Columbine High in Littleton, Colorado, was part of a peaceful community nestled between Denver city and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
That peace ended on April 20, 1999, when two teenage gunmen went on a shooting spree at the high school, killing 13 people before turning the guns on themselves.
The death toll was severe and the fall out from the killing spree is still rocking the community almost 20 years later.
But it could have been much worse.
As reported by The Guardian, if Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had pulled off their original plan, the death toll would have been catastrophic.
LISTEN: Amelia Lester and Mia Freedman take a look at why Trump refuses to change US gun laws. Post continues after audio.
In the immediate days, weeks and months after the shooting the media, guided by misleading witness statements and general confusion, created profiles of the two suspects which were widely accepted for a long time.
We were told they were social outcasts who were bullied by the “jocks” and the popular kids. We were told they listened to Marilyn Manson and were part of a group called the ‘Trenchcoat Mafia’. And we were told their goal, when they entered the school that day, was to target specific students in an act of retribution for the way they had been treated throughout high school.
Top Comments
I think it is pointless to speculate about who they were, how they felt and what they wanted to do, since they didn't live to tell us. It's awful how they killed so many people, wounded others, hurt their families, but I don't think there is benefit in rationalising them as victims OR monsters. I think we need to come to a consensus that people all have the innate capacity for good and bad, and the idea of goodies and baddies is born of fairy tales. It is this desire to demonise people who commit harm in a very clear, black and white way, that blurs our ability to see harm that others do to us. It makes it harder for women to see abuse that they face, harder for people to see warning signs (marilyn manson is not a warning sign, of course) anyway, that is why I think it is a shame to speculate.