Why 4/20?

Several reasons are speculated for why the attack happened on April 20. A smart person can think any one of them. But I want to go through them and then conclude with what seems to me most likely:

Hitler's birthday is the most infamous. But did anybody know that was Hitler's birthday before the attack? It seems the attack is why people know that, meaning the perps would not have known that. Indeed, for true, card-carrying the Nazis, the date viewed with most reverence is November 9, the date of the Beer Hall Putsch, rather than the birthday of the Fuehrer.

Supposedly, they said April 19 was going to be the date for the attack. The evidence for this is interpretation of the Basement Tapes, saying it's "7 and 1/3 days" on April 11. It seems a little flimsy, given we haven't seen them, I have to wonder if  the viewer or the perps math was off.  But I will take it for granted. April 19th is:

1775, the day of Lexington and Concord.  Columbine's fight name is the Rebels, as in Revolutionary War rebels. Eric said we needed to kickstart the revolution.

1993, Waco burning

1995, the Oklahoma City Bombing, due to the prior two dates.

There's also how 4/20 is the day for weed, and similarly a day for "senior pranks". As others have remarked, kids are holding up 420 in the senior photo.  Also, while cannabis and the perps are not  often mentioned together, it seems that's because we are relying on figures like their parents rather than their friends. Dylan's brother was supposedly kicked out for smoking pot, and Eric's "Berserk" was his weed pipe he kept in his pocket.  They weren't shy about cigarettes and booze.

However, on those same Basement Tape transcripts, Eric says he's wondering whether to do the attack "before or after prom".  That means the week before the attack was in play as well - the prom was the prior weekend. That means they entertained doing the attack on any of April 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, or 23.  

In fact, in all of their writings, they are committed to "April" from early on, and are no more specific than "Some time in April" Eric says in NBK.doc "The holy April morning of NBK" says Dylan. "Heh, get this. KMFDM’s new album’s entitled “Adios” and its release date is in April." says Eric, and so on.  And if it was to wait as long as possible to plan or whatever, they could have attacked in May.

So what was in April, but before the 12th through the 23rd? Of course, Eric's 18th birthday on April 9.

In NBK.doc, Eric is not even sure they would be able to get guns. That seems the obvious reason in retrospect.

Imagine they never got Robyn to vouch for them at the Tanner gun show. When would they have gotten the guns then?  They would have had to wait until Eric was 18. That's a far more practical reason. That's where I cast my lots for why April.

And of course, if that is right, that shows birthdays were on their mind, which comes full circle by bringing back up Hitler's birthday.

They never mentioned it being Hitler's birthday in their journals or the basement tapes transcripts, so I doubt that's it. Didn't Mark Manes forget to buy ammo for Eric, so that delayed it from 4/19 to 4/20? It was supposed to be a bombing, so them doing it on the anniversary of OKC makes a lot of sense in that regard.

fishbulb wrote:

They never mentioned it being Hitler's birthday in their journals or the basement tapes transcripts, so I doubt that's it. Didn't Mark Manes forget to buy ammo for Eric, so that delayed it from 4/19 to 4/20? It was supposed to be a bombing, so them doing it on the anniversary of OKC makes a lot of sense in that regard.

They also uploaded several pictures to the school server the day before the attack, including Swastikas and Charles Manson and Nazi references, but no Hitler.

In short, no, Mark Manes didn't delay the attack. Willowtree360 on the reddit is a researcher I respect who specializes in refuting that particular theory, but you are right to bring it up.

That it was supposed to be a bombing rather than merely a shooting is of course true and crucial, but the usual story to account for that "Oklahoma City bombing and the Anarchists Cookbook" for the influence on the MO and bomb design is just false and a result of journalists not playing video games.

Aside from aspiring for the highest body count which by inference meant surpassing OKC, there's only a single explicit mention of it of which I am aware, when Eric says "[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]"   and as you can see I think he means only the car bombs - which I think were still designed with bombs out of Duke Nukem 3d put in a car.  Even if you don't like my interpretation - he mentions it among 5 other things.

I suppose one could reasonably argue it's the only one of those with a specific date attached. Then I would press Eric said he could do it before or after prom. And that they were committed to the date since before they knew they'd have guns.  Robyn helping them out wasn't fated. They would have had to plan on possibly waiting until one of them was 18. It's the simplest explanation.

Plus the attack itself as a birthday present for Eric, or for him to do to show he was a man at 18. That seems to me a possible reason his last journal entry emphasizes "eric KID".