The Columbine High School tragedy … 12 years later
By Lynn R. Mitchell | Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 | Catch-AllMy latest today at the Washington Examiner:
Twelve years ago, on the quiet spring morning of April 20, 1999, in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, a vicious shooting attack was unleashed on students and faculty at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
Hitting the airwaves for all to see, it unnerved parents nationwide as two students, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, went on a shooting rampage that would kill twelve students and one teacher, injure 21, and end with the suicides of the two killers.
Columbine was an unnerving time for America. Sadly, almost eight years later to the day, the Virginia Tech massacre occurred.
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About the author
As SWAC Girl (an acronym for Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County), Lynn has been writing in the Virginia political blogosphere since 2006. Active in area politics, she has coordinated campaigns and served in leadership for the past decade. The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is one of the most beautiful places to call home ... the Republican Party carries her beliefs.
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5 Responses to "The Columbine High School tragedy … 12 years later"
I remember April 20, 1999, Hitler’s Birthday, vividly. I was working as a management consultant and was in my home office working on a deliverable when the news broke on CNN. What astonished me most was the non-response of the local police. Officers quickly arrived at the scene, but with the exception of trading a few shots with one of the killers, they remained outside the school and made no effort to enter it and engage the shooters. They were facing kids no heavily armed than they were–in fact the shooters had less firepower than the local cops probably had in their patrol cars. Instead, they “secured the perimeter” and waited 45 minutes for a SWAT team to arrive and deploy. Later investigations determined that 10 of the 13 people that Klebold and Harris murdered were killed during that 45 minute delay.
Our police departments in this country have become a hybrid of traffic officers and paramilitary units. Whenever there is an actual criminal event, be it a school shooting, a bank robbery, or a drug bust, uniformed officers “secure the perimeter” and wait for the paramilitary unit to arrive and engage the criminals. This is why Second Amendment rights are so important. When seconds count, the police might be minutes away. But the ones who will actually engage violent criminals might not be along for an hour or so.
The April event I recall most vividly is April 19th, 1993, when Janet Reno and Bill Clinton used military weaponry to attack the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas. More children were killed during that attackthan Columbine. My gut ached when I turned on the television that afternoon and saw tanks shooting holes into wood framed buildings full of civilians.
Sorry, Johnny, but they weren’t tanks and they didn’t have guns. They were M88A1 Tank Recovery Vehicles and they were punching holes into buildings with their lifting booms, not firing tank rounds.
The children and adults who died at Waco were killed by David Koresh, not by the Federal authorities. Koresh and his followers had previously ambushed and murdered four ATF agents who went to the compound to serve a search warrant.
How dare you equate such a tragic event with the Columbine murders? Are you trying to associate Federal law enforcement with Klebold and Harris? If so, you need to seek psychiatric help before you turn into another Tim McVeigh.
HR: Well said.
When authorities with a valid arrest warrant tell you to come out and give yourself up and you instead barricade yourself and fire at them, you deserve whatever happens to you next. And that’s true no matter which side of the political spectrum you are on (although aside from “crazy” and “cultish,” I confess I’m not really clear what the Branch Dravidians political philosophy was).
I do not excuse what they did, but from my limited knowledge and from the footage i’ve seen , i really think longterm emotional bullying was a major cause of what happened. i think high school cliques are dangerously alienating and the American preoccupation with venerating those who excel at sports equally problematic. American High Schools need to get their students in uniform and make kindness and anti-bullying a focus of their curriculum,
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