towards the killers. This book tells the truth told from survivors and evidence, but the honest truth behind the attack went to the grave with Eric and

On April 19, 1999 at approximately 11:19am in Littleton Colorado Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, 17 and 18 years old, went to Columbine High School to shoot students and staff. It was speculated that Harris and Klebold carried out the shootings as a retaliation for being bullied.( History.com Staff. "Columbine High School Shootings." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 20 Sept. 2017.) Due to Klebold and Harris being bullied, the two boys planned an attack to shoot the students and staff, with the population of 1,136 people in the building.

April 20th, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went to their school in Littleton, CO. They preceded to kill 12 and injure 21 students and faculty before killing themselves. Columbine shooting is infamous as one of the worst school shootings in US history. Harris and Klebold were known as outcasts and were ridiculed regularly. It has been said that they were out for revenge on the school for being mistreated (New York Daily). This extreme case is the cause of a broken psyche due to repeated blows from peers. “Harassment and bullying have been linked to 75% of school-shooting incidents” (Statistics). Not every case will lead to a mass shooting, but is more plausible to lead to suicide. Teenagers are taking their own lives, because they can

Violent crime has risen 20% over the last decade, there are may reasons why, such as the great recession, the increase of narcotic use, the break down of the family unit, or a dozen other reasons. However, the debate on how we as a society deal with violent crime is also debatable, many would say that we need more prisons, law enforcement officers, or longer prison terms. However, there are the others who are more tolerant, and would have you believe that violent crime in not on the increase, moreover, would suggest that the system is broke and the prisons should open the gates and let out all non violent offenders out. Society is violent, and this fact is evident in the amount of homicidal acts that take place every day, for example, a day

After the tragedy, questions of how and why this happened, and what could have been done to prevent the attack, were widely discussed. Some blamed the shooters’ actions on violent video games while others blamed bullying as the reason for the massacre. It may never be fully clear why Harris and Klebold committed such a terrible act, but measures to prevent it from happening again began almost immediately. Strides were taken to make schools a safer environment for students through changes to school policies and the addition or enhancement of anti-bullying programs; law enforcement officials began placing a larger emphasis on active shooter training; proposals for new gun laws were presented, and widely debated; and in popular culture, the influence of Columbine can be seen in books, films, and video games. While some of these influences seem to have caused more hurt than healing, others have led to meaningful additions to our schools and culture, as well as opened up discussion regarding violence in schools.

What would drive two seemingly normal high schoolers to try and slaughter everyone they went to school with? Was it the bullying, angst or video games and movies? Or none of the above. As we examine what led up to one of the worst domestic terrorist acts in American history I think we’ll that find Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold weren’t your average teenagers. In my opinion they were cold blooded killers who had every intention to take as many lives as they could.

Craig Scott, a survivor of the Columbine massacre, once said while visiting the well known school, “this is the most famous high school in all of America for the wrong reasons.” On April 20, 1999 two high school students - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold - opened fire on fellow students and teachers at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The two boys killed twelve students, one teacher, and wounded twenty-four others before turning their guns on themselves. That day at Columbine has left an impact on the nation, as well as the American education system. The shocking event lead to enhanced school security, student training, and an emphasis on positive relationships between students, teachers, and members of the community.

“The planet does not need more successful people. The planet needs more peacemakers, healers, restores, story tellers and lovers of all kind.” ~ Dalai Lama

It was a warm spring morning in the little town of Littleton, Colorado. The birds played beautiful music while small beams of sun slowly escaped from behind the clouds and through the kitchen windows of all the houses. Classes were starting at seven-thirty just like any other day, however at eleven- twenty a bloody massacre began at Columbine High School. “ There was a girl crouched beneath a desk in the library, and the guy came over and said, ‘Peekaboo,’ and shot her in the neck,” said Kirkland, a 15-year-old sophomore. Two seniors who belonged to a group called the Trench Coat Mafia, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, entered the school with guns, knives, and bombs hidden beneath their trench coats and started opening fire on their classmates and teachers.

When tragedies occur, we always ask ourselves how and why did such a thing happened and what we could have done to prevent it. The Columbine High School massacre, perpetrated by two local high school students, was the worst school indecent to have ever occurred at the time. The Columbine High School massacre illustrated the issues that this country still retains such as gun control, bullying, violence, Internet use, and drug use by teenagers. This incident caused our society to reevaluate and to reconsider steps that we should take to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again. After the Columbine High School massacre, our nation would not be the same again.

Throughout history, crime has always plagued the world. People in positions of power and/or the government has tried to control these issues by implementing new policies and making new laws. Despite the attempts, many people in the world reject it, thereby, committing crimes. In the past, some crimes were not regarded as significant problems unlike, how they are perceived in this day-and-age. An example of this would be taking weapons on board an aircraft. In the past, it was still illegal to bring weapons on your flight, yet, people were not as anal about it. After 9-11, when the War on Terrorism started, TSA became the “Fort Knox” of all security checks. You now need to go through body scanners, metal detectors, and sometimes are forced to be pat down. Trying

During the past decade, America has witnessed a rise in mass murders carried out by youth leaving parents, teachers and school officials scrambling to figure out the motive behind such attacks. The 1999 massacre at Columbine High School was a watershed moment in American history that offered, besides grief and sorrow for lost loved ones, clues as to how to prevent copycat massacres at school campuses in the future. Theories abound in the hopes of explaining why Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 and injured 21 others, yet very few hold true as time progresses and other massacres unfold. Modern-day schools have atmospheres that foster bullying and a divided social class system. The attacks perpetrated by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

Michael Moore was born on April 23rd 1954. He’s an American film maker, author journalist and a liberal political activist, who has directed and produced four of the eight highest grossing documentaries of all time; he was also named by the Time Magazine in 2005 like one of the world’s “Hundred most influential people”. Moore was born in Flint, Michigan, but he was raised in Davison’s suburbs, his childhood was tainted by the use of guns; he used to play like any other boy with toy guns, which were incredibly normal at that time, acquiring excellent skills for shooting; as a result, he became a lifetime member of NRA. Moore’s documentary “Bowling for Columbine” has won the “Best Documentary feature” at both the Academy and Independent Spirit

Twelve students, one teacher, two murderers dead, and twenty-one injured in Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. The perpetrators Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, were both intelligent, but had issues getting along with other students at Columbine high school. However seemingly normal, both were deeply disturbed, hating everyone but a handful of people, in journals found Klebold had been contemplating suicide since 1997, and both have been thinking about a massacre in April of 1998, a full year before it happened. The both of them had been arrested for breaking into a van on January 30, 1998, they had convinced people that they felt guilty for the break in, but behind the scene planned a large scale massacre. The plan of the massacre was