Pros And Cons Of Columbine Shooting

On the 110th birthday of Adolf Hitler on April 20th, 1999, the most notorious school shooting in America occurred. Eric Harris and Dylan Kelbold shot and killed 12 of their peers as well as a teacher at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado. The tragic event sent shockwaves across America and lead to massive changes in public school safety. Serious discussions of having SROs (School Resource Officers) at every school and combating gun rights were some main takeaways people had after Columbine. These issues, however, were not the way shootings like Columbine could have been prevented. Predominantly, many shooters leave clues or a trail that other people can easily pick up on if more thought was given to the actions. This statement could

Citing from Cullen, “Zack Heckler said Wayne could not figure out how to defuse the bomb, so he went outside with Eric and detonated it (Cullen 211).” Eric’s father, Wayne Harris, found a pipe bomb in his son’s room. Rather than taking it to the police or even telling authorities, Wayne detonated the bomb with his son in the mountains. Wayne also received a call saying that his clips had arrived, he answered the call as if it was a mistake and hung up the phone. He never thought for one moment that the number might not be wrong and there was a little bit more to the situation. Had Wayne done a little bit more digging and ignored that Eric was his son for just a moment, he could have realized Eric’s true colors. There is a high probability that Rachel Scott and the 12 other Columbine victims would not have died that fateful day if Wayne Harris had woken up. Too many red flags were swept under the rug, and as a result, the most infamous school shooting in modern history

According to Cullen, “Fourteen months later, after the murders, DeVita lamented how convincing the boys had been (Cullen 235).” First, Eric and Dylan did sort of fly under the radar at school. However, the picture containing the two pointing finger guns at the camera and wearing trench coats to school brought enough attention to the two to raise questions despite the lying nature of Eric and Dylan. Second, multiple people did report Eric and Dylan and practically nothing came of it. With this said the people who knew or reported the shooters and their various illegal activities could have informed the parents of Dylan and Eric with more details. Last, yes the Jeffco police department did not take serious action against Eric for his blog. Yet, if the parents who were aware of the blog were concerned enough they would have taken the blog to higher authorities. More action can always be taken in situations like this because the potential consequences are so