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Klebold And Harris Shooting Research Paper

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On this day in 1999of April 20, two teenage gunmen kill 13 people in a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, south of Denver. At approximately 11:19 a.m., Dylan Klebold, 18, and Eric Harris, 17, dressed in trench coats, began shooting students outside the school before moving inside to continue their rampage. By 11:35 a.m., Klebold and Harris had killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded another 23 people. Shortly after noon, the two teens turned their guns on themselves and committed suicide. This event made me feel safe around schools with uniforms because it makes it more unlikely for students to bring weapons. It shows that teens may be all able to get weapons easily making me aware of the people surrounding me.
The crime was the worst school shooting in U.S. history (until 33 people, including the gunman, were killed in the Virginia Tech shooting on April 16, 2007)and prompted a national debate on gun control and school safety, as well as a major investigation to determine what motivated the teen gunmen. In the days quickly following the shootings, it was predicted that Klebold and Harris purposely chose jocks, minorities and Christians as their victims. At …show more content…

There was belief that Harris and Klebold committed the killings because they were members of a group of social outcasts called the “Trenchcoat Mafia” that was fascinated by Goth culture. Violent video games and music were also blamed for influencing the killers. However, none of these theories was ever proven. Columbine High School reopened in the fall of 1999, but the massacre left a scar on the Littleton community. Mark Manes, the man who sold a gun to Harris and bought him 100 rounds of explosives the day before the murders, was sentenced to six years in prison. In the aftermath of the Columbine shootings, many schools enacted “zero tolerance” rules regarding disruptive behavior and threats of violence from

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