I just finished COLUMBINE by Dave Cullen.

[raccoon]

I recommend it. Much of what the general public came to believe about Columbine are just myths.


"We remember Columbine," Cullen writes, "as a pair of outcast Goths from the Trench Coat Mafia snapping and tearing through their high school hunting down jocks to settle a long-running feud. Almost none of that happened. No Goths, no outcasts, nobody snapping. No targets, no feud, and no Trench Coat Mafia. Most of those elements existed at Columbine -- which is what gave them such currency. They just had nothing to do with the murders."

Far from feckless pariahs, in fact, the two shooters in the Columbine case...were smart, reasonably popular kids who doled out more bullying than they ever suffered. Their shooting spree was not some precipitous act of revenge against specific tormentors, but more like an elaborately planned theater piece, worked out almost a year in advance, designed to demonstrate their innate superiority by indiscriminately killing as many victims as possible. (The killers),moreover, were hardly cookie-cutter assassins. As Cullen depicts him, Harris was a sadistic and expertly manipulative psychopath, charming when he wanted to be…

http://www.amazon.com/Columbine-Dave-Cullen/dp/0446546933

[NJCher]

1. I heard him on a radio interview

It definitely sounds like a book worth reading. I believe he was interviewed by Ian Punnett on Coast to Coast.


Cher

[onehandle]

2. All the more reason to register and track every firearm in America...

...plus lock up illegal gun sellers and those who buy guns for others and throw away the key.

[xchrom]

3. that book is indeed a bit of an eye opener re the shooters. nt

[applegrove]

4. I didn't think the two psychopaths were goths? I thought they were just trenchcoat

mafia and sickos.

[Sequoia]

5. Wow! I just picked up my hold copy from the library.

[HelenWheels]

6. The book is bullshit!

He changed the definition of bullying to fit his agenda. If you watch "Bowling for Columbine" his classmates say the two were bullied.

It wasn't about the guns it was about being tormented for 12 years. Just because they had a few friends doesn't eliminate the pain of being tortured with the consent of the staff - adults that are supposed to protect you.

The author has no knowledge about what went on before the shooting happened.

[Name removed]

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