19 years ago…

The Colombine HS shootings took place. And things have gone downhill ever since.

One GOOD thing that happened was a review of police procedures nationwide based on the LEO response and caused numerous changes to active shooter response protocols, as LawDog discusses, HERE.

Another thing that happened was the wall to wall coverage, and the media hunt for blame, scapegoats, and finger pointing over the 13 dead and 23 injured. That the two shooters shot themselves was ‘explained’ away. And this was, to my memory, the first focus on the ‘evil guns’ rather than those who committed the acts…

The History channel has a pretty good précis of all the stuff, HERE.

And I’m proud of the current crop of students at Columbine for standing up to those from Parkland calling for another walkout, HERE.

And the mental health issues STILL haven’t been addressed… Dammit…

 

Comments

19 years ago… — 9 Comments

  1. I remember the resulting fear in schools across the nation on that terrible Columbine day — and afterwards, too. The homeschooling movement really took off like a rocket that following September, and my homeschool classes were packed to the max. I suspect that the same thing happened with private schools.

  2. I can’t possibly be the fault of the psychoactive medications handed out like candy to boys to make them act more like girls.

  3. AOW- I believe you are correct. And private schools immediately increased security!

    McC- Good point!

    Grog- Thanks, I had forgotten about that one. I was OCONUS when that happened and it didn’t get a lot of coverage where I was.

  4. At the time, the Colorado Legislature was in session and several firearms related bills were being considered. They were left in limbo. It was years before the next chance came along. While in session, the Aurora Theater nutjob did his thing. Coincidence? Who knows.

    Regarding Columbine, the school resource officer, Officer Gardner, did trade shots with one of the doers. That Officer Gardner was woefully unprepared aside, he didn’t shirk IMO. The rest of what went down??? Lawdog is right.

  5. Nice post.

    I know that at least one person bled to death because police refused to enter the school building, and they refused to allow the ER people entry. That man could have been saved.

    The cops did a shameful job that day. I can only imagine the reaction of my own parents if I were trapped in a school building with an active shooter – either parent would have armed themselves and gone inside to get me out, police and officialdom be damned.

    I don’t know what happened to the cops that failed to go inside and do what they’re paid to do. Likely nothing at all. But cops are always stating that they ‘put their life on the line’, then this happens. Another prime example is the Florida shooting, where the cops hid until the shooting stopped.

    Thanks for the post, Old NFO.

  6. Which reminds me- need to register the gas tanks I use with my grill. The Columbine killers built shrapnel bombs using those tanks – but they didn’t go off.

  7. They made the first big try to take guns away from Americans on April 19, 1775. Thankfully, there was about a century and a half respite from further attempts of that sort by the central government. Admittedly, there were a few changes of government over the intervening years.