Myth Or Historical Events Surrounding The Columbine High School Shooting

April 20, 1999, was far from peaceful in Littleton, Colorado. Two seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered twelve students and one teacher before ultimately killing themselves at Columbine High School and injuring an additional twenty-three people. At the time of the shooting, Columbine was the most fatal school shooting in United States history. Myth is a story or historical event that unfolds part of the world’s view of people, beliefs, and natural phenomena (“Myth” 1). In a rush to make sense of the killings, the media spread a lot of information that was inaccurate. Although the myths were unveiled it was already put into people's minds that they were true. Many myths and conspiracies were created surrounding the Columbine High School

Some of the people rumored to have influenced the shooters are Marilyn Manson, Hitler, German metal music, and violent video games just to name a few. In reality, what influenced the two was the hate they had built into themselves. It was believed that Hitler and German culture influenced the shooting because it was on April 20th which was Hitler’s birthday. It was later discovered that the shooting was meant to take place the day before on April 19, 1999. It was reported that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were fans of Marilyn Manson. It was said that their actions were influenced by violence in entertainment, specifically the music of Marilyn Manson. But music can not be blamed for making people’s violence come out especially to the degree of violence Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had. Many of the shooters’ friends held crucial information including Robyn helping purchase three guns, Chris and Nate having seen their pipe guns, and Zack and Chris having heard about the shooters having napalm (Cullen 217). How could Dylan and Eric obtain guns when neither of them was old enough to buy them? Anderson had bought a High-Point 9-millimeter Carbine at a gun show in 1998 from an unlicensed seller with money given to her by the shooters along with two of the other guns used in the shootings. Another gun they got was a TEC-DC9 bought off of a coworker, Mark Manes, at Blackjack Pizza for $500 (“Where’d” 1). It seems the shooters had plenty of help putting the shooting into action. Could the shooting have been prevented if one of the friends had said something or had not aided in supplying