COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

Name: Evelin Majin

Class: Advanced II , 2-4 pm

English Project

On April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado occurred the first
shooting caused by high School Students. That massacre was caused by Eric Harris, age
18 and Dylan Klebold, age 17. They entered Columbine High School in Jefferson County
with semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and several explosives. These guys killed 13 people
and wounded 21 others.1

This event received extensive national attention because of the age of the criminals, the
events that were premeditated and the kind of armament that was used

The gunmen had the intention to murder approximately 500 students, and intended to
detonate explosives to destroy the school. They were heavily interested in right-wing
paramilitary ideology and Nazism.2

The information was presented by Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office that had 20 000
pages of documentation about Eric and Dylan such as diaries, school documentation,
plans, Eric’ s drawings, and Eric and Dylan Videos expressing their hate for the human
race.

Many people suggest that Eric was a student who maintained good grades but he had
social problems inside of his High School3. Dylan had bad grades and he wasn’t focused
in his schooling. They began to plan the shooting one year before. They bought the

1
Lotha Gloria, Columbine High School shootings massacre, Littleton, Colorado, United States [1999],
2018
2
DeLissi Matt, The Columbine High School Massacre and criminal justice system response: an
exploratory case study, 2002
3
Langman Peter, The Search for Truth at Columbine, 2008
weapons and guns one by one with help of friends and neighbors and they built tube
explosives with simple materials from the local stores.

At approximately 11:19 am, Dylan and Eric, dressed in trench coats, began shooting
fellow students outside Columbine High School. Many students ran to the library when
they listened the shooting. After 20 minutes they had killed 12 student and 1 teacher.
The official later found two propane tank bombs in the cafeteria. If these had detonated,
hundreds of people would have died.4 After the shooting Eric and Dylan killed
themselves.

Inside Eric’s things, the Policemen found documents with the reasons for killing people
these were: sadistic pleasure, concepts like gay people don’t deserve to live, being
superior to everyone else, the human race doesn’t deserve to live,and lastly to get rid of
snobs.

They believed that the murder was not a simple method of revenge. It was a way of
playing to be God.5

4
Lotha Gloria, Columbine High School shootings massacre, Littleton, Colorado, United States [1999],
2018
5
Langman Peter, The Search for Truth at Columbine, 2008