The Columbine Massacre: What did Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold do?

the Columbine Massacre

What happened during the Columbine Massacre? 

The Columbine massacre was a school shooting that occurred on the 20th of April 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States.

The killers were twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and they murdered 12 students and 1 teacher. The murder primarily took place in the school library where 10 students were killed. 21 additional people were injured by gunshots.

The Columbine massacre was the deadliest mass shooting at a school in U.S. history at the time, but sadly this has since been surpassed by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012. The Robb Elementary School shooting took that record in May 2022 and became the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in U.S. history.

The Columbine shooting is widely considered to be the massacre that inspired many others and has often been  dubbed ‘the Columbine effect.’


How long had Harris and Klebold been planning the attack?

Harris and Klebold had been planning the brutal massacre for at least a year and hoped to have a large number of victims. It was originally intended to be a bombing but the explosives failed to detonate properly on the day the events took place. The teenagers’ motive remains a topic of debate with no official conclusion being reached. They were clearly deeply troubled individuals suffering from mental illness, who chose to take their anger out on innocent people. 


What happened to Harris and Klebold? 

Harris and Klebold committed suicide in the school library after carrying out their brutal shooting spree. 

Harris sat down with his back to a bookshelf and fired his shotgun through the roof of his mouth while Klebold went down on his knees and shot himself in the left temple. A survivor allegedly overheard them shout “One! Two! Three!” before killing themselves.

Bowling For Columbine was a documentary film by Michael Moore released in 2002 that questioned the gun laws in the U.S. and the effects of the Columbine massacre on American society. 


What do you think of the tragic Columbine Massacre? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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