Columbine High School massacre

The **Columbine High School massacre** was a school shooting and attempted bombing at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, near Denver, that happened on April 20, 1999. 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold carried out the massacre and were both students at the school. They murdered 12 students and one teacher using guns. Ten of the murders happened in the school's library, where they then killed themselves with their guns. Before the shootings, they had planted two large propane bombs in the school's cafeteria. They could have killed many people in there, but they did not explode. They also planted two car bombs in the school's parking lot, which were supposed to kill first responders and news reporters. They also did not explode. They also carried pipe bombs and molotov cocktails, which they lit and threw. Most of them exploded but nobody was injured or killed by any of the bombs used during the massacre. They shot outside killing 2 student and then went inside where they shot killing 1 teacher then went inside the library where they killed 10 students then walked about the school into the cafeteria through the school again then back into the cafeteria again before going into the library and committing suicide.

It was one of the first well-known massacres at a school in the United States, and the one with the most deaths until the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.

Newspapers and news channels said that the school is in Littleton, but this is not true. The post office address of the school says "Littleton, CO".

## Aftermath

After the shooting, many people wanted to know why it had happened. Many people thought that Klebold and Harris had done it because they were bullied, and schools in the United States began talking about how to stop bullying. However, it is now thought that Klebold and Harris were bullies themselves. Other people blamed parts of the media, saying that the lyrics of bands and singers like Marilyn Manson and violent video games that the shooters played might have caused it.

In 2002, filmmaker Michael Moore released a documentary movie called _Bowling for Columbine_ that was about why the shooting happened and about the role guns have in American culture. In the movie, Moore interviewed Marilyn Manson.

### Memorials

Many impromptu memorials were created after the shooting. Memorials included victims Rachel Scott's car and John Tomlin's truck.

In 2000, youth advocate Melissa Helmbrecht organized a remembrance event in Denver. It featured two surviving students. It was called "A Call to Hope." The library (where most of the shooting happened) was removed and replaced with an atrium. In 2001, a new library, the HOPE memorial library, was built next to the west entrance.

On February 26, 2004, thousands of pieces of evidence from the shooting were shown at the Jeffco fairgrounds in Golden.

## Related pages

- Mass shootings in the United States

## Infobox (civilian attack)

- **title**: Columbine High School massacre
- **location**: Columbine, Colorado, U.S.
- **target**: Students and staff at Columbine High School; and first responders
- **timezone**: Mountain Time Zone, MDT (UTC−06:00, UTC−6)
- **type**: School shooting, mass murder, murder–suicide, arson, improvised explosive device, attempted bombing, shootout, terrorism
- **fatalities**: 16 (including both perpetrators and a victim who died in 2025)
- **injuries**: 23 (20 by Gunfire)
- **perps**: Eric Harris (18 years old) and Dylan Klebold (17 years old)
- **motive**: Unknown, but it looked like Eric Harris, Harris had psychopathy,  Dylan Klebold, Klebold had Major depressive disorder, depression, and possibly terrorism
- **numparts**: 2