Dr. Jaclyn Schildkraut, an author and an educator of criminal justice at the State University of New York at Oswego, joins Tim to talk about Columbine, 20 years after that tragic day. Dr. Schildkraut is an expert on mass shootings and is the author of “Columbine, 20 Years Later and Beyond: Lessons in Tragedy."

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Columbine_auphonic.mp3

On April 20th, 1999, two high school teenagers in Littleton, Colorado did something that irreversibly changed the way parents think when they send their kids off to school each morning. And they gave the name of their school a new, tragic symbolic meaning, one that it never wanted.

Columbine.

The killers were both seniors at the school. They were scheduled to graduate in just a few months. Here’s what happened. They wore trench coats that morning, and they carried a small arsenal of weapons in their cars.

At 11:10 a.m., they walked into the school cafeteria with two duffel bags. Each bag contained a 20-pound propane bomb that was set on a timer to explode at 11:17 a.m.They boys then went back outside to their cars to watch for the explosions. Nothing happened. The bombs did not explode as they had planned.That was when they went to plan B. They went back into the school, only this time with guns.They carried submachine pistols, a carbine, a sawed-off, double-barreled shotgun, 99 home-made explosives and four knives.One of the killers’ girlfriend was 18-year-old Columbine student. She had bought the guns for the boys at a Gun Show.At roughly 11:19 a.m., the boys began shooting fellow students outside of the school.The two quickly moved inside the school, where they gunned down many of their victims in the school’s library.By about 11:35 a.m., the killers had already killed 12 students and a teacher. They had wounded more than 20 other people.The event ended almost as quickly as it began in roughly 15 minutes. Just after 12 Noon, the two teens turned their guns on themselves.

These killings changed the way Americans look at school safety and sparked a level of debate over school safety and gun control that continues to this day. Several investigations found that the Columbine killers chose their victims at random.

Classes at Columbine High School did not resume for the rest of that academic year, but the school did reopen in the Fall of 1999 and is still open today.

Some have said that the killers in these situations should not get the attention they seem to crave, and that more of the attention should be on the victims. To effectively look back at the Columbine killings, we will have to talk about the killers in this episode, their motives and their actions, but as we do, it is important to remember the 13 innocent victims who were killed and the 20 who were injured.(In order of how they were killed)

Rachel ScottDaniel RohrboughDave Sanders (teacher)Kyle VelasquezSteven CurnowCassie BernallIsaiah ShoelsMatthew KechterLauren TownsendJohn TomlinKelly FlemingDaniel MauserCorey DePooter

Columbine Killers’ MotivesSome have speculated that they considered themselves social outcasts and were fascinated with Goth culture. Much speculation included a range of explanations. They were bullied. They played violent video games. They listened to music that had an influence on them.None of these theories were proven.

The “Trench coat Mafia” myth was due to their wearing trench coats, but it turned out they wore the coats only to hide their weapons.

The killers left journals and videos that have helped investigators, psychologists and other specialists study these types of killers and work to create preventative measures or response measures for the future.The ResponseThe police and emergency medical services and others arrived on campus within minutes of the attacks, but they couldn’t determine how many killers were involved,