Teenage Rampage. School shootings / Aus der Reihe: e-fellows.net stipendiaten-wissen Bd.Band 874 (PDF)

Pre-University Paper from the year 2007 in the subject Didactics - English - Applied Geography, grade: 1,1, , language: English, abstract: "After I mow down a whole area full of you snotty-ass rich motherfucker high-strung God-like-attitude-having worthless pieces of shit whores, I don't care if I live or die." With provocative quotes like this one, Eric Harris announced his merciless school shooting. Together with Dylan Klebold, he committed the Columbine massacre - the worst carnage ever perpetrated by teenagers in the United States. On 18 April, 1999, the two youngsters entered Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, heavily armed. Their arsenal included "two sawn off shotguns, [a] 9mm Hi-Point carbine rifle, [a] TEC-DC-9 semi-automatic pistol and a total of 95 explosive devices." Regardless of the consequences Harris and Klebold methodically killed their fellow students. A total of thirteen dead and twenty-three wounded people was the sad result of this atrocious act. After the bloodbath the American people wondered why warning signs were not taken serious and how such a bloody deed could take place in a suburban area in Colorado. Even so, the Columbine massacre was not a singular instance, it was the incident that drew attention to school shootings. Before the deadly homicide Eric Harris recorded a message saying "People will die because of me ... It will be a day that will be remembered forever." Tragically, he was proved right. People all over the world kept the shooting in mind and, in addition to it, the idiom 'pull a Columbine' was append to the American encyclopedia. Because of the fatal carnage, people became aware of a big problem in society. There have been heated controversies about the homicides themselves questioning if the legal custodian, violent music, weapons of the shooters or the system of cliques which is part of the normal high school life should be blamed. Also, the aftermaths of the schoolyard shootings and prevention methods which should be introduced were discussed in public. The following paper will give a valuable insight into the topic.