April 20, 1999 vs. November 7, 2018

So I was poking around online the other day, and I discovered a reference to a shooting in Thousand Oaks, California. It happened late on the evening of November 7, 2018. A former Marine named Ian David Long walked into a bar, killed 12 people and wounded 16, and then blew his brains out. Most of his victims were college students, not that much older than the high-school kids slaughtered by Eric and Dylan.

What struck me about this shooting is that I was not aware that it had ever happened. Presumably I'd heard about it at the time, but I had absolutely no recollection of it.

I remember the exact moment - where I was and what I was doing - when I first heard about the Columbine shooting. I have similar memories about Virginia Tech, Aurora, Sandy Hook, and Parkland. I can even tell you where I was when I heard about the Boston Marathon bombing. (I was at home watching TV when the news broke.)

But this shooting ... no fucking clue.

It's funny how some events stick in your mind - for me, hearing about 4/20 when it happened was a major turning point in my life. It had a huge permanent impact on me. Even Virginia Tech was significant, because it came at a crucial juncture of my life. (I was about to graduate from college.)

But this shooting, which was almost as bad as NBK in tems of the human impact, made absolutely no lasting impression at all.

I don't know if there's anything to be gained by thinking about this, but it's striking how two very similar events can have two very different effects on one person.

LPorter101 wrote:

I don't know if there's anything to be gained by thinking about this, but it's striking how two very similar events can have two very different effects on one person.

Probably because Columbine was such a major event at the time and now mass shootings are so unfortunately commonplace now. Mass shootings happen almost every day in the US, with school shootings happening to a lesser extent, but still to a notable degree. Even mass shootings that, in the 90s, would have been front page news are now forgotten about in a matter of days (FedEx Shooting, Denver Area Shootings, Thousand Oaks Shooting, Saugus High School Shooting, Atlanta Spa Shooting, Boulder Supermarket Shooting). The only "major" school/mass shootings up to that point would have been the University of Texas Tower Shooting, Jonesboro and possibly the Thurston and Pearl High School Shootings. Sure, Jonesboro got attention because two middle schoolers plotting a school shooting was so messed up but even two high school kids with seemingly "bright futures" committing a school shooting and leaving so much behind as to how they planned it all out was possibly even worse. IIRC Columbine was also the second most covered event in the 90s, second to the OJ Simpson trial.

Short answer: Mass shootings are so normalized now that even a relatively large one such as the Thousand Oaks Shooting is not talked about because "they happen all the time, what's the point in remembering all of them?"

I think it's because there were so many mass shootings in 2018 (in the United States) that by the end of the year everyone was blasé towards constant massacres. It also has to do with the fact that people tend to get more emotional when this happens at a school, the age isn't what matters, it's the target. Schools are supposed to be a place of safety for children, when that is shattered, it means that anyone could be the next target.

Columbine, like Y2K was a social phenomenon, it gripped the media because "how could two "good ole boys" who are your neighbors do this?!?" Now, they're so common that shootings typically get swept under the rug unless the perp can drag enough attention or infamy in: eg. nik cruz but like the shooting in santa fe, or the one in oxford, you hear for a minute or two and it's gone soon after.