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Killers: The Columbine High School Massacre

Decent Essays

The FBI defines a mass murder as “murdering four or more persons during an event with no “cooling-off period” between the murders” (A Study of Active Shooter Incidents, 2014). These murders can be planned for extended periods of time or spontaneous. Most often mass murders end in suicide of the perpetrators. This description mirrors just what is to come.
On April 20th, 1999 at 11:19 AM two current students named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold open-fired in Columbine High School murdering 12 students and one teacher. They wounded 24 other students and shortly after took their own lives. Strategically, they set up bombs a few miles away from the school to go off just before the massacre was to begin to deter the police, fire department and …show more content…

Five years after the shooting, FBI analysts diagnosed Dylan with depression and Eric as a psychopath (At last we know why the Columbine killers did it, 2004). Dylan was hurting inside and had no proven desire to hurt other people, only himself. Many believe his depressive state is what led him to give in to Eric’s ideas. Eric on the other hand hated society as a whole. He wanted nothing more but to cause as much destruction as he could. His journal entries showed what little respect he had for anything, "I hate the f---ing world.” Eric’s family moved around a lot growing up which can provide some possible explanation for why he didn’t have many friends and or relationships. The interesting part about his mental illness is the lack of signs that anything was wrong at all. Exteriorly, Eric was said to be a “nice kid”. On the inside he was strategic and deceitful. Those who knew Harris portrayed him as independent and self-sufficient young man, but his personal reflections told another story. He was enraged by others actions and hated the superficial people surrounding him. He was very troubled. “Harris was not merely a troubled kid, the psychiatrists say, he was a psychopath”(At last we know why the Columbine killers did it, …show more content…

He had zero remorse for his actions. He was very intelligent, and charming together putting up a smooth and slick façade. Like most psychopaths, the pain of others fascinated him as he discussed in his journal. Eric frequently built bombs showing his impulsive tendencies and would lie about having done so. His principal in an interview said, “Eric was the type to say what he thought you wanted to hear.” He was looking for revenge on the world more specifically his classmates who ignored him and achieved his goal. "I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don't … say, 'Well that's your fault,' because it isn't, you people had my phone number, and I asked and all, but no. No no no don't let the weird-looking Eric KID come

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