Columbine effect

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The Columbine effect is the legacy and impact of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. The shooting has inspired numerous copycat crimes, with many killers taking their inspiration from Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, by describing the two perpetrators as being martyrs. The shooting has also had a significant impact on popular culture.

Background[]

Main article: Columbine High School massacre
Further information: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

On April 20, 1999, Columbine High School seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher then injured 24 others. Around 50 minutes after the shooting began, Harris and Klebold took their own lives in the library, where the majority of their victims died.[1] It was at the time, the deadliest shooting at a high school in American history.[2] The shooting was the most covered news story of 1999, and third most followed by the American public of the entire decade.[3]

Effects on schools[]

Following the Columbine shooting, schools across the United States instituted new security measures such as transparent backpacks, metal detectors, school uniforms, and security guards. Some schools implemented the numbering of school doors to improve public safety response. Several schools throughout the country resorted to requiring students to wear computer-generated IDs.[4]

Schools also adopted a zero tolerance approach to possession of weapons and threatening behavior by students.[5] Despite the effort, several social science experts feel the zero tolerance approach adopted in schools has been implemented too harshly, with unintended consequences creating other problems.[6] Despite the safety measures that were implemented in the wake of the tragedy at Columbine, school shootings continued to take place in the United States at an alarming rate. Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and Stoneman Douglas were three subsequent school shootings that far surpassed the casualties of the 1999 massacre, subsequently raising concern of gun violence in the United States.

Some schools renewed existing anti-bullying policies. Rachel's Challenge was started by victim Rachel Scott's parents, and lectures schools about bullying and suicide.

Police tactics[]

Police departments reassessed their tactics and since then train for Columbine-like situations after criticism over the slow response and progress of the SWAT teams during the shooting.[7][8] Sheriff Stone did not seek reelection.

Police followed a traditional tactic at Columbine: surround the building, set up a perimeter, and contain the damage. That approach has been replaced by a tactic known as the Immediate Action Rapid Deployment tactic. This tactic calls for a four-person team to advance into the site of any ongoing shooting, optimally a diamond-shaped wedge, but even with just a single officer if more are not available. Police officers using this tactic are trained to move toward the sound of gunfire and neutralize the shooter as quickly as possible.[9] Their goal is to stop the shooter at all costs; they are to walk past wounded victims, as the aim is to prevent the shooter from killing or wounding more. Dave Cullen has stated: "The active protocol has proved successful at numerous shootings...At Virginia Tech alone, it probably saved dozens of lives."[10]

Influence on other shootings[]

The Columbine shootings influenced subsequent school shootings, with several such plots mentioning it.[11] Fear of copycats has sometimes led to the closing of entire school districts.[12] According to psychiatrist Edwin Fuller Torrey of the Treatment Advocacy Center, a legacy of the Columbine shootings is its "allure to disaffected youth."[13] Ralph Larkin examined twelve major school shootings in the US in the following eight years and found that in eight of those, "the shooters made explicit reference to Harris and Klebold."[14] Larkin wrote that the Columbine massacre established a "script" for shootings. "Numerous post-Columbine rampage shooters referred directly to Columbine as their inspiration; others attempted to supersede the Columbine shootings in body count.

A 2015 investigation by CNN identified "more than 40 people...charged with Columbine-style plots." A 2014 investigation by ABC News identified "at least 17 attacks and another 36 alleged plots or serious threats against schools since the assault on Columbine High School that can be tied to the 1999 massacre." Ties identified by ABC News included online research by the perpetrators into the Columbine shooting, clipping news coverage and images of Columbine, explicit statements of admiration of Harris and Klebold, such as writings in journals and on social media, in video posts, and in police interviews, timing planned to an anniversary of Columbine, plans to exceed the Columbine victim counts, and other ties.[15]

In 2015, journalist Malcolm Gladwell writing in The New Yorker magazine proposed a threshold model of school shootings in which Harris and Klebold were the triggering actors in "a slow-motion, ever-evolving riot, in which each new participant's action makes sense in reaction to and in combination with those who came before."[14][16]

FBI former profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole said on CNN during the 20th anniversary of the massacre in 2019, and during the chase of Florida teenager Sol Pais, that she opposed the release of the Basement Tapes because of the call made by Eric Harris to other would-be shooters to "join him in infamy". She also highlighted that it was most likely males to be obsessed by the shooting and that the case of Sol Pais was rare due to her being a female.[17]

Copycats[]

The first copycat may have been the W. R. Myers High School shooting, just eight days after Columbine, when a 14-year-old Canadian student went into his school at lunchtime with a sawed-off .22 rifle under his dark blue trench coat, and opened fire, killing one student. A month after the massacre, Heritage High School in Conyers, Georgia had a shooting which Attorney General Janet Reno called a Columbine "copycat".[18] A friend of Harris and Klebold, Eric Veik, was arrested after threatening to "finish the job" at Columbine High School in October 1999.[19]

In 2001, Charles Andrew Williams, the Santana High School shooter, reportedly told his friends that he was going to "pull a Columbine," though none of them took him seriously.[12] In 2005, Jeff Weise, an native American Indian who wore a trench coat, killed his grandfather, who was a police officer, and his girlfriend. He took his grandfather's weapon and his squad car, and drove to his former high school in Red Lake and murdered several students before killing himself. In an apparent reference to Columbine, he asked one student if they believed in God.[20]

The perpetrator of the Dawson College shooting wrote a note praising Harris and Klebold.[21] Convicted students Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik of Pocatello High School in Idaho, who murdered their classmate Cassie Jo Stoddart, mentioned Harris and Klebold in their homemade videos, and were reportedly planning a "Columbine-like" shooting.[22] The perpetrator of the Emsdetten school shooting praised Harris in his diary.[23]

In November 2007, Pekka-Eric Auvinen imitated Columbine with a shooting in Jokela in Tuusula, Finland. Prior to the shooting, he had used the nickname "NaturalSelector89" online, was interested in American school shootings, and wore a shirt which said "Humanity is Overrated". In December 2007, a man killed two at a Youth with a Mission center in Arvada, Colorado and another two at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs before killing himself. He quoted Harris prior to the attack under the heading "Christianity is YOUR Columbine".

In a self-made video recording sent to the news media by Seung-Hui Cho prior to his committing the Virginia Tech shootings, he referred to the Columbine massacre as an apparent motivation.[24] In the recording, he wore a backwards baseball cap and referred to Harris and Klebold as "martyrs."[11] Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, had "an obsession with mass murders, in particular, the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado."[25]

In 2011 Tristan van der Vlis shot and killed six people in a shopping mall in Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands before committing suicide. He was obsessed with the Columbine shootings. The date he chose for his attack was April 9, which was the birthday of Eric Harris, and he started shooting at 12:08 pm, the time when Harris committed suicide.[26]

In June 2014, a married couple, Jerad and Amanda Miller, shot and killed two Las Vegas police officers and an intervening civilian before being confronted by police. Jerad Miller was fatally shot by an officer while Amanda Miller committed suicide shortly afterwards. They both talked about committing "the next Columbine" and idolized Harris and Klebold according to a neighbor's account.[27][28]

The Tumblr fandom gained widespread media attention in February 2015 after three of its members conspired to commit a mass shooting at a Halifax mall on Valentine's Day.[29] In 2017, two 15-year-old school boys from Northallerton in England were charged with conspiracy to murder after becoming infatuated with the crime and "hero-worshipping" Harris and Klebold.[30]

The Santa Fe High School shooting, in which ten people were killed, strongly resembled the Columbine massacre; the perpetrator, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, used a pump-action shotgun and homemade explosives, wore similar clothing as Harris and Klebold (including a black trench coat and combat boots) and reportedly yelled "Surprise!" to a victim during the shooting, a possible reference to the library massacre at Columbine. The Kerch Polytechnic College massacre appears to be a copycat crime. The shooter wore a white shirt which said "Hatred" (in Russian), one fingerless glove, planted bombs, and committed suicide with a shotgun in the library, all very similar to Harris' outfit and suicide.[citation needed]

List of alleged copycat incidents[]

Date Location Attacker(s) Casualties Dead Injured Description
April 28, 1999 Taber, Canada Todd Cameron Smith 1 dead, 1 injured 1 1 The W. R. Myers High School shooting was the first documented Columbine copycat attack. The gunman, 14-year-old school dropout Todd Cameron Smith, reportedly "snapped" after watching news coverage about the Columbine High School massacre.[31]
May 20, 1999 Conyers, Georgia, United States Anthony "T.J." Solomon 6 injured 0 6 A month to the day after the Columbine High School massacre, 15-year-old student Anthony "T.J." Solomon opened fire with a .22-caliber rifle, wounding six students. A 15-year-old girl was hospitalized in critical condition, and the other victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Solomon attempted suicide with a revolver but was talked into surrendering by an assistant principal. Solomon left a note pledging allegiance to the Columbine attackers.[31]
November 1, 1999 Bad Reichenhall, Germany Martin Peyerl 5 dead (including perpetrator), 7 injured 5 7 Martin Peyerl was a German student who open fired from his bedroom window, killing four people and wounded seven others before committing suicide. Before his attack, Peyerl reportedly told friends that the Columbine attack was "something we should do."[32]
December 6, 1999 Fort Gibson, Oklahoma Seth Randall Trickey 6 injured 0 6 Trickey, a straight-A student with friends and no prior mental health issues or a history of violence, randomly fired 13 rounds from a handgun into a crowd of students outside of the school just prior to the school day starting. He was tackled by a teacher and police officer. Trickey had been reading about the Columbine shooting.[31]
March 5, 2001 Santee, California Charles Andrew Williams 2 dead, 13 injured 2 13 Charles Andrew "Andy" Williams perpetrated the shooting at Santana High School on March 5, 2001. In the shooting, two students were killed and 13 others were wounded.[31]
March 22, 2001 El Cajon, California Jason Hoffman 6 injured (including perpetrator) 0 6 During the fifth period, minutes after lunch period had ended, 18-year-old Former GHHS Student, Jason Hoffman arrived on campus and opened fire on the attendance office, which also houses the principal and vice principals' offices, from the outside. Five people were either injured by shrapnel or suffered severe symptoms from the traumatic experience but few victims incurred bullet wounds. Hoffman was shot in the buttocks and jaw. He was arrested by police officer Rich Agundez, who had been on campus during school hours since the shooting two weeks earlier at a high school within the same district, Santana High School.[31]
April 26, 2002 Erfurt, Germany Robert Steinhäuser 17 dead (including perpetrator), 7 injured 17 7 19-year-old Robert Steinhäuser, who was permanently expelled from school in October 2001, entered the Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt and shot and killed 13 teachers, two students and a police officer. He also wounded seven other people. He then committed suicide.[31]
March 21, 2005 Red Lake, Minnesota Jeffrey James Weise 10 killed (including perpetrator), 7 injured 10 7 The Red Lake shootings were a spree killing that occurred on March 21, 2005, in two places on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, United States. That morning, 16-year-old Jeffrey Weise killed his grandfather (a tribal police officer) and his grandfather's girlfriend at their home. After taking his grandfather's police weapons and vest, Weise drove his grandfather's police vehicle to Red Lake Senior High School, where he had been a student some months before. Weise shot and killed seven people at the school and wounded five others. The dead included an unarmed security guard at the entrance of the school, then a teacher and five students. After the police arrived, Weise exchanged gunfire with them. After being wounded, he shot and killed himself, committing suicide in a vacant classroom.[31]
November 26, 2005 Fayette, Maine Patrick Armstrong 1 dead 1 Armstrong murdered his neighbor, 14-year-old Marlee Johnston. Armstrong reportedly admired the Columbine killers.[33]
March 14, 2006 Reno, Nevada James Scott Newman 2 injured 2 14-year-old student James Scott Newman shot and wounded two students in the hallway of Pine Middle School.[31]
August 30, 2006 Hillsborough, North Carolina Alvaro Castillo 1 killed, 2 injured 1 2 18-year-old Alvaro Rafael Castillo opened fire at Orange High School with a rifle and shotgun, shooting eight times and wounding two students. Officers ordered him to stop firing and he immediately complied. Castillo killed his father with a firearm before driving to school in a van. In the van police officers found ammunition, pipe bombs, and other weapons.[31]
September 13, 2006 Montreal, Quebec, Canada Kimveer Gill 2 killed (including perpetrator), 19 injured 2 19 Kimveer Gill opened fire at Dawson College, near downtown Montreal. One victim, Anastasia De Sousa, died the next day at the hospital due to serious injuries, while another 19 were injured, eight of whom were listed in critical condition, with six requiring surgery. The gunman later committed suicide.[31]
September 22, 2006 Pocatello, Idaho Brian Lee Draper, Torey Michael Adamcik 1 killed 1 Brian Draper and Torey Adamcik murdered a classmate at her home. At the trial, the prosecution revealed that Draper had said he was inspired by Harris and Klebold.[34]
September 29, 2006 Cazenovia, WIsconsin Eric Hainstock 1 killed 1 Eric Hainstock brought a shotgun and a handgun to school and confronted the principal. The shotgun was wrestled away from him, but in a struggle over the handgun, Hainstock shot the principal, who died later of his wounds.[31]
November 20, 2006 Emsdetten, Germany Sebastian Bosse 1 killed (perpetrator), 37 injured 1 37 An 18-year-old former student entered the Geschwister Scholl school in western Germany with a sawed off shotgun, a 22 caliber rifle, a pistol and a set of explosive devices. The rampage started when Bosse shot and wounded six people with his guns. Police stormed the building, and the shooter released several smoke bombs as he retreated to the third floor, which caused injuries to people inside the school and police officers due to smoke inhalation. The suspect then took his own life.[31]
April 10, 2007 Gresham, Oregon Chad Escobedo 10 injured 10 High school freshman Chad Escobedo shot the windows out of two classrooms from outside Springwater Trail High School, injuring ten students with shrapnel and broken glass, two of which required stitches. His motive was to shoot at a class in which he was enrolled, unhappy that the instructor had called his parents; the classrooms he hit, however, were not his intended target.[31]
April 16, 2007 Blacksburg, Virginia Seung-Hui Cho 33 dead (including perpetrator), 17 injured 33 17 Cho killed 32 people (27 students and five faculty members) on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in two separate incidents, about two hours apart. Another 25 people were injured at Norris, some when they jumped from second-story windows to escape. Cho committed suicide after police breached the main entrance doors.[31]
November 7, 2007 Tuusula, Finland Pekka-Eric Auvinen 9 dead (including perpetrator), 12 injured 9 12 18-year-old student Pekka-Eric Auvinen opened fire with a .22-caliber semi-automatic SIG Mosquito pistol at Jokela High School, in Tuusula, Finland. Six students, the school principal, and the school nurse were killed. The forty-minute attack ended when Auvinen shot himself in the head, later dying that evening at a Helsinki hospital.[31]
August 27, 2007 Boulder, Colorado Kenton Astin 1 injured 1 Astin stabbed a student at the University of Colorado on the morning of August 27, 2007. Prior to the attack, he was shouting things like, "We are Columbine."[35]
December 9, 2007 Arvada, Colorado Matthew Murray 6 dead (including perpetrator), 5 injured 6 5 Matthew J. Murray attacked the Youth with a Mission missionary training school in Arvada, Colorado, killing two and wounding two others. He drove to the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado where he killed two more people and wounded three before being shot by a security guard. Murray then committed suicide.[31]
February 14, 2008 DeKalb, Illinois Steven Kazmierczak 6 dead (including perpetrator), 17 injured 6 17 The Northern Illinois University shooting was a school shooting that took place on February 14, 2008, at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. Steven Kazmierczak opened fire with a shotgun and three pistols in a crowd of students on campus, killing five students and injuring 17 more people, before fatally shooting himself.[31]
September 23, 2008 Kauhajoki, Finland Matti Saari 11 dead (including perpetrator), 1 injured 11 1 22-year-old culinary arts student Matti Saari opened fire at the Kauhajoki School of Hospitality of Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, in Kauhajoki, Finland, using a pistol. Nine students and a teacher died in the shooting, and he set their bodies and school property on fire. Saari then shot himself in the head, later dying at Tampere University Hospital.[31]
March 11, 2009 Winnenden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Tim Kretschmer 16 dead (including perpetrator), 9 injured 16 9 17-year-old graduate student Tim Kretschmer opened fire with a semi-automatic 9mm Beretta pistol in two classrooms at the Albertville-Realschule, in Winnenden, Germany, killing nine students and one teacher; another two teachers were shot to death in a hallway by Kretschmer as he fled the school. Kretschmer then killed a bystander outside a nearby psychiatric hospital, and fled by vehicle to Wendlingen, a neighboring town, where he killed two bystanders at a car dealership and instigated a gun-battle with police. Kretschmer committed suicide during the exchange of gunfire.[31]
May 18, 2009 Larose, Louisiana Justin Dorset 1 (perpetrator) 1 Dorset attempted to kill his teacher, but his shot missed. He then committed suicide. Columbine-related materials were discovered at his home.[36]
February 23, 2010 Littleton, Colorado Bruco Eastwood 2 injured 2 A 32-year-old gunman, identified as Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood, armed with a .30–06 Winchester Model 70 bolt-action rifle, opened fire on students at Deer Creek Middle School at 3:30 pm (MST) as school was being let out in Littleton, Colorado. The gunman was later tackled by a math teacher and the teacher turned him into the police when they arrived on scene. The gunman shot and injured two students at the school before he was taken into custody. Eastwood was placed into a mental health facility for life.[31]
April 20, 2010 Wichita Falls, Texas Ross Muleberger 2 dead, 4 injured 2 4 On April 20, 2010, Ross Muleberger fired several shots outside of Hastings, injuring four people.

He then went to Toby’s Bar where he shot and killed a bouncer, 23-year-old Tim Donley. Muleberger later barricaded himself inside a house on Victory Avenue, where he suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound before later dying at the hospital. He stated he did this all for the “great Eric and Dylan”

December 28, 2010 Didcot, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom Unknown 1 injured 1 A 16-year-old boy attempted to kill his sister. He had listed "shooting up schools like Columbine" as his occupation.[37]
April 7, 2011 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Wellington Menezes de Oliveira 13 dead (including perpetrator), 22 injured 13 22 In Rio de Janeiro school shooting, 12 children aged between 12 and 14 were killed[4] and 22 others seriously wounded by a 23-year-old former pupil who entered Tasso da Silveira Municipal School (Escola Municipal Tasso da Silveira), an elementary school in Realengo district
April 9, 2011 Alphen aan den Rijn, South Holland, Netherlands Tristan van der Vlis 7 dead (including perpetrator), 17 injured 7 17 Tristan van der Vlis committed a mass shooting at a mall in the Netherlands. He researched the Columbine massacre.[38]
March 20, 2012 Waller, Texas Trey Eric Sesler 3 dead 3 Trey Eric Sesler, 22, arrested for killing his parents and brother in Texas. He had planned on attacking his former school afterwards. Sesler was fascinated by the Columbine school massacre.[39]
August 27, 2012 Baltimore, Maryland Robert Gladden, Jr. 1 injured 1 15-year-old Robert Gladden fired two shots with a shotgun inside the cafeteria at Perry Hall High School. A 17-year-old senior student was critically wounded in the lower back. Gladden was subdued by two faculty members and arrested by police.[31]
December 14, 2012 Newtown, Connecticut Adam Lanza 28 dead (including perpetrator), 2 injured 28 2 The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children between six and seven years old, and six adult staff members. Before driving to the school, he shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home. As first responders arrived at the school, Lanza committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.[31]
October 14, 2013 Massama, Portugal Gonçalo A., 15-year-old male student 3 injured 3 Gonçalo A. stabbed three students and a staff member at a school in Massama, Portugal. He told authorities that he wanted to mimic the Columbine and Sandy Hook school shootings.[40]
October 21, 2013 Sparks, Nevada Jose Reyes 2 (including perpetrator), 2 injured 2 2 At approximately 7:15 am, a 12-year-old seventh grade student, Jose Reyes, opened fire with a Ruger 9 mm semi-automatic handgun at Sparks Middle School. A 12-year-old male student was hit in the shoulder and wounded. A teacher, Michael Landsberry, tried to intervene with Reyes and was fatally shot in the chest, while standing on a playground. Reyes then shot and wounded another male student in the abdomen who tried to come to Landsberry's assistance as he fell onto the ground. The shooter then committed suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.[31]
December 13, 2013 Centennial, Colorado Karl Pierson 2 (including perpetrator) 2 18-year-old male student Karl Pierson opened fire with a shotgun at Arapahoe High School, critically wounding a 17-year-old female student, Claire Davis. Pierson then committed suicide by shooting himself.[31]
January 25, 2014 Columbia, Maryland Darion Marcus Aguilar 3 (including perpetrator) 3 Aguilar was obsessed with mass shootings at school and malls. He shot and killed two mall employees before committing suicide. During the attack, he dressed as the Columbine killers.[31]
April 9, 2014 Murrysville, Pennsylvania Alexander Brando Hribal 20 injured 20 Alex Hribal, a sophomore, came to school with two knives. He began roaming the halls and stabbing his classmates and a security guard. Before he was tackled by Sam King, the school's assistant principal, and taken into custody, he had injured 20 people.[31]
April 29, 2014 Kennesaw, Georgia Geddy Kramer 1 killed (perpetrator), 6 injured 1 6 Geddy Kramer, 19, shot and wounded six co-workers at a FedEx facility and then committed suicide. He was reportedly obsessed with the Columbine shootings.[31]
June 5, 2014 Seattle, Washington Aaron Rey Ybarra 1 dead, 2 injured 1 2 Aaron Ybarra killed one and wounded two others during a shooting at Seattle Pacific University. Ybarra was obsessed with the Columbine massacre, and may have visited the school.[31]
August 26, 2015 Moneta, Virginia Vester Flanagan 3 (including perpetrator), 1 injured 3 1 Vester Lee Flanagan II killed Alison Parker and Adam Ward on live television. He later committed suicide. Flanagan expressed an admiration for the Columbine and Virginia Tech shooters.[31]
October 1, 2015 Roseburg, Oregon Chris Harper-Mercer 10 dead (including perpetrator), 7 injured 10 7 Christopher Harper Mercer, 26, shot and killed nine people in a creative writing class at Umpqua Community College, and shot and injured seven additional people. After a brief exchange of gunfire with police, during which he was injured, Mercer shot and killed himself.[31]
October 22, 2015 Trollhättan, Sweden Anton Niclas Pettersson 4 dead (including perpetrator), 1 injured 4 1 On October 22, 2015, 21-year-old Anton Lundin Pettersson attacked Kronan School in Trollhättan, Sweden, with a sword. He killed a teaching assistant and a male student, stabbed another male student and a teacher, and died later of the gunshot wounds he received during his apprehension.[31]
September 28, 2016 Towneville, South Carolina Jesse Osborne 2 dead, 3 injured 2 3 Osborne killed his father and then fired at an elementary school playground where he went to school as a child. He planned to kill more but his gun jammed.[31]
January 29, 2017 Sainte-Foy, Quebec City, Canada Alexandre Bissonnette 6 dead, 19 injured 6 19 Bissonnette committed a mass shooting on the evening of January 29, 2017, at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City. He had been interested in Columbine since the age of 15.[41]
March 16, 2017 Grasse, France Killian Barbey 4 injured 4 The suspect in a French high school shooting allegedly watched videos of American high school attacks in preparation. He has been named a Killian Barbey, 16. Authorities have said that he was heavily armed with a rifle, two handguns and two grenades. The gunfire erupted at the Alexis de Tocqueville high school in Grasse at around 1 p.m. on March 16. The small city is located in the southeastern part of the country, less than 30 miles west of Nice in Alpes-Maritimes. The motive for the attack is "to be determined" by authorities.[31]
June 8, 2017 Eaton Township, Pennsylvania Randy Stair 4 killed (including the perpetrator) 4 24-year-old Randy Stair shot and killed three of his co-workers at Weis Markets before he committed suicide.[31]
September 13, 2017 Rockford, Washington Caleb Joseph Sharpe 1 dead, 3 injured 1 3 Sharpe allegedly killed a fellow student who bullied him, then fired three random shots down hallway that wounded other students.[31]
October 20, 2017 Goiânia, Estado de Goiás, Brasil Unknown 14-year-old male student 2 dead, 2 injured 2 2 The student told police he was inspired by previous school shootings, including the Columbine and Realengo massacres.[42]
December 7, 2017 Aztec, New Mexico William Atchison 3 dead (including perpetrator) 3 On December 7, 2017, gunfire erupted at Aztec High School in Aztec, New Mexico, United States. The shooter, 21-year-old William Atchison, a former student at the school, killed two students, went inside the classroom where students had barricaded themselves in a small office area and shot several magazines, and then committed suicide.[31]
January 17, 2018 Chelyabinsk, Russia Unknown, ninth-grade male 1 injured 1 A ninth-grader stabbed another student at school. The attacker was allegedly a part of an online community that glorified Columbine.[43]
February 14, 2018 Parkland, Florida Nikolas Cruz 17 dead, 17 injured 17 17 On February 14, 2018, a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing seventeen students and staff members and injuring seventeen others.[31]
April 18, 2018 Sterlitmak, Russia Artyom Tagirov 4 injured 4 Tagirov injured four in a stabbing attack in Sterlitmak, Russia. He praised the Columbine attack on social media.[44]
April 20, 2018 Ocala, Florida Sky Bouche 1 injured 1 Sky Bouche, 19, blended in with students and entered the school with a shotgun concealed in a guitar case. He then fired at a classroom door, injuring a 17-year-old boy in the ankle. The school resource officer arrived on the scene within minutes; Bouche was taken into custody without incident.[31]
May 25, 2018 Noblesville, Indiana David Moore 2 injured 0 2 The Noblesville West Middle School shooting occurred on May 25, 2018 in Noblesville, Indiana when a 13-year-old student shot and injured teacher Jason Seaman and student Ella Whistler.[31]
July 22, 2018 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Faisal Hussain 3 (including perpetrator), 13 injured 3 13 Hussain killed two and wounded 13 in a mass shooting on Danforth Avenue in Toronto. In high school, Hussain openly praised the Columbine school shooting. He became obsessed with the 'incel culture,' particularly Elliot Rodger and Alek Minassian.[45]
October 17, 2018 Kerch, Crimea, Russia Vladislav Roslyakov 21 dead (including perpetrator), 70 injured 21 70 The Kerch Polytechnic College massacre was a school shooting and bomb attack that occurred in Kerch, Crimea, on October 17, 2018.[31]
March 13, 2019 Suzano, São Paulo, Brazil Guilherme Taucci Monteiro, Luiz Henrique de Castro 10 dead (including perpetrators), 11 injured 10 11 The Suzano school shooting took place on March 13, 2019, at the Professor Raul Brasil State School in the Brazilian municipality of Suzano, São Paulo State. The perpetrators, Guilherme Taucci Monteiro (17 years old) and Luiz Henrique de Castro (25 years old), both former students at the school, killed five students and two school employees. Before the attack, in a car shop near the school, the pair also killed Monteiro's uncle.[31]
May 7, 2019 Douglas County, Colorado Alec McKinney & Devon Michael Erickson 1 dead, 8 injured 1 8 Erickson and McKinney began researching the Columbine shooting after Sol Pais, a teenage girl obsessed with Columbine, flew to Colorado and committed suicide.[46]
May 27, 2019 Brześć Kujawski, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland Marek Nowak 2 injured 2 An 18-year-old former student known only as Marek Nowak detonated explosives and shot and wounded an 11-year-old girl and a 59-year-old female janitor, at Władysław Łokietek Elementary School. The perpetrator had multiple Columbine-related pictures and internet memes on his Facebook account.[47][48]
May 28, 2019 Volsk, Saratov Region, Russia Daniil Pulkin 1 injured 1 Pulkin committed an axe attack in Volsk, Russia. He was inspired primarily by Vladislav Roslyakov, but also expressed interest in the Columbine and STEM Highland Ranch school shootings.[49]
Prior to June 2, 2019 Merrimack County, New Hampshire Griffin Furlotte 3 injured 3 Furlotte allegedly raped three female students. He had previously threatened to commit a school shooting at Pembroke Academy in Pembroke, New Hampshire; the threats included a reference to the Columbine High School massacre.[50]
January 10, 2020 Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico José Ángel Ramos Betts 2 dead(including the perpetrator), 6 injured 2 6 11 year old José Ángel Ramos Betts opened fire inside a private school in Torreon, Mexico. He killed 1 teacher and wounded 6 others before committing suicide.[51]
January 25, 2020 Chełm, Poland Łukasz Wach 1 dead, 1 injured 1 1 14-year-old Łukasz Wach his family with knife at home, killing stepmother and wounding her son then he coming to local culture house, where he possibly planned attack. He was obsessed with murderers and crimes, and he nicknamed himself "Reb", the online nickname of Harris, in one of his social media accounts.[52][53]

In popular culture[]

Main article: Columbine High School massacre in popular culture

"Columbine" has since become a euphemism for a school shooting, rather like "going postal". A video game called Super Columbine Massacre RPG! was based on the massacre.

The 2016 biographical film I'm Not Ashamed, based on the journals of Rachel Scott, includes glimpses of Harris's and Klebold's lives and interactions with other students at Columbine High School. The 1999 black comedy, Duck! The Carbine High Massacre is inspired by the Columbine massacre.[54] The 2003 Gus Van Sant film Elephant depicts a fictional school shooting, but is based in part on the Columbine massacre.[55] The 2003 Ben Coccio film Zero Day was also based on the massacre.[56]

The first documentary on the massacre may have been the TLC documentary Lost Boys in 2000. The 2002 Michael Moore documentary film Bowling for Columbine won several awards. Also in 2002, A&E made "Columbine: Understanding Why".

Rapper Eminem references the shooting multiple times throughout his discography. Most famously, "I'm Back" off of The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) contained a line about Columbine that was censored.[57] He references this censorship in "Rap God" (The Marshall Mathers LP 2, 2013) and repeats the line, saying it will not be censored this time because he was not as famous as when "I'm Back" was released.

Fred Durst references the Columbine shooting in the Limp Bizkit song "Head for the Barricade", which is on the 2003 album Results May Vary, and the reference wasn't censored on the explicit or edited versions of the album.

In 2004, the shooting was dramatized in the documentary Zero Hour. In 2007, the massacre was documented in an episode of the National Geographic Channel documentary series The Final Report.[58]

The 2009 film April Showers, which was written and directed by Andrew Robinson, who was a senior at Columbine High School during the shooting, was based on Columbine.[59] The 2013 film Kids for Cash about the kids for cash scandal detail it as part of the "zero-tolerance" policy in the wake of the Columbine shootings.

Columbine students, Jonathan and Stephen Cohen wrote a song called Friend of Mine (Columbine), which briefly received airplay in the US after being performed at a memorial service broadcast on USA-wide television. The song was pressed to CD, with the proceeds benefiting families affected by the massacre, and over 10,000 copies were ordered. Shortly following the release of the CD single, the song was also featured on the Lullaby for Columbine CD.[60]

Since the advent of online social media, a fandom for shooters Harris and Klebold has had a documented presence on social media sites, especially Tumblr.[61] Fans of Harris and Klebold refer to themselves as "Columbiners."[62] An article published in 2015 in the Journal of Transformative Works, a scholarly journal which focuses on the sociology of fandoms, noted that Columbiners were not fundamentally functionally different from more mainstream fandoms. Columbiners create fan art and fan fiction, and have a scholarly interest in the shooting.[63]

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