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On April 20, 1999, a school shooting and attempted bombing occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, 12th grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher. Ten students were killed in the school library, where Harris and Klebold subsequently committed suicide. Twenty-one additional people were injured by gunshots, and gunfire was also exchanged with the police. Another three people were injured trying to escape. At the time, it was the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, until the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018. It is also the deadliest mass shooting in the state of Colorado. Harris and Klebold had intended for the attack to primarily be a bombing and secondarily a shooting, but the failed detonation of the several homemade bombs they planted in the school caused the pair to launch a shooting attack. Two bombs were set up as diversions at another location away from the school, one of which partially detonated. The motive remains inconclusive; however, they had planned the attack for at least a year and hoped to have a large number of victims. The police were slow to enter the school and were heavily criticized for not intervening during the shooting. The incident resulted in the introduction of the IARD tactic, which is used in active shooter situations. Columbine also resulted in an increased emphasis on school security with zero tolerance policies. Debates and moral panic were sparked over American gun culture and gun control laws, high school cliques, subcultures (e.g. goths), outcasts, and school bullying, as well as teenage use of pharmaceutical antidepressants, the internet, and violence in video games and movies. Many makeshift memorials were created after the massacre, including victims Rachel Scott's car and John Tomlin's truck. Fifteen crosses for the victims and the shooters were also erected on top of a hill in Clement Park. The crosses for Harris and Klebold were removed later following controversy. The Columbine Memorial began planning as a permanent memorial in June 1999 and opened to the public in September 2007. The shooting has inspired dozens of copycat killings, dubbed the Columbine effect, including many deadlier shootings across the world. The word "Columbine" has become a byword for school shootings. Perpetrators Eric Harris Eric David Harris (April 9, 1981 – April 20, 1999) was born in Wichita, Kansas. The Harris family relocated often, as Harris' father was a U.S. Air Force transport pilot. His mother was a homemaker. The family moved from Plattsburgh, New York, to Littleton, Colorado, in July 1993, when his father retired from military service.The Harris family lived in rented accommodations for the first three years that they lived in the Littleton area. During this time, he attended Ken Caryl Middle School, and Harris met Klebold. In 1996, the Harris family purchased a house south of CHS. His older brother attended college at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dylan Klebold Dylan Bennet Klebold ( KLEE-bohld; September 11, 1981 – April 20, 1999) was born in Lakewood, Colorado. His parents were pacifists and attended a Lutheran church with their children. Both Dylan and his older brother Byron attended confirmation classes in accordance with the Lutheran tradition. As had been the case with his older brother, Klebold was named after a renowned poet – in his case the playwright Dylan Thomas.At the family home, the Klebolds also observed some rituals in keeping with Klebold's maternal grandfather's Jewish heritage. Klebold attended Normandy Elementary in Littleton, Colorado for first and second grade before transferring to Governor's Ranch Elementary, and became part of the CHIPS ("Challenging High Intellectual Potential Students") program. Background Criminal history In 1996, 15-year-old Eric Harris created a private website on America Online (AOL). It was initially to host levels (also known as WADs) Harris created for use in the first-person shooter video games Doom and Doom II, as well as Quake occasionally. On the site, Harris began a blog. It included details about Harris sneaking out of the house to cause mischief and vandalism, such as lighting fireworks, with his friend Dylan Klebold and others. These were known as "Rebel Missions", and Harris' blog primarily consisted of "mission logs". Beginning in early 1997, the blog postings began to show the first signs of Harris' anger against society. By the end of the year, the site contained instructions on how to make explosives. Harris' site attracted few visitors and caused no concern until August 1997. Harris ended a blog post detailing murderous fantasies with "All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you as I can, especially a few people. Like Brooks Brown." Brown was a classmate of his. After Brown's parents viewed the site, they contacted the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office on August 7, 1997. An investigator wrote a draft affidavit to request a search warrant for the Harris household, but it was never submitted to a judge.On January 30, 1998, Harris and Klebold were arrested for breaking into a white van parked near Littleton and stealing tools and computer equipment. They would subsequently attend a joint court hearing, where they pled guilty to the felony theft. The judge sentenced them to a juvenile diversion program. As a result, both delinquents attended mandatory classes such as anger management and talked with diversion officers. They both were eventually released from diversion several weeks early because of positive actions in the program and put on probation. Writings Shortly after the court hearing for the van break-in, Harris reverted his website back to just hosting user-created levels of Doom. He began to write his thoughts down in a journal instead. In both their journals, Harris and Klebold would later plot the attack. Soon after beginning his journal, Harris typed out one plan of attack which included possibly escaping to a foreign country after the massacre, or hijacking an aircraft at Denver International Airport and crashing it into New York City.Klebold had already been keeping a personal journal since March 1997; as early as November of that year, Klebold had mentioned going on a killing spree. Klebold used his journal to vent about his personal problems as well as what he'd wear and use during the attack.Harris also made entries on topics such as his sexuality in his journal, where he described the desire for sex with women, especially his desire of raping and torturing them in his bedroom. Harris also expressed interest in cannibalism and stated that he would like to dismember a woman whom he could have sex with.Harris and Klebold's schoolwork also foreshadowed the massacre. They both displayed themes of violence in their creative writing projects. In December 1997, Harris wrote a paper on school shootings titled "Guns in School.... Discover the Amir Levine Rachel Heller popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Amir Levine Rachel Heller books.