Thread: What Caused the Columbine Massacre?

In the wake of all these school shootings recently, I thought it was an appropriate time to talk about the one we all know about, The 1999 attack at Columbine High School by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold that killed 13 people. Some people blamed video games, some blamed metal, some blamed goths, some blamed bad parrenting, some blamed the movies, some blamed the perpatrators . What noone ever choose to blame though, was the school and kids in general. Kids, IMHO, are quite possibley the most cruel stage of human development, specifically the adolescent stage, when kids are super conformist and if your the slightest bit of an individual, you are demonized and hated. This is why, I beleive, Eric Harris commited his act.He was eccentric and different. And Dylan, although unlike Eric, he had friends, however I beleive he felt a sense of loyalty to Eric and decided to help him commit the act.



My personal opinion is that adolescents(13+) are fully capableof thinking their reactions through when theyt are thinking clearly. I beleive that Eric fully knew he would not get out of there alive and would not be able to live his life, but thought that if he could take some people with him, it would be worth it. I think that the school's culture is also to blame. Most of the kids who bullied Eric, and anyone in general, are the Jocks. Not just Jocks as in kids who excell at sports, although that also applies,also a jock is considered a kid with the best girl, the best car, the best clothes, the best stuff. These kids are the ones who tortured Eric, as he claims they did, calling him a "faggot" and other things.




Im rambling, anyways what I wanna know from you guys is,in your opinions, what caused the Columbine Massacre?

The answer is obvious. Violence on Television! It causes everything from promiscuity right down to leukemia.

Bad parenting? Their parents were great.
Bad video games? I don't think so, AFAIK the only real violent game they ever played was Doom, which by todays standards is E-rated -_-
Eric and Dylan were not Goths, no matter how much they dressed in black.

Although they were no doubt loved by their family and even a close circle of friends, a combination of different factors such as school culture (as Zara said), superiority complex (which Eric had), and especially their friendship (along with a few other side factors) caused the Massacre. If they did not meet at all, they could not help each other's hatred foster and grow into killing. A lot of high school students (I know since I know people) have had fantasies about shooting up their school because of being labeled outcasts or being bullied incessantly. Eric and Dylan's breaking points were just easier to surpass than most others. They were not evil, just really, really angry.

Where did you hear Eric had a superiority complex? All i heard was that he had anger managment problems, and depression.

Originally Posted by Zarathustra

Where did you hear Eric had a superiority complex? All i heard was that he had anger managment problems, and depression.

He had anger/depression probs too, reason why he couldn't go to the Marines during that time was because he was poppin pills to supress those problems. As for the superiority complex, I've talked to a teacher about it (we are in the same state as Columbine, so yeah...); apparently the Massacre was some sort of a backlash against people thinking him inferior.

C'mon...we all know it was because of Marylin Manson (sp?).

I agree that kids can definitely push each other into such a fierce hatred that these boys would contemplate going thru with murder and know very well what the outcome might be.

Originally Posted by TheAnchorman

He had anger/depression probs too, reason why he couldn't go to the Marines during that time was because he was poppin pills to supress those problems. As for the superiority complex, I've talked to a teacher about it (we are in the same state as Columbine, so yeah...); apparently the Massacre was some sort of a backlash against people thinking him inferior.

Then that would be an inferiority complex.

Originally Posted by Zarathustra

Im rambling, anyways what I wanna know from you guys is,in your opinions, what caused the Columbine Massacre?

Drugs, prescribed legally of course.

Originally Posted by Zarathustra

Then that would be an inferiority complex.

Oopsy daisies, fucked my words up :hissy:Oh well, yeah, inferiority complex

I think the real answer went to the grave with those two. I'm reluctant to say that it was just the taunting and teasing because that would be the same as saying they somehow deserved their fate (the victims I mean) But it was certainly an element. The schools have to take a bit of the blame because it seems that the schools overlook an awful lot of this torture behavior. The Torturers are not blameless but the reaction was fuckin' nuts.
Mostly, it was a pair of very sick kids who took the ultimate sick revenge and mostly on the wrong folks. It's my understanding that they didn't really try to target specific taunters and even killed a respected teacher who had given them kind counsel in the past. Damned tragedy.

I think it was a deadly combo of a whole bunch of shit that seems to be all too common.