Columbine - book

Columbine, by Dave Cullen (Twelve, New York, 2009). This is not a book I would have read had it not been urged on me by my son. It is an interesting work. How could it not be interesting? An account of the most famous High School shooting tragedy ever to occur, Cullen has been pursuing the truth about what happened for nine years. He has researched the vast amount of material available in written form, along with the extensive audio and video tapes left by the perpetrators themselves. He deftly weaves the preparations for the killings into what was going on the boys’ lives at the time, and he offers a fairly detailed time line leading up to the event itself. He also writes extensively on how the media and the public reacted to these horrendous events. I would probably not have read it without the urging because I had either seen or heard an account of it elsewhere so I knew basically what the conclusions were. But if you want details you can certainly find them here. I think it is a bit too detailed for my taste but it is fascinating for many reasons.

One thing that struck me is that I think the book could have had a subtitle: Columbine The Big Book of Failure. I say this because the book is a detailed account of not only the prelude to the shooting, but also a detailed account of how virtually everyone got virtually everything wrong from the beginning. The two shooters, Erik Harris and Dylan Klebold, failed in their major goal, which was not merely a school shooting, but a major terrorist attack designed to kill hundreds of students and teachers. When the bombs that Erik designed failed to explode, the two were left merely shooting at individuals, throwing some small pipe bombs, and unable to fulfill their dreams of rivaling the Oklahoma bombing. The police and the Swat teams failed to organize quickly under a single command and wasted a great deal of time before actually entering the building. In one case they delayed something like three hours even though a teacher was reported bleeding to death. They also failed to realize for a long time that there were in fact only two shooters, believing there were more and searching for them. They failed also by reporting to the press what they thought it was all about, rather than the actual facts of the matter. Thus even to this day, for those who have not read this account, people believe the two were getting revenge for being bullied (they were not), they think it was some conflict between the “jocks” and the two boys (it was not), they think the boys were part of a larger group that wore trench coats (they were not), they believe the boys were just a couple of loners or losers with few friends (they were not), they think they were poor students (they were not), and they likely think they suddenly snapped for some reason (which they did not), some think there was something wrong with the families (it doesn’t seem so), and so on. But the press and TV snapped up whatever they were told and immediately announced it to the public who accepted it all without question.

Both Erik and Dylan planned this event for at least a year in advance, rather meticulous planning that involved accumulating explosives, guns, ammunition, and so forth. And both of them leaked their plans widely to some of their friends. Most of their friends didn’t take them seriously, and the two or three that did, and reported their behavior saw nothing come of it. One could also argue that the parents failed to see clearly enough what was happening. Dylan was often drunk in his room at night on vodka and revealed some of his thoughts on his computer. Both of them were arrested for breaking into a van and stealing some things, and were put on probation for a time. They were also reported for ravaging the homes of students they did not like. Their parents were aware of this, but obviously not aware of all their plans, and what parents want to think the worst of their sons? Those friends and acquaintances who helped them acquire guns and ammo, even though they were underage, obviously did not think carefully about what they might be doing. The police and County Sheriff was aware of their nefarious doings but they, too, did not give it sufficient thought or investigation. And when it came time to explain what happened they lied, especially the Sheriff, whose lies were not fully revealed until much too late. If you look at the parents’ intentions you cannot fault them, but if you look at their results you are led to wonder what truly transpired in those families.

One might also say that this book itself is a failure. Of course in most respects it has to be seen as a success, and it will quite likely be the definitive account of Columbine for a very long time. But if the goal of the book is to explain why this even happened, and why the two boys were as they were, it was doomed to fail from the beginning. First, the book, along with everyone else involved, was looking for a profile. But as the author finally concludes, there simply is no such profile, most of these cases are pretty unique. I believe the author does a super job of convincing everyone that Erik Harris was a psychopath. He runs through the symptoms, and illustrates them in Erik’s behavior, and makes an entirely convincing diagnosis of psychopathology. But of course there is no explanation for why it is that Erik became a psychopath. He clearly was, and he was the one who did most of the planning and gloating, and looking forward to the violence he was unleashing, that in his mind would make him famous. The case of Dylan might be seen as either much simpler, or very complicated. He was a personally troubled youngster, confused about his place in the world even though he was bright and a good student. He thought about love and about a girl who he mostly worshipped from afar, being too shy to really approach her. He often spoke of suicide, but apparently no one took him seriously except Erik. It appears that he went along with Erik’s plan as a way to end it all. Once he was “in,” it was out of his hands. And although he did kill some of the students, he fired his weapons relatively little compared with Erik. In the end, with their grandiose plan a failure, but with plenty of blood on their hands, both boys committed suicide.

What we seem to have here, boiled down to its essence, is a “bad seed,” who attracted one follower at least long enough to pull off a dramatic, sort of anticlimactic school shooting that was meant to be a full-blown terrorist attack. Erik himself seemed to be aware of this. Speaking of the trouble this would cause his parents, he concludes in a video tape rant, they could not have stopped him. Then he insightfully quotes Shakespeare: “Good wombs have borne bad sons.”