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Over 19 years ago on April 20th, 1999, a tragedy occurred. Two seniors whose names were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a killing spree that the two had been planning for over a year. This killing spree would result in the murders of twelve of their classmates and one teacher. The two teenagers also injured 24 other students, 21 were injured by gunfire and 3 were injured attempting to escape. The two boys would spend only minutes actively shooting at their classmates before turning the guns on themselves and ending their own lives.
The Columbine massacre resulted in the ongoing media debate regarding laws that have to do with gun control, how simple and easy it was to get guns in the U.S., and gun violence involving children. This story had managed to captivate the media and people around the world.
Throughout the weeks after the shooting had taken place, many conflicting theories had come to light about what could have possibly driven two seniors to plan and carry out a mass shooting at their own high school.
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In a futile attempt to make some kind of sense out of the tragedy, parents, reporters, and people around the world attempted to place blame and responsibility on a variety of different subjects. People had attempted to put the responsibility on everything from violence in video games and television to violent and graphic music played everyday on the radio. None of it ever stuck and even today, people aren’t quite sure what would make two teenagers want to kill their own classmates and friends.
One of the biggest issues brought up by the shooting was gun control. Gun control is the set of laws that regulates the manufacture, sale, possession, and use of firearms within a particular legal jurisdiction, such as a country or state.
Most gun laws in developed nations in the twenty-first century ban civilians from owning automatic weapons. They also require individuals to obtain firearm licenses and submit to background checks before they can own a gun ('Gun Control.' Gale Student Resources in Context). After the shooting, many people wondered why it was so easy for two underage boys to gain access to guns and other kinds of weapons. Why was it so simple for two underage teenagers in high school to get their hands on weapons that were capable of killing countless individuals? One of the ideas that people thought of throughout this event was that it was easy to assume children and teenagers often view guns as an accessory and not as a weapon that can be capable of terrible things like murder. Whether people like to admit it or not, this is a country that loves violence. The NRA came under fire after the Columbine shooting because they had planned and carried out a rally only two weeks after the Columbine shooting despite being asked to cancel the event by the students and parents of Columbine.
The NRA has had a major influence on the gun policy in the government, and it began decades ago, “The NRA's path into political lobbying began in 1934 when it began mailing members with information about upcoming firearms bills. The association supported two major gun control acts, the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) and Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), but became more politically active following the passage of the GCA in the 1970s” (“US Gun Control: What Is the NRA and Why Is It so Powerful?” BBC News, BBC). In 1975 the NRA began attempting to influence policy directly by forming the Institute for Legislative Action, and in 1977 it formed its own Political Action Committee to channel funds to legislators (“US Gun Control: What Is the NRA and Why Is It so Powerful?” BBC News, BBC).
The debate about whether to enforce gun control on people or not has caused much controversy for decades, with people who advocate for gun control saying it could curb gun violence around the country, and individuals against gun control citing the 2nd amendment that gives them the right to bear arms. In the late 1990s the states started enforcing stricter laws regarding guns in America, “about a half dozen states have some kind of 'assault weapon' law. The administration imposed many other restrictions, especially on gun dealers” (Kopel, “Gun Control”). People will always fight about gun control and whether we should change the policy surrounding it or not, but one thing that no one can debate over is that America is a country full of violence and chaos, and no one has successfully done anything to stop it. Many times throughout the book there are instances where the boys did things that should have been flagged as aggressive and violent towards other people.
There were countless times where they should have been questioned about the things they said and wrote, in their English classes both boys wrote stories in graphic detail about hurting animals and killing people. They weren’t caught by anyone until the names of the people they were reading about were murdered. Another sign that something was going on with one of the boys was the website that Eric frequently wrote on where he would praise Hitler and often post violent and graphic rants talking about harming his classmates. Eric was especially aggressive towards other people, and was reported by the parents of Brooks Brown several times, but nothing was ever done about it. Maybe if someone from the police force had looked into Eric’s case and paid attention to his pattern of behavior then there might have been a chance that this tragedy could have been averted. The shooting at Columbine High School will without a doubt, go down in America as one of the most horrific things to happen in its history. More than 20 people lost their lives that day, and since then hundreds of people have lost their lives in school shootings.
Columbine Response Paper. (2022, Jan 28). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/columbine-response-paper-essay
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