Columbine

The most tragic school shooting in American history took place on April 20, 1999.   On this infamous day in history two Columbine high school students killed 13 and wounded 21 before they took there own lives.   It is not clear why they chose this day, but it may be because this was the 110th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birthday.   What happened on this day was a tragedy that affected not only Columbine, but the whole country as well.



At 11:10 a.m. both shooters pulled into parking spaces belonging to other students.   They did this to position their cars strategically near any law enforcement that would respond.   In their cars were bombs, set to explode a while after they entered the school.   The shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were both armed with shotguns, 9mm pistols, TEC-9 UZIs, grenades, breaching charges, pipe bombs, propane tanks, and other flammable gasses.   The plan was to detonate two backpacks full of explosives in the middle of “A” lunch.   They would then shoot any students who tried to escape.



The media was quick to respond and soon there was uninterrupted news broadcast of the incident around the nation.   I found out from my parents and it didn’t seem like a big deal to me at the time, as I was only 10 years old.   However, I got the idea of how big this occurrence was when people were still talking about it weeks later.



Everybody was in an uproar.   How could this have happened? Weren’t there any signs?   These were two completely normal kids that just killed 13 people.   Everyone was pointing fingers and blaming other people.   In truth, no one could have seen this event manifesting.   This sort of thing had never happened in this magnitude before.



Today, the name “Columbine” Still has an air of death and loss lingering about it, as does the school.   Since this event schools have gotten tougher on security.   Some large schools have even seen fit to install metal detectors at their...