Columbine Shooting Analysis

One of the more memorable stories in the past twenty years is the two young men were responsible for the Columbine massacre in the US. While the Columbine school. This shootings brought world-wide attention to school incidents, but this case was not an isolated, we have a long history of aggressions in schools. A report by the US Secret Service and the US Department of Education in 2002 indicated that in 37 incidents of targeted school shootings and school attacks from 1974 to 2000 in this country, found that “over half of the attackers demonstrated some interest in violence through movies, video games, books, and other media”. (Vossekuil B. 2002)

The Columbine High School Massacre took place on April 20, 1999. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were behind the horrible act. While what they did was one of the worst shootings to ever take place in America, it was a well thought-out plan. The two had planted a small bomb about 3 miles from the school as a diversion so they could go through with their heinous crime a little smoother. The bomb went off at 11:14 AM and started a small fire which was quickly extinguished by the fire department.

Although the attack was almost twenty years ago, the Columbine High School shooting forever changed American schools. To this day, educators, parents, and American communities search for a compromise between school safety and America’s right to bear arms. Multiple regulations and laws have been set in place to make obtaining weapons more difficult, but people are still finding ways around the system. Since the incident at Columbine High School, school shootings have become a common occurrence and little to nothing has been done to resolve the issue of gun violence in America. It’s time to take action before another innocent life is taken too early.

Fear is a powerful emotion which controls human beings. Throughout history fear has depicted the outcome of society because few people live with no fear. During horrific events including the Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism and the ongoing battle against terrorism fear was a response to uncertainty. The Salem Witch Trials were the unfair hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft, these trials were expressed in the Crucible written by Arthur Miller. McCarthyism was when thousands of Americans were accused of being communists, the event was portrayed in the movie Guilty By Suspicion.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were the two people responsible for the Columbine shootings. Eric Harris was born on April 9th, 1981 and Dylan Klebold September 11, 1981. They both passed away on April 20th, 1999 at 12:08PM by gunshots to the head. Eric Harris has had a history of being bullied and antagonized for his personality and the way he dressed. While both the kids seemed like good students, Harris and Klebold both had a darker history.

Why They Did It Columbine High School is a dense populated school with many different types of groups and cliques. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did not fit into just one individual group, which predominantly classifies them as “outsiders”. Outsiders usually did not hangout with other cliques, and they did not seem to really fit in. Dylan and Eric were no exception and kept to themselves most of the time.

The Columbine shooting took place on April 20, 1999. Two boys from the high school shot and killed many people, including one teacher. They had been planning the attack for months. They took innocent lives. Many questions have been asked about this and the one mostly asked was “Why did they do it?”.

Columbine High School can forever be associated with the massacre that took place April 20, 1999. Dave Cullen, author of Columbine, captures the heart wrenching and cruel events that unfolded that April through his analysis of the normalities within the day and specific dialogue. Using many rhetorical devices, Cullen develops an agonizing emotion behind the terrible truth; it can happen anywhere. While spreading the terrible truth, he manages to also spread light on the events of April 20 in order to debunk bullying motives and help all people understand the idea of psychopaths.

In the article “School Violence Beyond Columbine: A Complex Problem in Need of an Interdisciplinary Analysis” by Stuart Henry, he makes the argument that perpetrators of school violence typically have “previously been the victim of violence over time, and the extent of the extreme violent event is the outcome of the effects of reciprocal victimization at multiple levels rather than at just one. ”(Henry p. 1256) I will explain what the above statement means by discussing the Individual level, the Group level, and the Institutional/ Organizational level where victims experience the effects of the violence. With each level, I can express examples of student victimization and demonstrate how “it is important to identify a wide range of violence at different levels of society that affect the school and see how these are reciprocally interrelated in the school setting as a process over time”. (Henry p. 1261)

Why Did Arthur Miller Write The Crucible? Fear very often leads to unexpected and unwanted results. Decisions made in fear are often more dangerous than the thing being feared. In the United States during the Cold War fear had been running rampant.

School-related shootings, particularly those that are dramatic in nature, evoke strong public outcry, and justifiably so. Following an apparent spate of incidents occurring between 1997 and 2001, it seemed as if the USA was on the brink of a moral panic concerning delinquency to young youth. Since then, "Columbine has become a keyword for a complex set of emotions surrounding youth, risk, fear, and delinquency in 21st century America" (Muschert 2007). One alarmist (Stein 2000) went so far as to label Columbine as a metaphor for a contemporary crisis of youth culture.

Fear influences people to take extreme measures and act irrationally. In The Crucible, fear plays a major role in prompting people to pursue their personal desires and use their power to harm others. On the other hand, in “Extended Forecast: Bloodshed”, fear leads to violence and upheavals as an explanation of superstition for drastic climate changes. In The Crucible, the initial fear of Abigail and her friends getting in trouble for the dancing in the woods prompts the girls to start accusing people.

Bowling for Columbine is a participatory convention documentary written, directed and starring Michael Moore. Michael Moore is an accomplished, distinguished and controversial documentarian. He is somewhat deceptive in his techniques, but is overly effective in gaining the audiences support of his viewpoints. This is no different in Bowling for Columbine. Bowling for Columbine highlights America’s obsession with guns and attempts to uncover the flaw in the American psyche which has led to this obsession.