The tragic events of 1999 made the entire international society shudder with horror. All the world newspapers enlightened the accident that took place at Columbine High School and became the cause of thirteen deaths.
The terrible tragedy happened on April 20 in the Colorado state. In the morning two armed teenagers, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, entered the building of Columbine High School and opened fire at its students. As a result, twelve children and their teacher were shot to death. Twenty-four people were wounded in this attack. After the shooting, the criminals committed suicide. The subsequent investigation showed that the teenagers had had the initial intention to explode a firebomb that they had managed to set not far from the local fire station. If their plan had been realized, the explosion would have taken away about half a thousand of people’s lives (Lamb, 2008).
The specificity of this crime lies in the fact that before the murders committed this crime, they had been keeping a diary. The teenagers had filmed the entire preparation process, supplying it with detailed comments about their motives and reasons. These records became priceless clues both for school psychologists and the police. The careful study of these pieces of evidence made the experts suppose that the tragic murder could have been partially motivated by the strong wish to appear in mass media sources. Another version suggested that the crime was, on the contrary, the result of the media’s negative influence. Numerous reports about similar shooting acts could have provoked the teenagers to get going (Gumbel, 2004).
The formal investigation, however, admitted the possibility of other reasons’ presence. The initial version suggested a religious belief as the base of the murder; yet, it was soon rejected as the one lacking proofs. Another interpretation of the criminals’ motives was based on the supposition that the teenagers had been interested in gothic subculture. They were suspected of being members of the Trenchcoat Mafia – a social group that shared and promoted gothic ideology. In fact, this membership could have had a serious impact on the boys’ behavior. There were also supporters of the theory that the boys’ cruelty had been prompted by the powerful negative influence of aggressive music and their addiction to different sorts of violent video games. Nevertheless, none of the mentioned versions found enough evidence to be supported (Columbine High School Shootings, 2009).
The accident provoked a wage of the social unrest. A great number of people were not satisfied with the preventative measures the government decided to take. The authorities announced that the only way to avoid the repetition of the tragedy was to tighten schools’ security by supplying it with extra weapons (Terkel, 2012). The claim was met with a mixed reaction. A section of society had great concerns about the atmosphere these changes were likely to create. These people believed the increase in the number of guns at schools could have a negative effect on the studying process. Numerous celebrities also doubted the effectiveness of such measures, being deeply convinced that the root of the problem was in gun-control legislation (Manson, 1999).
It has already been decades since this awful tragedy happened. Nevertheless, the case has not been properly investigated yet, and the real motives of the murders’ violent actions still remain unclear (Cullen, 2004).
Reference
Columbine High School Shootings. (2009). Web.
Cullen, D. (2004). The Depressive and the Psychopath. Slate. Web.
Gumbel, A. (2009). The Truth about Columbine. The Guardian. Web.
Lamb, G. (2008). Columbine High School. The New York Times. Web.
Manson, M. (1999). Columbine: Whose Fault Is It? Web.
Terkel, A. (2012). Columbine High School Had Armed Guard During Massacre In 1999. The Huffington Post. Web.