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The event triggered debate on gun laws in the United States that continues to this day in the face of more and more school shootings.
Twenty years ago today on April 20, 1999, two twelfth grade students of the Columbine High School in the state of Colorado, United States, bombed and shot up their school, killing 12 students and one teacher, and injuring scores of others.
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While the attack was not the first mass shooting to take place in the United States, the massacre was the worst school attack in the history of the country at the time.
It was also unique in its meticulous planning and use of weapons meant to create as much chaos and destruction as possible, as well as having the most victims.
The pair of students who plotted the attack both committed suicide on the scene before police could capture them but left behind mountains of evidence and paraphernalia, including journals, videos, and how-to guides on bomb making.
According to psychologists and researchers studying the “Columbine Effect,”numerous copycat attacks were based on the model of this attack:
Researchers Jillian Peterson and James Densley wrote, “Since the 1999 tragedy in Littleton, Colorado, we identified six mass shootings and 40 active shooter incidents at elementary, middle or high schools in the United States. Mass shootings are defined by the FBI as an event in which four or more victims died by gunfire. In 20 – or nearly half – of those 46 school shootings, the perpetrator purposely used Columbine as a model.”
The event also triggered debate on gun laws in the United States that continues to this day in the face of more and more school shootings.
In 2002, filmmaker and activist Michael Moore released a documentary called "Bowling for Columbine” in which he showed on camera how easy it can be to acquire a gun in the United States.
Today, victims continue to live with the trauma of the shooting, and still “think about it every day” according to CBS Evening News
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