Scott 1

Colin Scott

Constance Little

English 102: Composition II Section 2359

February 16th, 2009

Thesis and Paragraphs

After the string of well-publicized high school shootings, there were questions

into what exactly drove the students to the deed. Some blamed the media, others the lax

gun laws, and still others the parenting. These may all have contributed, but the one that

was pointed at the most, after the parenting, is the media [ CITATION Don01 \l 1033 ].

While it is possible that the media could have influenced the shooters, there is no

evidence that the mass media could have knowledgably provoked this outcome. Looking

at the habits of the shooters of Columbine in particular, there is a strong case to be made

for there being pre-existing mental defects. Therefore, there could be no way of

predicting the behaviors of the shooters based off their exosure to mass media. Overall, it

is impossible to predict the extreme outcomes of any audience base influenced by the

media, especially in the presence of prior mental anomalies.

The Columbine shooting began on the morning of April 20, 1999, when two

students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, opened fire on the general student body. The

massacre lasted 47 minutes, and when the standoff ended with the suicide of the two

shooters, the total body count was thirteen dead, twenty-three wounded. Immediately

afterward, there was a flurry of speculation as to why the shooters did what they did, and

finger pointing as to who was to blame. The usual suspects were called into question,

specifically the common culture that the two were involved with, the music they listened
 Scott 2

to, and the parenting of the two. However, there is more to it than just what they listened

to, what they wore, and if they were respectful to their parents. The report commissioned

by Governor Owens goes into depth about the two shooters and their habits.

The two boys were actually decent students. Both held part time jobs, both

scheduled to graduate on time, and both had relatively good grades. They were the model

American boys: both were in Boy Scouts, Little League, and soccer. Harris’ family was

Air Force, and moved frequently, and Klebold was raised in the area. They were both on

good terms with their parents, and both had a significant respect for their parents. In the

videos recovered after the massacre, both boys commented repeatedly that they were

sorry they were doing this to their parents, and that this was the only way. This flies in

the face of the popular theory that the boys were disrespectful and hated their parents.

Not everything was all on the bright side for these two, however. Both had

histories with the authorities, from breaking into an electrician’s van, to hacking the

school’s mainframe. The two had repeatedly expressed an overactive interest in guns,

weapons, and death. The room of Harris yielded a toolbox full of bomb-making sundries,

and both had tested home made explosives outside a local pizzeria, their workplace. They

had also recruited a co-worker to purchase weapons and ammunition for them,

specifically for the assault. Klebold wrote on his public internet page that, “… I swear,

I’m like an outcast, and everyone is conspiring against me… Fact: People are so

unaware… well, Ignorance is bliss I guess…that would explain my depression.”

Aside from overt things that would flag the students, there was the disturbing

personal life of the two. Both had an avid interest in a game called Doom, where there is

an overdose of killing massive numbers of aliens to hard, driving music. The two also
 Scott 3

favored heavy metal music, like Metallica and Pantera. Both bands are known for their

guitars and for their lyrics, which are usually very hard and anti-establishment.

On top of all this, one of the shooters, Harris, was being treated for depression.

Due to patient protection laws, no dosages were disclosed, but due to the nature and

severity of the activities being perpetrated by the two, it is safe to say that the dosages

were higher than normal. Harris was on medication at the time of death, according to the

coroner, and the proper dosage was found in his blood stream. This hints heavily that his

mental defect was aided by an overriding desire to do this deed. Considering all the

previous pursuits of the two, there is also a good case to be made for the other shooter

being mentally unstable as well.

In the aftermath of the disaster, there was copious finger pointing as to why the

two did what they did. The top three things blamed were, in order, the parents, the media,

and the gun laws. However, looking at them when taking into consideration the pre-

existing mental defects sheds a whole new light on the subject.

The number one group blamed for the tragedy was the parents. This was the

immediate and overwhelming response from about half of the population [ CITATION

Don01 \l 1033 ]. However, the study found that the groups tested did not consider the

mental health of the shooters to be all that important in blame placement. They basically

wanted someone to play the scapegoat, and the shooters themselves were already dead.

So, the public turned to the next-of-kin: the two’s parents. They arbitrarily blamed those

who were responsible for the moral foundation of the boys, and who ‘obviously’ failed in

that respect. This does not, however, take into consideration the boys themselves. The

parents of Harris realized something was wrong, because they had their son put on anti-
 Scott 4

depressants not long before the shootings. The parents only saw one side of their kids,

however. The boys hid their true personalities from their parents, and reveled in the fact.

On the outside, the two were making decent grades, and keeping busy at work. At home,

they were talkative, friendly, and happy. After the massacre, however, police found tapes

of the boys testing different explosives, such as dry-ice bombs, and a few hand made pipe

bombs, and numerous propane bombs. On tape, they also discussed in detail how their

plot had almost been discovered by Harris’ parents, when they confiscated a toolbox with

assorted bomb-making materials. These are not the activities of normal teenagers- these

are the activities of the mentally unstable. It makes sense that the parents would have no

idea that their boys would do such a thing. Why? Because the two wanted desperately to

keep their plans a secret. Their parents thought that everything was normal and healthy,

because they could not see that anything was wrong, or that they were hiding something.

Why would a parent question the apparent good fortune of having a successful son?

In terms of blame, the second most popular was the media. A quarter of those

tested found the next-most important factor in the shooting to be the media, and

specifically the music the two normally listened to [ CITATION Don01 \l 1033 ]. The

mental state of the shooters nullifies the normal rules regarding interpretation of popular

media, from music to fashion. Granted, the boys listened to music that was vengeful,

hateful, and violent. But there are a large number of student-age teens listening to this

these days, and there are, by and large, no regular outbursts like Columbine. This is

because most teens use the music as something to identify with, something to distinguish

one’s self from the masses[ CITATION Rob00 \l 1033 ]. Most teens see the music as an

escape and as something to listen to for release. However, in the case of the two shooters,
 Scott 5

there is something more there. It is well documented that they could not find a way to

connect with modern society. One example is the excerpt from the webpage shown

earlier. They both wrote many letters and rants about how they could not fit in, and how

they were outcast. They found something to identify with in the music, specifically the

music that was anti-establishment and anti-government. The only difference was that how

they interpreted it. Most teens use music as a pastime and entertainment. The two boys

obviously took their music as directions to, as Metallica said, “Kill ‘Em All.”

The last party to receive significant amounts of blame is the overly lax gun laws.

This was quite true at the time, as the two talked multiple others into buying guns and

ammunition for them When they went to a local gun show, they had tried to purchase a

gun from a private owner. He refused because they were under age. They brought a

friend to buy for them later that day, and the seller even remarked that, “This time, at

least you brought someone old enough to sign the paperwork.” However, this has been

changed in the years following Columbine, from stiffening penalties for selling to minors

to the fines and jail times for ‘straw man’ purchases, or buying with intent to sell to

minors.

Overall, however, all the blame and fingerpointing can only be traced back to two

people- Harris and Klebold. They are the ones ultimately responsible for their actions.

There is overwhelming proof that the two were not mentally stable, but both of them hid

it well. Harris was even on a full dosage of anti-depressant at the time of death, according

to the coroner’s report. Both had the same upbringing as hundreds of other children in the

US, some better, some worse. Yet from all those, there have been only 35 school

shootings over the period from 1991 to 2001, from hundreds of thousands of schools
 Scott 6

[ CITATION JTogy \l 1033 ]. This is by far an atypical event. While there may have been

influence from the media and the gun laws, there is little chance that it stemmed from the

parents. It is also not possible that the actions of two teens, who hid their darkest desires

from their own parents, could have been predicted by those marketing and making the

media the two partook of. Looking at the habits of the shooters of Columbine in

particular, there is a strong case to be made for there being pre-existing mental defects.

Therefore, there could be no way of predicting the behaviors of the shooters based off

their exosure to mass media. Overall, it is impossible to predict the extreme outcomes of

any audience base influenced by the media, especially in the presence of prior mental

anomalies.
 Scott 7

Annotated Bibliography

Columbine Review Comission. (2001). Review of Governor Bill Owens' Columbine

review Comission. Denver, CO: State of Colorado.

This is the comprehensive review of the tragedy at Columbine. Sponsored by

Governor Owens, this is the basis for a lot of the current policy concerning

schools and the handling of an armed threat. It wsa also the basis for a lot of the

research on Harris and Klebold for this paper.

Joslyn, D. P.-M. (May, 2001). Gun Policy, Opinion, Tragedy, and Blame Attribution:

The Conditional Influence of Issue Frames . The Journal of Politics, Vol. 63, No.

2, pp. 520-543 : Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Southern Political

Science Association.

Here is one of the reports with the public blame for the Columbine shooting. The

test in question has a basic prompt about who was responsible for the shooting,

and three groups- the control group, the media blame group, and the gun laws

blame group. The results are very interesting, seeing as the answers all reflect the

obvious, and more besides. Only the control group considers the fact that the

shooters may have had mental or emotional problems may have had anything to

do with the massacre. The groups were also monitored based on education,

gender, and political party affiliation. The lesser-educated were more likely to

blame the media, and the more educated were leaning away from that answer.

Toby, J. (May, 2004). Review: Social Control and Law. Contemporary Sociology, Vol.

33, No. 3, pp. 358-359 : American Sociological Association.

 Scott 8

This piece looks at the research done for the National Research Council, and some

of its shortcomings. Focusing on the statistics present for this research, which are

staggeringly small, the piece brings about the truth of the matter. There are

thousands of schools in the country, but from 1991-2001, there were only 35

school shootings with multiple deaths. This leads to the truth that any analysis of

this atypical event is going to be less than conclusive. It also shows that the

majority of these events happen in rural America, and not in the cities, contrary to

popular belief. From two cases in the country and two cases it the city, the report

is only able to show that the only thing in common between the shooters is that

the environment of the shooters was not enough to cause the event.

Wright, R. (Oct., 2000). 'I'd Sell You Suicide': Pop Music and Moral Panic in the Age of

Marilyn Manson . Popular Music, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 365-385 : Cambridge

University Press .

This looks at the music that is commonly attributed to the younger, more hatful

cultures, summed up by the works of Marilyn Manson. Here, the musician and the

author go into depth about the lyrics, and about the messages behind them.

Manson plainly admits that he tries to be the most obscene of them all, and to be

the most aggressive, over the top performer and person humanly possible, but

reveals that it is all to bring about the liberation of the hypocrisy of the modern

age. He is not trying to get people to take him literally, but to point out, through

gross and blatant hypocrisy, that there are things that need to change, and the way

he states are the way they are being done now, and those ways are decidedly

failing. Through this, he is trying to bring about a revolution to the older days
 Scott 9

where, “…[P]eople blushed when you said ‘dick’… Then I wouldn’t be necessary

anymore.”