Carried Out An Attack On Columbine By Dave Cullen

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out an attack on Columbine

High School in Littleton, Colorado. They fired guns towards students, killing thirteen people

and injuring more than twenty. Afterwards, they turned the firearms on themselves. In his book

‘Columbine’, Dave Cullen analyses how and why Eric and Dylan massacred the victims at the

school. When viewed in hindsight, events such as this are inspected to every minute detail; there

are always ways in which the outcome could be changed. In the event of Columbine, there are

many points in time at which the results could be completely different by changing a single

action; the points with the most significant potential are those which involve police

investigations,

Additionally, Wayne had been taking

meticulous notes on Eric for the preceding months. There would have been no reason to keep a

record such as his, unless he had suspicions of Eric’s ill intent. The fact that he did not record

the bomb incident implies that Wayne either found new hope in Eric, or he lost hope entirely. In

other words, Wayne either trusted Eric enough to stop taking notes, or he found no reason to

record anymore, as if Eric would commit a large crime no matter what Wayne did. Based on

previous behavior of Wayne towards Eric, such as the urgency of Eric’s scheduled psychiatric

appointment, it is more likely that he lost hope entirely. Apart from authority figures, some of

Eric’s peers knew about the pipe bombs at one point or another. Zack Heckler was good friends

with Eric and Dylan starting from freshman year. Later on, Zack started seriously dating

someone, which angered Dylan because of the amount of time Zack spent with her (185). This

doubtlessly worsened Dylan’s depression; the sudden loss of a friend, whatever the

circumstance, would severely aggravate a depressed person. This potentially pushed him

The three teens all worked at the same local store, however, so contact

was not lost completely. Weeks before the attack, Eric confessed to Zack that he and Dylan had

acquired 2 double barreled shotguns; this concerned Zack, but he did not act on the information.

Perhaps Zack did not see anything exceedingly abnormal, or maybe he did not want to get

involved in Eric’s plans. Eric did not mention the weapons again to Zack, probably due to

concern over information getting spilled to police or parents (311). On the day of the attack,

Zack told Robyn Anderson that he knew about the pipe bombs, but was completely unaware of

the guns (88). This is contradictory to the truth, as Zack certainly knew about the two shotguns

as well as the pipe bombs. Zack’s omission of this knowledge was due to concern over

prosecution, as he could have reported the two for illegally owning guns before the shooting. He

appeared to take on the role of very limited involvement, both before and after the attack. Zack’s

behavior leads to the implication that he suspected Eric and Dylan’s intentions; if he had not

suspected that Eric and Dylan were planning something, he likely would have