kaicaine Says:

ACKSHULLY... this is where my inner columbine nerd comes out GLEEE

there were two shooters in columbine, not one. the one you're thinking of is eric harris, i assume, as he is the more wellknown of the two. the other is dylan klebold. contrary to popular belief, they didn't do it mainly because they were bullied. actually, they didn't have that bad of a social life. they went to parties, they had friends, they had jobs, e.t.c. it may be or may not be true that they were picked on, no one really knows to what extent, but they did pick on other people. it's shown through their journals, writings, e.t.c. the media shows the journals because: they make people want to learn more. make them aware, i guess. neither eric or dylan really cared. they were actually wanted to do what cho (shooter of virginia tech, though his was later) did, send their things to a news channel the morning of their shooting. of course, they didn't get to it, but i'm sure they did want media coverage of it. that's what they wanted: attention. they wanted to be known for what they were doing. they wanted to kill as many people as they possibly could.

they got more than one bomb inside the school. there were two propane bombs, i believe, and they were inside the cafeteria hidden in duffel bags. school security was not really a big concern until columbine happened, so if you're wondering why columbine is covered so much, that's why. it was the first major school shooting that really said "wow, our schools need security!" and that is what gained the columbine massacre its popularity. anyway, they also carried pipe bombs and molotiv cocktails that they lit and threw around during the massacre. the propane bombs were poorly constructed and they didn't even go off the time Eric and Dylan intended them to go off. same with a bomb dylan had put in his car that didn't go off at the time it was set. they weren't really geniuses, no more than kids that could look up bomb instructions online and practice them (which they did, behind their work and i'm sure other places). i know several people at my school who know how to make small bombs, so it's not uncommon knowledge. of course, 1999, who knows.

there wasn't just one shotgun either, they had multiple weapons. eric had a carbine rifle and a sawedoff shotgun, dylan had a semi-automatic handgun and another sawedoff shotgun. and people DID notice because they started shooting when they were outside the school. it's not like they walked through the whole school with weapons. i think they stepped in the cafeteria once to put in the propane bombs but that was prior to their actual shooting. the first part of their shooting mainly began outside where they shot like rachel scott and some other kids. there were multiple police reports during their shooting and one police officer came on the scene before others did, exchanging gunfire with eric and dylan.

and one thing THE MOST COMMON MISCONCEPTION: they did NOT do it because people picked on them. hell, if they did that they would've targeted certain people. nope, instead they actually shot a few people that would probably be picked on: a black (predominantly white school) and one mentally disabled kid. does that sound like something a picked on person would do to you? of course not. eric and dylan did not do it because they were picked on. sure, they did feel like the world was against them. they did have an intense hatred of jocks. they may have even been teased here and there, but it is ridiculous to say that this was the cause of their rampage.

there were a lot of things leading to why they did it. eric had psychological problems, some even say a "god complex," and he took medicine for it. could be that he stopped taking it before the shooting which fueled his desire to keep doing it. dylan was the more mellow depressive of the two. he constantly talked in his journals about suicide and how he didn't feel like life was worth it. he also wrote about this girl he liked, a love letter he never sent to her. i think if he had asked her out and she'd said yes, columbine could probably be avoided. anyway, i think the fact that eric and dylan were friends fueled a LOT of it. they fueled each other's anger. they fueled each other's hatred. they kept each other going and going, and without the other, i doubt either of them would have accomplished a massacre. they hated everything and everyone, all kinds of people. hated jews, christians, blacks, mexicans, the list goes on.

i do feel sympathy for both of them but to glorify them and say they're smart or intelligent for killing innocent people they didn't even know is unlawful. they didn't do anything but take a gun and shoot people in the face. there is no dignity or courage in that. you cannot call yourself a courageous person if you shoot someone who has no defense against you. they were smart in their planning, but i wouldn't glorify them for shooting people. true, murder is a part of life, but if you do it by stupid means without a purpose then it's ridiculous. that is the difference between animal murder and people murder: we have the knowledge to look at a situation and think "is this right, or is this wrong?"

they didn't even target people "who drove them off the edge." they didn't even know most of the people they shot. they shot people who were simply in their path, because they were there, because they existed. in fact, they mocked some of the people they did know. one of them, i forget who but it's very well know, eric asked "do you believe in god?" and when she said "you know i do" he blasted her in the fucking face.

they were cowards in a sense. they killed only because they hated humanity and everything about it.

i think it's sad people manage to overlook the good in humanity, but we as a civilization tend to focus on the bad things. it's really sad. humans do a lot of good, it's just not shown as much.