If they successfully recruited their friend Chris Morris...

After doing some research on the case I found out that Eric and Dylan had subtlety tried recruiting one of their close friends Chris. How would it affect the shooting and the infamy?

From the limited exposure we have of Chris, he seems smarter than Eric and probably Dylan as well. I believe this would have made the massacre far more severe. He would have been a meticulous planner and already had knowledge of bomb making. I am confident the bombs would have gone off and we'd be talking about a whole lot more casualties.

Conversely, I think the infamy would be slightly less for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, I believe the cafeteria and library would have been destroyed. Do you think they would've rebuilt the school and reopened it? No way, the rest of the school would be professionally demolished and cease to exist. This would lead to people forgetting about the shooting and moving on from it.

Secondly, the massacre would've been less interpersonal. We would not have the "he said she said" accounts from eye witnesses. We would not have chilling 9-11 tapes that we can only imagine what the full versions are like. We would not have any details about how the killers acted and what they said during the shootings. It would have felt a lot more like a terrorist attack.

Adding another wheel to the plan would have only increased their chances of being caught and the plan being foiled.

I feel like more people would've died and it would've been more intimidating. I think the shooting would've had more of an effect on america.

limpfisch wrote:

From the limited exposure we have of Chris, he seems smarter than Eric and probably Dylan as well. I believe this would have made the massacre far more severe. He would have been a meticulous planner and already had knowledge of bomb making. I am confident the bombs would have gone off and we'd be talking about a whole lot more casualties.

Conversely, I think the infamy would be slightly less for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, I believe the cafeteria and library would have been destroyed. Do you think they would've rebuilt the school and reopened it? No way, the rest of the school would be professionally demolished and cease to exist. This would lead to people forgetting about the shooting and moving on from it.

Secondly, the massacre would've been less interpersonal. We would not have the "he said she said" accounts from eye witnesses. We would not have chilling 9-11 tapes that we can only imagine what the full versions are like. We would not have any details about how the killers acted and what they said during the shootings. It would have felt a lot more like a terrorist attack.

Excellent answer from head to toe. and great question OP!

Shooting would have been more deadly.

This question hinges a great deal on if the bombs would go off or not. If they do then the equation is changed so drastically that we're dealing with an entirely different question. So for our purposes we'll have to assume that the bombs are failures.

However, this still leaves us with complex problems that aren't easily solved. What's Morris's role during the attack? What weapons will he be working with? Is he a subordinate, an equal, or a superior in the group dynamic? How will he proceed under the pressure of killing people, getting shot at by police, and completing what amounts to a suicide mission? The last one is most important; it takes a truckload of resolve to do what Eric and Dylan did, and the fact that the real Chris Morris didn't join in indicates to me that if he were to join, he'd be a reluctant participant.

Juicy Jazzy wrote:

Adding another wheel to the plan would have only increased their chances of being caught and the plan being foiled.

I think it'd be more likely to be foiled simply because too many egos would clash in a three man team compared to a duo.

If there were more people then it would have been harder to get equipment that would have been needed for the attack therefore it would have been easier to carry out the attack as a duo. Eric and Dylan probably tried to recruit Chris because they wanted the most damage done to the school by the most people. Dylan originally wanted to carry out the shooting with Nate Dykeman so there was obviously some desire to have other friends of theirs in the attack, but that never worked out.

lognifiiskurk wrote:

Dylan originally wanted to carry out the shooting with Nate Dykeman

Nate Dykeman or Zach Heckler?

morgenroede wrote:

lognifiiskurk wrote:

Dylan originally wanted to carry out the shooting with Nate Dykeman

Nate Dykeman or Zach Heckler?

since the name is redacted we don’t know but probably both

There are zero reasons to think he wanted to commit massacre with Nate (of all people) OR Zach. According to his journal, Dylan wanted to commit the shooting on his own, or with his halcyon girl. He never mentioned commiting it with any of his friends, other than Eric. I have no idea when and why this idea started.
And i'd like to know why OP thought they wanted to recruit Chris Morris (and why another poster thought Chris was especially smart, considering Chris did one interview, and pretty much it). Because they blew up bombs or started fires in front of him? They did it with everybody.

Doesn't Chris elude to this himself in an interview or witness statement? I think Eric commented to Chris "wouldn't it be fun if we sat on the hill and shot up the school" or something like that. I don't think he ever asked Chris to participate. If anything, it was more like he wanted Chris' approval.