Columbine High School Massacre

At 11:19 am on April 20, 1999, Americans across the nation were shocked by the news of a mass murder shooting at Columbine High School Colorado. Not only did the perpetrators execute a mass shooting, they also developed a very complex attack on the school which involved a fire bomb to divert firefighters, bombs placed in the cafeteria, ninety-nine explosive devices, as well as car bombs – they murdered twelve students and one teacher, injured twenty-one additional people, while three more were injured while trying to escape the school.

The two shooters were seniors at Columbine High School, named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The pair of students subsequently committed suicide.

No one knows what the perpetrators' exact motives were, but documentation of their plans showed that they hoped their actions to resemble the Oklahoma City bombing as a terrorist attack. Eric and Dylan were thought to have been badly bullied throughout high school, thus leading to their vulgar actions. But apparently, the two were actually quite popular in their classes and simply showed signs of being young psychopaths with no empathy towards others. Yet many Americans stuck with their original assumption of bullying being the cause of the shooting – many extra precautions were taken by Americans; it sparked debate over high school cliques and subcultures, creating a moral panic over goth culture, gun culture, social outcasts, teenage internet use, and violence in video games.

This attack has been reported as "the deadliest high school shooting in US history." Since then, there have been large debates over gun control laws as well as bullying in high schools. Now there is increased emphasis on school security.