Columbine Shooting Research Paper

The entire school shooting lasted for 45 minutes until the shooters commited suicide. The Columbine was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. The two shooters were students at Columbine High School. Columbine High School Shooting was a tragic event that could have been stopped even though the outcome of the shooting could have been much worse, the event that happened in the Columbine were horrific, and missed warning signs could have stopped the attack from ever happening.

Journalist and author, Dave Cullen, in his book, Columbine, redefines how his readers understand the Columbine tragedy. His purpose is to illustrate the misconceptions Americans have of the shooting by explaining how these misconceptions came about and became rooted in Americans’ minds, although they were so unbelievably wrong. Cullen creates a blunt tone in order to get straight to the facts to show who Eric really was. Through his use of rhetorical devices in this passage, Cullen unravels that Eric was not a bullied outcast like so many believe, but a psychopath.

Resolutions are vehemently being sought to protect schools from possible attacks and to objectively eradicate deadly school shootings altogether. Commonly, security officers are placed in schools in hopes that increased surveillance will inhibit violent outbreaks (Crawford and Burns 2016). Mixed evaluations have been found in association with security officers, while some benefits reportedly transpire, experiences of disparaging consequences remain a regrettable reality as well (Crawford and Burns 2016). Additionally, active shooter drills routinely occur at schools across the nation, however, as Jillian Peterson and James Densley report in their CNN article titled, “The Usual Approach to School Security Isn’t Working,” studies indicate that

On April 20, 1999, two disturbed teenage boys Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris began a killing rampage at Columbine High School in the suburban town of Littleton, Colorado. This was considered one of the worst school shootings to occur at that time. In the morning of April 20, before noon, the two juveniles had killed 13 people to include 12 students and 1 teacher; they also wounded another 23 people before turning the guns on themselves. This event would change the theories as to why school shootings would occur. (History)

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Last friday, a tragedy happened in the parking lot of Trey Community College in Springfield, Kentucky. What seemed to be an average morning turned into a scene from a horror movie. On this seemingly regular Friday morning, a sophomore student, Isaiah Teller, took out a gun and fired four shots at his fellow students, and then one at himself.

Columbine, by Dave Cullen is a non-fiction book documenting the horrific massacre which took place in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999. Not only does the writer give great detail about the shooting itself, he also gives and in depth look into the lives of the killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and their victims. The focus of this book is for the author to attempt to bring to light what really happened and hopefully gain better understanding as to why it all took place. Cullen, a journalist, begins an extensive nine year research in order to achieve awareness of the happenings before, during and after this tragic event. Entries from the perpetrators personal journals, stories from the ones who witnessed the shootings first hand, countless interviews from the victim’s families, as well as multiple other pieces of information give the reader an extremely up close and personal surrounding Columbine. Dave Cullen spent many years perfecting his book to make sure all the readers would know the correct story of Columbine.

“There were 372 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2015, killing 475 and wounding 1870” BBC News reports. According to the statistic, mass shootings are happening everyday and even every minute an hour. Mass shooting is a huge public concern. Therefore, when a shooting occurs, media would often report the shooting with bloody detail, surprised statistics, and influential old shooting. Moreover, the media are the biggest fear mongers which create public panic to the society by using various methods. Meanwhile, due to the media coverages, mass shooting slowly become a serious threat to the people. Although the media has exaggerated the detail and statistics of the shooting, which make their coverages look more trustworthy, researchers and reporters

I believe the biggest misconception I had about school shooters is their feelings, or what I assumed is a lack of. What I have learned about the feelings of school shooters is that there is typically a guiding factor or initial issue that festers in someone. Said issue causes this person or group of people to act out. From what I have observed, these students typically have the brightest futures yet remain the most misunderstood of all students.

Dave Cullen, author of the novel Columbine spent years analyzing the reasons why Eric and Dylan did what they did. He proved media wrong on false reports on multiple occasions. He studied both Eric and Dylan’s life at home and came to the conclusion that Eric was the main guy to fault everything to. He believed Eric was the leader and Dylan was just a follower. This theory later intertwines Malcom Gladwell’s theory of a threshold. A slowly evolving riot that has led to the frightening school shootings we know of now. He believes shooters have a threshold of a certain quantity. Meaning Eric had a threshold of zero because he initiated the wave and had no inspiration to feed off of. In other words he was mentally insane as he needed no influence to commit mass murder. Dylan on the other hand had a threshold of one meaning that if he was an outcast he probably would not go through with the shooting, but since he had one person to go along with he was all for it. The threshold theory keeps going up to an unlimited amount. Another aspect of Gladwell’s theory involves the Columbine shooting. He insists that the shooting laid a foundation for future school shootings as declared by sociologist Ralph Larkin. He backs up his

In his article, “Thresholds of violence” by Malcolm Gladwell, has effectively proven that the school shootings changed and they’ve became ritualized. From an incident, a group of three officers had arrived to the unit’s door step, and a young man stood in the center. The man became extremely defensive when one of the officers had to pat LaDue down. The officer had over heard that LaDue was making bombs in the storage locker, then had found a SKS assault rifle with sixty rounds of ammunition, a Beretta 9-mm, hand gun, including three ready-made explosive devices hidden in his bedroom. “There are far more things out in that unit than meet the eye” (Gladwell 2), exampling how there’s not only going to be a specific amount of bombs that would have

The aftermath of a school shooting is tragic, depressing, and causes hatred for the lives lost and the person who took them. Everyone, especially the media, tries to interpret why the shooter killed their victims, or why they felt the need to end others’ lives and their own. How We All Miss the Point on School Shootings, by Mark Manson, explains what and why these mass shootings happen. He starts by using examples of shootings and the murderer’s past. This article has great viewpoints, use of argumentative reasoning, and shows what truly happens in the hallways of a school shooting.

(Sub-subpoint 2) For example, a 12-year-old from Nevada opened fire at school because he was bullied. He was called “an idiot, a retard and gay”. (NY Daily News)

Dorothy Siegel’s argument in the essay “What Is Behind the Growth of Violence on College Campuses?” is persuasive. Siegel persuades the reader by presenting her points and validating them with facts and statistics. One of the strongest aspects of the argument is that contrary to popular belief, students are committing a majority of the crimes that take place on college campuses; the students “themselves may become the assailants”, not persons from outside of the campus. She further supported this by pointing out that students tend to know their attackers. Another strong aspect of her argument is that campus violence is due to substance abuse. Most of the students who committed the crimes “were drunk, high, or in need of drugs” at the time of

Since the Columbine High School shooting, school shootings have become a common occurrence. People have become so accustomed to seeing them on the news, so we hardly bat an eye at them anymore. For every instance of a school shooting we see, there are hundreds of lawmakers making public that their thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Frankly, those thoughts and prayers are simply not enough anymore. The Parkland shooting is one of many school shootings, that have brought light to the subject of gun violence in schools, and it is clear, if it hasn’t been one already, that gun regulation needs to change.