When did you first become interested in Columbine?

Note: I just joined and I'm a little unfamiliar with how forums worked. I searched to see if anyone posted this topic before and nothing came up so I figured I'd start a thread. Sorry if it's been done before and I missed it.

When did you first become interested in Columbine?

On 4/20/1999, I was in Kindergarten and don't remember anything about it. It wasn't until around 2005-2006 when I saw the animated short film "Autumn Tree", which is inspired by the massacre, that I became aware of the event. Twice now at my school, I've attended presentations given by Craig Scott, one of the survivors. Another student I befriended at school coincidentally meet Dylan a few times when she was a child, as her aunt and Dylan's mother were friends. I've been researching and involved with it ever since.

Here's a few threads you can read where we've discussed this in the past.

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Jenn wrote:

Here's a few threads you can read where we've discussed this in the past.

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Cool. Thanks a lot.

At the time of the Virginia Tech shooting (April 16 2007) is how I heard about Columbine and it all started from there ......

I'm with sororityalpha, when Virginia tech happened...I hard a lot references to Columbine. I became obsessed. I was a freshman in high school when the massacre happened and I still remember watching it all over the news.

After listening to TeenWitch.

Serial Chiller wrote:

After listening to TeenWitch.

Sesh!

Falcolus wrote:

Serial Chiller wrote:

After listening to TeenWitch.

Sesh!

lol, i didn't think i'd actually find another fan.

Serial Chiller wrote:

Falcolus wrote:

Serial Chiller wrote:

After listening to TeenWitch.

Sesh!

lol, i didn't think i'd actually find another fan.

oh man ever since falcolus said about that album on here somewhere I can't stahp listening

@Serial Chiller, BONES is one of my favorite rappers, there are plenty of fans!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], Yeah its a good album, and he clearly did some research with the lyrical content too.

Falcolus wrote:

@Serial Chiller, BONES is one of my favorite rappers, there are plenty of fans!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], Yeah its a good album, and he clearly did some research with the lyrical content too.

I found a sweet remix of The Cafeteria on soundcloud, imma link it when I'm on my computer.

BONES TeenWitch Full album

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-Cafeteria, the slowed nd throwed version

(Trill Shox remixed quite a few others from the album too)

in 2009 there was another school shooting in our country. since then i am a little obsessed with Columbine.

December, 2011.

Around 4 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, April 20, 1999.

LPorter101 wrote:

Around 4 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, April 20, 1999.

Same, I was about 12 years old at the time and I came home from school to find my mom watching the news coverage and she was in tears. Looking back now I probably shouldn't have been allowed to watch it with her but she never shielded us kids from anything on tv so it was normal for us. I think if I hadn't seen the coverage that day I might not have even known about it at all because they didn't talk about it at my school the next day, we were too young for them to discuss it with us at the time (or so they felt anyway).

I didn't begin to research it until maybe 2009 though, when I had more time on my hands and way more resources online to search out.

Jenn wrote:

December, 2011.

Was there a specific event that triggered your interest Jenn?

sororityalpha wrote:

Jenn wrote:

December, 2011.

Was there a specific event that triggered your interest Jenn?

Yea, my ex was verbally abusive to me and I was looking up signs and how to handle being bullied on the internet and it brought me to this article about Columbine and bullying. I was obsessed with and reading anything I could find about it in the beginning.

I decided that I didn't want to live being verbally abused every day and I left him in January, 2012. I often wonder if I would have had I not got into Columbine.

I then met [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] on the old Columbine forum and we've been together ever since. Almost 4 years now. So for me, Columbine was a positive thing that helped me get out of a really bad and abusive situation.

ahh very interesting, I am glad you are not with a guy that abuses you, either verbally or physically or psychologically.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], How old was Dylan and your friend when she met him? Your profile says you're 23 so I'd imagine this friend was quite young and Dylan was a teenager. That's really something. I wish I could meet him now. I'm an English major and collect author autographs in books which impact me, so a signed copy of his journal would be like bagging the biggest game!

em81 wrote:

in 2009 there was another school shooting in our country. since then i am a little obsessed with Columbine.

Are you talking about Winnenden? That's what first got me interested in school shootings as well. I was with my German class traveling around. We landed the day it happened. And the whole time I was there it was all over the news. I happened to be in Munich when they held a memorial for the victims. I have a bunch of pictures if anyone is interested in seeing them. 

I didn't really get fully involved with columbine research until sometime in last 2014.

browneyes11 wrote:

em81 wrote:

in 2009 there was another school shooting in our country. since then i am a little obsessed with Columbine.

Are you talking about Winnenden? That's what first got me interested in school shootings as well. I was with my German class traveling around. We landed the day it happened. And the whole time I was there it was all over the news. I happened to be in Munich when they held a memorial for the victims. I have a bunch of pictures if anyone is interested in seeing them. 

I didn't really get fully involved with columbine research until sometime in last 2014.

I wouldn't mind seeing some of those pictures if you don't mind sharing.

OffthechainJoehovah wrote:

browneyes11 wrote:

em81 wrote:

in 2009 there was another school shooting in our country. since then i am a little obsessed with Columbine.

Are you talking about Winnenden? That's what first got me interested in school shootings as well. I was with my German class traveling around. We landed the day it happened. And the whole time I was there it was all over the news. I happened to be in Munich when they held a memorial for the victims. I have a bunch of pictures if anyone is interested in seeing them. 

I didn't really get fully involved with columbine research until sometime in last 2014.

I wouldn't mind seeing some of those pictures if you don't mind sharing.

Yes it was Winnenden. I remember I was working at my office and heard about it at the radio. And my workmate was shocked because he had a nine years old son at school, but not near by Winnenden. I didn´t have internet in 1999, i think that´s the reason why i didn´t know much columbine before 2009.

em81 wrote:

OffthechainJoehovah wrote:

browneyes11 wrote:

em81 wrote:

in 2009 there was another school shooting in our country. since then i am a little obsessed with Columbine.

Are you talking about Winnenden? That's what first got me interested in school shootings as well. I was with my German class traveling around. We landed the day it happened. And the whole time I was there it was all over the news. I happened to be in Munich when they held a memorial for the victims. I have a bunch of pictures if anyone is interested in seeing them. 

I didn't really get fully involved with columbine research until sometime in last 2014.

I wouldn't mind seeing some of those pictures if you don't mind sharing.

Yes it was Winnenden. I remember I was working at my office and heard about it at the radio. And my workmate was shocked because he had a nine years old son at school, but not near by Winnenden. I didn´t have internet in 1999, i think that´s the reason why i didn´t know much columbine before 2009.

I will share the photos with you guys once I get on a computer. Ive been using my phone to type this. 

What did you think of the media coverage of the shooting? I remember being shocked by how different it was from how VTech or Sandy Hook was handled.

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Here are some of my pictures from that day.

browneyes11 wrote:

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Here are some of my pictures from that day.

Thank you.

OffthechainJoehovah wrote:

browneyes11 wrote:

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Here are some of my pictures from that day.

Thank you.

The first picture shows a rose with no name. That was in honor of the shooter. I always admired that they acknowledged him but did not give him the fame he was probably looking for.

I'm not very interested in Columbine, but it was the recent shooting in Uvalde that sparked my interest in mass murder. I had previously done casual research on Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook, as well as already having an interest in dictators and far-right politics.

AmyistWarrior wrote:

I'm not very interested in Columbine, but it was the recent shooting in Uvalde that sparked my interest in mass murder. I had previously done casual research on Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook, as well as already having an interest in dictators and far-right politics.

What did you find interesting about that particular shooting?

I had a fascination with World War 2 then somehow later I looked into Breivik and Dylan Roof. Later McVeigh and E&D alongside Winnenden, Erfurt, Jokela and Kauhajoki.

for me it was last august, reading about the safeway shooting in bend oregon. i found out the shooter, ethan miller, posted his manifesto on wattpad which was wild enough (i've written/read on wattpad since i was like 12) to make me look into him more. i read he was obsessed with columbine and i was blissfully unaware of just how much of an influence columbine STILL has.

after that, i started looking into columbine and saw it happened in 1999. and listen, i had no idea WHEN columbine happened before my researching. i had lived in colorado and just assumed it happened so so so long ago and i didn't care to look into it. finding out that it happened only a few years before i was born (2003) changed my perspective drastically. i hadn't realized that school shootings (a complete norm in my life) was such a new phenomenon, and something my parents and even older cousins didn't experience.

those were the two big factors that got me so interested in columbine.

CanIHelpYou wrote:

AmyistWarrior wrote:

I'm not very interested in Columbine, but it was the recent shooting in Uvalde that sparked my interest in mass murder. I had previously done casual research on Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook, as well as already having an interest in dictators and far-right politics.

What did you find interesting about that particular shooting?

Nothing really. I just saw it on the news a lot. Sky News did an interesting special on school shootings in America and I overheard my parents and grandparents comparing the attack to Dunblane. I then decided to research school shootings on the Internet and the rest is history.

I remember it happening. Took an interest at the time and then it’s been up and down ever since, researching stuff as and when I get the urge.

When I was 11 or 12 years old (2018), I was obsessed with researching natural disasters online. One day I decided to search for school shootings, probably because Parkland had recently happened (though I don't recall hearing about it at the time) and shootings were being discussed by my teachers. From there, I learned about the Columbine shooting and became mildly interested, researching it every few months by watching documentaries and visiting acolumbinesite.com.
It wasn't until I was 13 (late 2019) when my focus shifted to other school shootings and mass casualty events, and my interest in Columbine dwindled.

Virginia Tech happened, and when they were showing the Cho tapes on the news, they of course also started talking about columbine. I saw the infamous cafetaria photo and I remember feeling horrified and fascinated. Back then it wasn't as common. Since then I have researched a lotta true crime.

when I was 13 or 14 I was sitting on the couch and playing games on my phone. TV was on and I heard on tv about school shooting. (I can't remember what shooting it was). And after that I started to read about school shooting and mass shootings.

when i was young i found a ytpmv with the hitmen for hire movie by eric and dylan and from there i started to research

Maybe around 11th grade i remember going down a rabbit hole on parkland which lead me to columbine which then lead me down the other shootings.

I became interested in mass killings after Parkland. I discovered Columbine around this time but didn't do much research on it until lockdown in 2020. However, I've almost always been more interested in other incidents.

When I was 11 in 2012, about a week before Sandy Hook happened (blame WatchMojo for that). Before that I had a mini obsession with the Titanic Sinking, I watched a lot of videos on it, the movie, watched clips of the 50s version, told one of my friends about it, etc. And not sure if it was before/after/at around the same time I became interested in Columbine I watched YouTube videos on famous murdered children like James Bulger (and watched documentaries about his murder), the type of videos where'd there would be Evanesance and other such music playing in the background over Windows Movie Maker texts. I also watched a video about Dylan Groene (murder victim of serial killer Joseph Edward Duncan) with some sad music playing over it. This was  around about 2011-2013. Pretty sure I had also watched Top 10 videos about Serial Killers too or videos about them in general. I specifically remember certain serial killers faces in the videos I watched back then like Aileen Wuornos, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Richard Kuklinski, Richard Ramirez etc.

Getting into goth, I stumbled upon an article on the internet debunking myths about the Columbine shooting and I wanted to know more. Technically it's not that interesting anymore, but I do come back here every now and than

Columbine is so stupid. Everything is worthless. We should all die.

I think I've written about it before, but in case I haven't I'll tell the story. I ended up discovering columbine around 12-13 while writing an essay on video game violence, and since then I've had an on and off interest in massacres.

When I was 16.
I was thinking about school shooting and did deeper research on Eric and Dylan.

In march of 2021, my french teacher made us watch the documentary bowling for columbine by Michel Moore.

I never cared about the anti gun propaganda of the movie but the thing that caught my attention was obviously Columbine.

So i started doing research. I kept digging deeper into the rabbit hole and i couldn't seem to stop it. I always wanted to learn more.

As time went on, i started studying other mass shootings like Christchurch, Sandy Hook, port Arthur and many more.

One day i was recommended a video about about Randy Stair back in late 2021.

In the summer of 2023, i rewatched it again and decided i wanted to learn more about the forum, so, here i am !

Can't believe it's gonna be 3 years since i started studying mass shootings.

Time flies by real fast holy shit.

I never cared about columbine, I found this forum because it was mentioned in a video about Randy Stair

I guess I must've been 12 or 13 when it really became a weird obsession. I don't remember exactly when I heard of it or where but the concept of school shootings had always been something I knew about and saying Columbine is by far the most famous I must've early on. I fixated on Eric much more than Dylan (like most faggy pre-teens) and I've read all of Eric's journals and still haven't touched Dylans lol. My obsession with it got so bad though my dad had to literally sit me down and tell me they where losers. I'm not that into the whole event these days but I've really wanted to get Sue Klebolds book. When I find a pdf of it of course what homo buys books.

I don’t remember the circumstances, but I first learned about Columbine at the age of 14, and since I was kind of an outcast in class at that time, the topic immediately hooked me. I’m not from an English-speaking country, but I managed to find a group where columbine was discussed: CHSM, just a treasure trove of information, documents and photographs. At that time, Eric, Dylan, and the victims were close to me. the first case of some kind of existential crisis, when I realized that in some terrible situations it is almost impossible to find the culprit (as it seemed to me then)
I learned about school shootings when I was 9 years old after watching the movie “Class” 2007