Columbine & 4/20
Today is the anniversary of the day the Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold intended to perform the Columbine massacre. It was supposed to happen on the 19th of April. I never realized that, it had to do with a SNAFU over a friend providing ammunition (an 18-year old friend who could buy ammo at KMart). I’d always bought into the mythology that they were commemorating Hitler’s Birthday, on the 20th. Columbine figures BIGTIME in the history of GamerDad. I was a CNet freelance reporter and my job was to chronicle how the media was blaming video games for something that obviously had nothing to do with video games. I’ve written about it almost yearly since then, and it turns out I never really understood it until now. I just finished a devastating book called Columbine and it’s now out in paperback. I DO NOT recommend it, it will break your heart. The book is Columbine, and the author is Dave Cullin. It is the definitive study.
First of all the book relies on the evidence of thousands of police interviews, a psychological profile from the FBI’s top psychologist and from Eric and Dylan’s own journals. These two boys were bullies, they weren’t victims. Eric was a Pyschopath, and unfeeling person who wanted to be famous and most of all, wanted power over all the people he hated. He hated everyone. Everyone in the world. Dylan hated himself and saw Eric’s insane plan as a way to commit suicide in a hateful way. These kids were influenced by pop culture certainly, but it only fed their pre-existing interests. Which were misanthropic at best, pyschotic at worst.
I expected to write a lot more. But the book simply shut me up. It’s compelling reading but it will break your heart and make you realize that some horrible things have no rhyme or reason. Eric Harris is unique among his kind of mental illness in that he extensively journalled his madness. It’s all there. His lack of empathy. His knowledge of how the world would react. His desire to be remembered. It’s tempting to deny him that last one, but he should be remembered.
Because he’s nothing like us.
There was no trigger. He just planned bigger than most crazy people. He just charmed everyone he met, including police who had noted his escalation from pranks to petty theft. They missed the pipe bombs and ammo. The most chilling aspect is how he failed. He had bombs planted in the cafeteria, including one in each of their cars designed to go off roughly when and where he figured triage would be set up. The plan was to detonate two bombs in the cafeteria at lunch time. Killing hundreds and causing the library above to collapse, killing more. Dylan and Eric took up firing positions at the exits, they would shoot the fleeing students. They planned suicide or “death by cop” and the body total was supposed to be thousands. They wanted to outdo Oklahoma City – they only killed 13. Luckily, only 13. The smaller number is because they had to walk into the school and start randomly killing. Thousands of kids escaped and a few more wouldn’t have died. Within 20 minutes the school was surrounded by police and SWAT from as far away as Denver. There were hundreds, but SWAT wasn’t allowed in for 3 horrible hours. Eric and Dylan committed suicide about 40 minutes in. But the police, deafened by the fire alarm, treated this as a hostage situation. They thought the kids still inside, hiding and dying, were hostages and that storming the place would result in more deaths. It was a terrible mistake.
One result of Columbine, in fact, is that the procedure with an active shooter is now to attack. Pass by and secure rooms, and as quickly as possible, neutralize the shooters. This scenario is familiar to players of many realistic shooters such as Rainbow Six and SWAT. Those games let you play the heroes, a satisfying thing after reading a book like this, I assure you.
My point here is that this could happen anywhere and at any time, but it doesn’t. Despite violence in movies, TV, video games, and more, it doesn’t happen. The odds of dying in a school shooting – and this includes revenge or passion killing and not just massacres – is over a million to one. If society is so bad, why are there fewer deaths like this than ever before. Even that scary couple years at the end of the 90’s produced fewer killers and deaths than regular murder and violence (from young people) in every decade prior? The apex was actually the 30’s, but that’s more due to the Depression and theft gone awry than anything else.
In 1999, I was assigned to cover the media reaction and I found – even from President Clinton – a scary need to blame. Blame the poor parents of these monsters, they didn’t know. The boys hid things too well. Blame the media, blame the lack of metal detectors, blame, blame, blame. The only plausible blame is the easy access to powerful guns due to the “gun show loophole” which allowed an 18-year old casual girlfriend of Dylan to walk into the convention center with their money and walk out with two shotguns, a couple TEK-9’s and a few handguns – without even leaving her name.
But even that isn’t why it happened, it only contributed to the ease they had in the killing. The WHY is because they were crazy. Crazy and maladjusted. There are more of those kinds of people than we think, but most don’t think this big. They don’t think Paducah or Jonesborough big, or Virginia Tech, Fort Hood, Oklahoma City that Amish shooting or the shootings throughout Europe (places that control media violence excessively).
It just happened. Blaming guns obscures the fact that they wanted to do it and the pipe bombs were made from household items. (Note: I believe in gun control and the second ammendment. I disagree with the NRA only in that they are absolutist. Zero gun control is insane.)
As I said, GamerDad began with that assignment. I simply wanted to point out that video games had little to do with it, aside from the fact that Eric and Dylan were typical computer owning males in the nineties and they liked playing Doom. There, they liked playing Doom. Just like me. Just like most of you. I realized that misunderstanding media violence lets the killers off easy, blames the innocent just trying to have a good time, and worst of all, points well meaning professionals as off target as blaming Goth culture did.
99.99% of the time Doom is just Doom, a trenchcoat is just a trenchcoat, and a psycho killer is just a psycho killer. And that’s the scariest thing of all.
Today a moment of silence for the victims, wounded, parents, teachers, town and even the killer’s unfortunate parents. Tomorrow is the 11th anniversary and tomorrow I’d prefer to talk about another reason 4/20 means so much to me and GamerDad.com. It is the anniversary of my first child’s, my daughter’s, birthday.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
A dark day in American history indeed. Thank you for reminding me. I know exactly what you mean when you say that people are blaming everyone else. Once, I remember my grandmother (who I love very dearly) saying of the V-Tech killer, “Someone didn’t love him enough.” To which I responded, “Are you joking? He was just out of his mind!” Anyway, I will remember, and pray for the families of all those who died at Columbine. Requiescant in pace. On an unrelated note, happy birthday to your daughter.
April 20th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Yes, according to research most psychotics (which aren’t the same as psychopaths) come from loving families. Almost all are genius IQ and they fit no other profile. Yesterday was also the 15th anniversary of Oklahoma City, I should have mentioned that, because McVeigh wasn’t quite “psychotic” (some psychologists disagree – the difference is that Eric Harris had no motive except fame – McVeigh was making a “statement”). He was “at war” which is more preventable and more scary, especially given how people are talking today.
April 20th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Interesting write up. I attended a bunch of safety seminars and training session after this, as I worked in the mental health field. Most, but not all, of these kids were very damaged by the time they went off the deep end, but in the end it is not always easy to predict this kind of behavior before it happens.
The only plausible blame is the easy access to powerful guns due to the “gun show loophole” which allowed an 18-year old casual girlfriend of Dylan to walk into the convention center with their money and walk out with two shotguns, a couple TEK-9’s and a few handguns – without even leaving her name.
She would have just bought them from someone else if it wasn’t at a gunshow. An 18 year old is an adult. If someone is bent on doing this, they will find a way. FWIW, she broke several federal laws I can identify. I don’t know about state.
I disagree with the NRA only in that they are absolutist. Zero gun control is insane.
One minor point of clarification. The NRA is very compromising and has supported many major gun laws over the years, to the point that many gun rights people don’t like them and join less moderate groups.
April 20th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Interesting perspective Steve. I recommend the book. Eric Harris did write several mocking rants about A) how easy it is to get guns. B) How much he hated gun control because the Brady Bill delayed his plans by at least a year.
But then, he was nuts, so there’s that. I don’t think many NRA members see things the way you do, can you give examples of concessions made by the NRA on gun control? I can’t find anything they haven’t fought tooth and nail.
My take is that I respect hunters and I think home protection is reasonable. Outside of that, you lose me. And being able to buy guns at gun shows is ridiculous and… the NRA holding their convention in Denver after Columbine was horrendous. But I’d like to see some evidence of the NRA being reasonable. I admit to not looking as closely as I maybe should, but I haven’t seen anything reasonable coming out of Heston and then LaPierre’s (sp?) mouths. Can you give me a few examples of them being reasonable? For the record, I don’t consider open carry, concealed weapons, guns in National Parks, armor piercing bullets and assault or even semi-assault weapons to be “reasonable” under the 2nd ammendment.
But I agree, Eric was a monster – he would have gotten guns — eventually. But he had a hard time because of gun control laws at that time. And that does play significantly into the results and timeline. Read the book, it presents the facts soberly and doesn’t blame guns but does show that had the loophole not existed, Columbine wouldn’t have happened simply because he wouldn’t have had the ordinance in time. Also, perhaps, if he had to jump more hoops and found a less dupable accomplice then the girl he used to get the guns – maybe that person would have tipped off authorities.
And when I say “Columbine” wouldn’t have happened, I only mean that Eric and Dylan would have graduated and their violence would have exploded elsewhere. The timing was key, and the massacre was delayed significantly by difficulty in getting weaponry on Eric’s timeline.
April 20th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
I do want to reiterate that the author does not make much of a case against the NRA or for gun control. He simply presents the FBI findings, the Police bungling, the time line, Eric and Dylan’s tapes and journals and the testimony of the dupes who provided the weapons and ammo.
This isn’t a book about blame. it’s a book about Columbine. Also, I’m fascinated about your seminars and training, but a lot of this info – like the basement tapes and Eric’s journal – were hidden until very recently. Testimony from the parents is sealed until 2020 or so. The conclusion I made after reading the book wasn’t that these two were damaged and more that they were born with damage. Dylan’s writings make a strong case that without Eric, he’d have been a simple suicide. Eric, however, was on a violent path for most of his life and he was wicked good at hiding it and snowing people.
I really think the parents are blameless. The boys apologized and expressed NO hate for their parents in their goodbye tapes. They acknowledge the hell they were bringing to their parents and seemed regretful. Going into this I wanted to think the parents were at fault – we all try to make sense of these things but that part was unexpected.
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:08 am
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There’s a lot of rumors that the Brady Bill would never have passed, except that the NRA caved in and stated a willingness to accept background checks as long as they’re INSTANT background checks. Wayne LaPierre has also stated he agrees with gun free school zones.
I know you’re of a VERY different mindset, Bub, but you gotta consider it from the pro-gun side sometime. A LOT of people think that the NRA should NEVER, EVER compromise (I’m not one of them, btw), and there’s a new, rapidly growing group called the GOA (Gun Owners of America) that claims to be the non-compromise alternative to the NRA.
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You have a very different mindset from most gun owners. While I respect that, I have to disagree. I’d say open and concealed carry are very explicitly stated when they say the right to keep and BEAR arms shall not be infringed. Guns in National Parks seems like a no brainer to me – you’re miles and miles from anyone who could possibly help you. 2 hikers were raped and murdered on the Appalachian Trail just a few miles from here. My own mother is as radical left wing as they come, but she wants to carry when she’s hiking by herself.
Assault and semi-assault weapons… Well, if you believe that the 2nd amendment is meant to be a check on government power, you absolutely believe in unrestricted civilian access to fully automatic weapons. I don’t necessarily agree with that, or even think such weapons are necessary for that interpretation of the 2nd, but there’s millions and millions of semi-auto “assault” weapons out there, and they’re so rarely used in crimes, I just don’t believe in curtailing the rights of millions of people with laws that would do very little good. BTW, fully automatic weapons are currently completely legal for civilians, without a special permit. There’s just a limited supply of them, so they’re kind of pricey. But they’re out there, and I’m not aware of ANY crimes or murders being committed with them.
As for armor piercing ammo… you’re getting into real fringe territory here. First, I’m not sure such a thing even really exists. Teflon coated ammo, for instance, doesn’t really make bullets pass through armor better, it just helps to preserve your gun barrel. There’s depleted uranium ammo, but I don’t think that’s even available to civilians. I guess there’s surplus military ammo available – I bought an restored WW2 M1 Garand last week, and 200 rounds of military surplus ammo, and to my surprise while researching this question I see that that ammo could be considered “armor piercing”. But given that people on my side of this aisle believe that military style guns should be legal for civilians, it follows that military quality ammo would be necessary for them.
As for Columbine… I don’t know the details. What was the deal with the girl buying the guns at the gun show? Did she buy them from a vendor, or from a private sale? The gun show loophole is mostly a myth – any dealer at a gunshow MUST perform a background check on you, just as if you’d bought it from him at his retail store. BUT, an individual citizen doesn’t need to, as long as the seller doesn’t believe you’re a criminal or from out of state. If I wanted to sell a gun, I could go to a gun show, carry it slung over my shoulder with a “for sale” sign on it, and sell it legally to anyone who approached me. It’s really not any different from me advertising it in the paper and selling it to someone from my home, except that I’d have gone to a place where I’d be much more likely to find an interested buyer.
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Ha,
One of the things that scares anti-gun people most, except maybe guns themselves, is how ardently invested people are in their guns and in defending them. It’s a disturbing obsession. And I can’t *imagine* personally getting as exercised — over anything in my own life. Even stuff I really care about – like Health Care, Medical Marijuana, Gay Rights or even protecting video games. If they banned video games, I’d be unhappy and I’d vote accordingly, but I wouldn’t march or spend millions in lobbying money.
My uncles are all hunters and they don’t understand most gun owners. In fact, many hate them for their paranoia and obsessiveness. 2nd ammend describes a well-organized militia, I think that’s easily defined and not the case with most gun ownership in the US. That said: I’m not an anti-gun zealot by any means and I grant that considering how easy it is to get a gun and how many they are – 99.99% of people are clearly responsible or at least less dangerous. I also agree that they can’t be gotten rid of.
However, Gay Rights, Marijuana, Drug War, etc., these are far more important civil rights to me then the right to bear arms and I think the level of paranoia about the Government is extreme and more than a bit silly.
Lets get away from opinion. These are the facts. And I want to emphasize that the book isn’t editorial. The most compelling arguments are about psychosis and the Police failing to arrest Eric beforehand (they had a case and warrant and failed – and then covered it up) and the mishandling of this as a Hostage rather than Rampage situation.
I looked up the pertinent sections and here are the UNIQUE GUN facts in Columbine:
1. Eric and Dylan were 17. Dylan was semi-dating a girl who was 18. At 17 you can get guns illegally, but not if you’re a small town white kid with no criminal connections.
2. Columbine is located near VAST empty rocky wilderness.
3. Eric, Dylan and Girl went to a gun show. After, he writes in his journal about the guns he wants to get.
4. In his journal Eric rants against the Brady Bill and how he wishes he could get the weapons and ammo he wants – which is weapons of vast killing power.
5. Later, Dylan and Eric give money to the girl, who is 18, and she buys two TEK-9 semi-machine guns, two shotguns, and gets instructions on how to saw down the shotguns for power and convenience, she is not carded, nor checked, just sold in plain view. Yes, this gun convention seller is in Federal Prison – but he wouldn’t be if nothing had happened.
6. The girl was not suspicious of Eric and Dylan’s need for the guns because she knew they liked to go out to the hills and shoot stuff – + Dylan was cute and she wanted to impress him.
7. Druggie friend, also 18, was supposed to buy ammo. He flaked and flaked and flaked and finally went to K-Mart and bought the ordnance easily.
8. Girl and Druggie Guy involved know nothing of the plan.
9. Eric and Dylan execute plan and kill 13, wound many many more.
Mitigating Factors For This Case Only
1. Eric would have probably not done any killing had any of this been delayed past graduation. Certainly he would have later, but the girl and druggie were lucky chance encounters. MANY other people would have suspected something was up and Psycho-killers ALWAYS minimize the people involved.
2. ANY further delay past May would have avoided this specific attack – and probably taken it to a mall. Dylan Klebold LIKELY would have committed suicide – because he came close a few times before Columbine – and Eric’s plan would have been found in Dylan’s journal had there been more delay. Eric didn’t hate his school, his teachers, or the students. He hated everyone and was looking for the biggest score. He’d be sad he only got 13, he wanted to beat McVeigh’s 128 and Osama’s score probably has him rolling in his grave.
3. Less powerful weapons would have lowered the dead/wounded count because Eric and Dylan weren’t good shots and only killed at very close range. Better rule following at the convention would have led Eric to seek more accomplises or help – which would have increased the risk of exposure manifold.
So I think GUNS are not at fault. They just made a botched mass murder attempt much more successful than it would have been otherwise. The real problem Eric had with his plans was that all his giant bombs had faulty fuses. Had the main two gone off? Hundreds would have died horribly, instantly. And these bombs were made from Radio Shack wiring, household supplies and propane tanks. No gun law could save us from that.
That’s it. Discuss from there.
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:25 pm
I may have already mentioned this but a big explanation of WHY this happened is this simple symbiotic relationship.
Dylan Klebold – Smart, Depressed, Love-lorn – wanted to die and wanted to commit suicide. Columbine/Eric gave him a chance to commit suicide while railing against the world. Death by cop. Dylan HATED HIMSELF.
Eric Harris – Smart, out-going, charming, angry with a deep feeling of superiority and hatred for human beings in general. A self-aggrandizing misanthrope – who wanted to die in a blaze of glory and be remembered forever for it. Eric HATED THE WORLD.
Eric manipulated Dylan into it. Which doesn’t excuse Dylan, it just redirected his suicide into the mass homocide Eric wanted.
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:05 pm
…
5. Later, Dylan and Eric give money to the girl, who is 18, and she buys two TEK-9 semi-machine guns, two shotguns, and gets instructions on how to saw down the shotguns for power and convenience, she is not carded, nor checked, just sold in plain view. Yes, this gun convention seller is in Federal Prison – but he wouldn’t be if nothing had happened.
…
Okay, so the seller WAS a vendor, and didn’t run the background check? Or a private individual who made an obvious straw sale?
BTW, Bub, you’re WAY to smart to use phrases like “TEC-9 semi machine guns”. You know that you’re using a loaded term for it’s shock value. The TEC-9 is a pistol, firing the same small round as a Glock or any other common 9mm handgun. They LOOK really scary, but in reality they’re well known for being cheap pieces of junk that jam, a lot. I would be a lot more scared of the sawed off shotguns. Out of curiosity, is there a breakdown of how many victims were killed with each gun, or by each shooter?
April 22nd, 2010 at 3:37 pm
No,
I’m not all that smart Dave, for one thing ballistics and other details mean very little to me. I’ve never been curious, even in video games that note such things. I know it’s a poorly made gun because the author mentions that fact, but that factor also makes it a cheap gun. Eric worked at a pizza joint, he wished very much to have an AK or something like that. The book does say that the 9 has a relatively high fire rate and that they didn’t jam during the assault. Oh, they used the 9’s to kill themselves when they were done. Effective enough?
As far as the vendor, I remember it being a vendor. Mainly because the way you describe the “Hey wanna buy a gun, I’m just a guy” scenario is frankly so stupid and terrifying I’d probably remember it from the book. The idea behind these conventions being legal at all is, to me, pretty fucking stupid. Guns shouldn’t be impossible to get, but it also shouldn’t be easier than buying Pseudophed.
As for the breakdown/detail you’re looking for? I’m sure it’s somewhere, maybe on the net – a lot of seal info was unsealed on the 10th anniversary last year. The book does describe each death in some detail, but not the woundings. I know the first three were killed by the pistols, I know the pistols were fired into crowds a lot, and I know that many who died under library tables were killed by the shotguns using a “blind fire stick it under the table” method.
April 22nd, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Oh, I found where I got the “semi-machine gun” reference. Witnesses, wounded, police and SWAT – based on glimpses – were convinced the kids were using Uzi’s. I’ve always thought of an Uzi as a semi-auto handheld machine gun, so I figure the TEK must be similar enough in design for that mistake to be easy.
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Eh, we’ll drop it from here, Bub. I wasn’t trying to argue anything when I asked for those figures, I’d simply been looking for them from Columbine and also from VT for years but haven’t been able to find them. I’m surely not going to convince you there’s nothing wrong with gun shows as long as all laws are followed, especially since I’ve never really been to one. But I have to take exception to this:
…
I’m not all that smart Dave,…
Sure you are, Bub.
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:53 pm
There’s still a lot of info sealed until 2020, so maybe that detail is in there. Or maybe Steve S above got some of that info in his seminars (I kinda doubt it, the JeffCo police sealed so much and didn’t deny many rumors – which was another bad way to handle it.) The Trenchcoat Mafia, for example, was a myth. And Goths? Please. Goths are pretty damn peaceful. The Nazi stuff? Maybe. Eric loved the SS and that stuff. Wrote a bunch of reports on it and it’s all over the diary. He also loved KMFDM (that band issued a release describing their horror) but instead Marilyn Manson was blamed, which is funny because Eric wasn’t a fan.) Eric and Dylan were champion online Doom players. And Eric did make mods making the game more violent or changing the monsters into his own creations – but never into people he knew. And we all know how prevalent Doom and Doom hacking was back then. Also, there was never a Columbine Doom Map.
I certainly don’t disagree that it wouldn’t be interesting. I’m considering buying RAMPAGE next. That’s an in-depth study of Paducah and Jonesboro. There is a book about VT. What I want hasn’t been written yet, I guess. A study of all the shootings and the shooters.
Mostly the kid ones, but even the adult ones like that Amish schoolhouse, the one at that Scottish kindergarten, the ones in Germany and even that older story with the sniper in that
Texas tower. I want the details, the horror story and an analysis of the monster.
I suppose I could just cruise Wikipedia for a while to get an overview instead.
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:55 pm
* there might be a Columbine Doom map made after the fact. There was a crude game I think.
** “… I certainly don’t disagree that it wouldn’t be….” is a sentence that proves I’m not taht srmat.
April 23rd, 2010 at 8:21 pm
I think this has already been covered well, so I don’t have too much to add. The NRA worked with Congress during every piece of gun legislation in the last 50 years. The only time they refused to budge was the AWB from the early 90’s. In all other cases, they offered compromises. Most recently, they supported tightening up the restrictions for who can buy guns which followed the VT shootings. If you want more specifics, I can dig around.
The NRA is seen as some kind of powerful lobbying interest. According to opensecrets, they rank around 65th in terms of expenditures. The rely on donations from members for lobbying, as their own charter prevents them from spending money from dues. I have two friends who are lobbyists and both of them tell me the NRA has relatively little power.
I have to laugh when I hear how easy guns are to get. Have you ever bought a gun? A private sale is relatively easy, but there are still hundreds of laws to follow. The so-called easy purchases are most likely illegal. With every retail purchase, you have a background check, a ton of paperwork, and various other limits. I have to show my driver’s license for pseudophed. That is it. To buy a gun, I have to do that, go though National Instant Background Check, provide my social security number, and fill out a several pages of paperwork.
I am not obsessed with guns, nor do I know anyone that is. I suppose it is comments like that and like the “clinging to guns” that irked so many gun owners. I enjoy the hobby, but also see them as useful tools in being able to defend myself and my family. I don’t consider it paranoid to be concerned about gun laws. There are dozens in committee right now. Obama hasn’t made them a priority, nor has Pelosi, but I prefer to keep letting my Senators and Reps know what I think. I also see guns laws as somewhat of a litmus test. A politician that supports them, knowing that research shows they don’t work, is supporting appearance over substance. They are also willing to pick and choose what civil/Constitutional rights they support and what they would ignore.
April 24th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
I remember being told all about Columbine in elementary school. It was really scary, because they emphasized the possibility of another Columbine over the tragedy of the actual event, and so I was always so scared that someone was going to walk into school and just start shooting everyone. Just the thought of it was practically traumatizing.
Now that I have a better grasp of what actually happened, it just makes me sad. I think I’ll stick to your recommendation and stay away from that book.
April 24th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Schools are still very safe places and the odds of getting shot are very slim. More people die playing high school sports than are killed by shooters.
April 24th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
Oh, I certainly understand that now. But as an elementary-schooler, the way the event was blown up made it seem as though it was a regular occurrence that could happen to us at any moment, from my point of view, anyway. As I’m sure you can imagine, that thought wasn’t the most comforting thing to a young child.