Dylan Klebold: The Columbine Massacre

The Columbine Massacre, the most gruesome school shooting in U.S. history, plagued the town of Littleton, Colorado. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the shooters, have very diverse backgrounds. Eric was intelligent while being cool at the same time. He manages to get superior grades, while doing shameful things. However, “Dylan Klebold was a meek, self-conscious, and authentically shy. He could barely speak in front of a stranger, especially a girl” (Columbine 6). Judgment Day, the most tragic day in school history, is what Eric and Dylan called their mass murder. This day is where the two put their plans into effect. They were able to acquire several powerful guns, and make many bombs. Even though their plans did not all go as expected,
Many of the officers who first responded to the shooting at Columbine, were not properly trained for what they encountered. Two of the officers traded fire with Eric and Dylan. They eventually stopped because they knew they should wait for a specially trained team. This was shown not to be a smart decision, because by the time the trained team got into the building, Eric and Dylan killed ten of the thirteen victims. After the team entered the building, they took several hours going from room to room. In this time Eric and Dylan had turned their guns on themselves in the library (Columbine Tragedy 1). The killer’s motivation was key into the investigation of Columbine. Many school shootings involve a person targeting individuals who have bullied them or they did not like. Eric and Dylan wanted something much more than that. They wanted the entire nation to know what they did. The students and teachers were just “collateral damage,” as Timothy McVeigh described. They knew that if their plan was successful they would would be nationally known. “The killers, in fact, laughed at petty school shooters. They bragged about dwarfing the carnage of the Oklahoma City bombing and originally scheduled their bloody performance for its anniversary” (“The Depressive” 1). Their plan was made easier because of their gun supplier. Mark Manes supplied Eric and Dylan with the guns they used. He was arrested in May of 1999, a month after the shooting (Hasday 18). The story was already being viewed on local television within a half hour of the shooting. In the beginning, everything was a speculation about what happened. There were countless mix-ups in what really happened. Eric and Dylan had been disposing of layers of clothing. This made them look different, which caused witnesses to believe there were multiple killers. The news coverage became viewed by millions. The Columbine shooting became