Do you "understand why they did it"?

When I first heard about Columbine I wrote the boys off as two murderous irredeemable psychos. But after being bitten by the Columbine bug and reading how these two were treated at school a tiny part of me gets where they were coming from.

To name some incidents in particular... the "ketchup incident". I can't even imagine the humiliation of being pelted with tampons covered in ketchup while jocks call you faggot and queer. The shitbag teachers wouldn't even let them go home for an hour to change their clothes, they had to sit all day in damp, smelly clothes, humiliated. Dylan's mom said he was very shaken up over the ketchup incident and didn't even want to talk about it. And then the "Blackjack Pizza incident" where they had rocks and bottles thrown at them which could've given them a concussion or brain damage. And then the "don't worry man, it happens all the time" quote which indicates they were bullied pretty much constantly. I can understand how being abused to that extent and feeling so helpless and frustrated made them want to kill their tormentors. This evolved to wanting to destroy the whole school as a giant "fuck you" to the corrupt bullshit, to Rocky Hoffschneider and the jocks getting away with anything, to the school authorities who looked the other way.

However, I'm not saying I condone their actions. The students they killed were innocents so I can never describe them as some kind of heroes or martyrs for bullied kids. The murder of innocent lives was disgusting. All I'm saying is I can sort of see where they were coming from in terms of why they became school shooters. If they had specifically targeted the jocks who were making their lives hell and left the innocents out of it I'd probably be on their side and I think a lot of other people would too.

I want to know how other people feel.

I always believe bullying was the primary motive, the reason they wanted to blow up the School and kill everybody is because the School celebrated the athlete culture and jocks were allowed to do whatever they wanted. I'm confident in saying that if they weren't bullied, the shooting never would of happened.

Tommy QTR wrote:

I always believe bullying was the primary motive, the reason they wanted to blow up the School and kill everybody is because the School celebrated the athlete culture and jocks were allowed to do whatever they wanted. I'm confident in saying that if they weren't bullied, the shooting never would of happened.

Even though I have experienced some pretty horrible bullying in my life (Though not as severe as what the two boys went through) I would still feel hesitant to just blame it on bullying. Though it may be true that the bulling caused the columbine incident, how do we know that any other thing could have sparked a similar incident if the boys didn't commit the shooting. I think its a question of nurture Vs nature, where the boys bullied so bad they became what they where as a response, or where they just extremely disturbed from the start?

I think I understand their mentality, yes. I don't think vengeance for bullying was the sole cause, and I'm not even sure if it was the primary cause all things considered.

With all the social media today, do you think Eric and Dylan could've recorded the bullying incidents at school and posted it on facebook and twitter just to get the school to stop the bullying? I think if Eric and Dylan were alive today, let's just says those bullies would stop, because their bullying would be broadc asted all over social media.

The principal of Columbine at the time is not innocent in this either. It was his school and it was his responsibility to stop the harrassment of other students. He shouldn't be calling for more gun control, he should be calling for more anti-bullying programs.

Absolutely I 500% understand why they did it, severe bullying, feeling violated and abused by their peers and everyone else in their lives and circulating their lives and feeling like their lives would forever be that way even after high school, all that just caused them to grow fed up to where they wanted to kill, kill to stop their inner pain and hurt. So yeah, I fully understand it, it doesn't make it right but I understand.

The Evan Todds of the world still don't think what they do is wrong. Just because you don't like to play a sport doesn't mean you should be made fun of.

And who cares if they wore trench coats? I'm not going to judge a person on what they wear.

bradt93 wrote:

With all the social media today, do you think Eric and Dylan could've recorded the bullying incidents at school and posted it on facebook and twitter just to get the school to stop the bullying? I think if Eric and Dylan were alive today, let's just says those bullies would stop, because their bullying would be broadc asted all over social media.

There you go again assuming that the whole shooting was just motivated as vengeance for bullying and nothing else. 

Literal millions of American teenagers and children are bullied, quite a few of them worse than Eric and Dylan ever were. Only a handful decide that the best response to getting picked on, even relentlessly, is to start killing as many people they can.

QuestionMark wrote:

bradt93 wrote:

With all the social media today, do you think Eric and Dylan could've recorded the bullying incidents at school and posted it on facebook and twitter just to get the school to stop the bullying? I think if Eric and Dylan were alive today, let's just says those bullies would stop, because their bullying would be broadc asted all over social media.

There you go again assuming that the whole shooting was just motivated as vengeance for bullying and nothing else. 

Literal millions of American teenagers and children are bullied, quite a few of them worse than Eric and Dylan ever were. Only a handful decide that the best response to getting picked on, even relentlessly, is to start killing as many people they can.

To be honest no, one reason I don’t think so I’d because they’d be embarrassed to say the least.

Like QM said millions of kids get bullied and millions done report it or talk about it. However I believe they were bullied but it was a catalyst and not a reason.

Well if bullying wasn't the reason for Eric and Dylan carrying out NBK, then what other reason was it? It surely wasn't because they were natural born killers because upon researching their earlier years, they clearly weren't. They didn't carry out NBK because of financial or home issues, because both teens came from financially stable backgrounds, both teens had parents who were not dysfunctional nor physically or sexually or severely verbally abusive.

So what other issue besides bullying and abuse from those in Colorado (school and etc) - minus their parents/families could make them commit NBK? In my opinion, bullying was the sole factor. See, what some don't realize is that not everyone is mentally and emotionally strong enough to withstand severe bullying and abuse, some people - under that type of pressure can indeed snap and/or have a mental break and go off and decide to kill. If you keep pushing someone and pushing someone and pushing someone, eventually they will go off and act violently and despite all the interviews, the witnesses, the "he-say" "she-say" B.S., doesn't anyone know what it was like for Eric and Dylan when it came to them being bullied but Eric and Dylan and they aren't here to speak, so we can't say, "oh the bullying wasn't that bad for them," how do you know? Where you there walking the halls with Eric and Dylan? Were you feeling what they were feeling? No, then no one can say how much the bullying affected them or how much bullying they endured?

42099_4EVA wrote:

Well if bullying wasn't the reason for Eric and Dylan carrying out NBK, then what other reason was it? It surely wasn't because they were natural born killers because upon researching their earlier years, they clearly weren't. They didn't carry out NBK because of financial or home issues, because both teens came from financially stable backgrounds, both teens had parents who were not dysfunctional nor physically or sexually or severely verbally abusive.

So what other issue besides bullying and abuse from those in Colorado (school and etc) - minus their parents/families could make them commit NBK? In my opinion, bullying was the sole factor. See, what some don't realize is that not everyone is mentally and emotionally strong enough to withstand severe bullying and abuse, some people - under that type of pressure can indeed snap and/or have a mental break and go off and decide to kill. If you keep pushing someone and pushing someone and pushing someone, eventually they will go off and act violently and despite all the interviews, the witnesses, the "he-say" "she-say" B.S., doesn't anyone know what it was like for Eric and Dylan when it came to them being bullied but Eric and Dylan and they aren't here to speak, so we can't say, "oh the bullying wasn't that bad for them," how do you know? Where you there walking the halls with Eric and Dylan? Were you feeling what they were feeling? No, then no one can say how much the bullying affected them or how much bullying they endured?

Exactly, some people here, not all seem to think bullying wasn't a sole motivator, it was. Like you said, some kids can't handle being bullied everyday and they snap. Some kids don't have the mental party to withstand it.

42099_4EVA wrote:

Well if bullying wasn't the reason for Eric and Dylan carrying out NBK, then what other reason was it? 

There was something very deeply wrong with their personalities. We could go back and forth on what exactly it was - Borderline Personality Disorder, Anti-Social Personality Disorder, Depression, Bipolar disorder, Schizotypal personality disorder - but I think there was definitely something at work in their minds, something more than getting picked on.

42099_4EVA wrote:

See, what some don't realize is that not everyone is mentally and emotionally strong enough to withstand severe bullying and abuse, some people - under that type of pressure can indeed snap and/or have a mental break and go off and decide to kill.

And how many actually do so again? One or two dozen, spaced out by months and years? If we're generous and include every kid who made plots to kill classmates or people who later started killing as adults, that's maybe a couple thousand. Some studies suggest as many as three million children and teenagers are bullied in America - if out of three million people less than 0.1% of them are committing or attempting rampage killings against their peers, I think there's something more to the picture.

QuestionMark wrote:

42099_4EVA wrote:

Well if bullying wasn't the reason for Eric and Dylan carrying out NBK, then what other reason was it? 

There was something very deeply wrong with their personalities. We could go back and forth on what exactly it was - Borderline Personality Disorder, Anti-Social Personality Disorder, Depression, Bipolar disorder, Schizotypal personality disorder - but I think there was definitely something at work in their minds, something more than getting picked on.

42099_4EVA wrote:

See, what some don't realize is that not everyone is mentally and emotionally strong enough to withstand severe bullying and abuse, some people - under that type of pressure can indeed snap and/or have a mental break and go off and decide to kill.

And how many actually do so again? One or two dozen, spaced out by months and years? If we're generous and include every kid who made plots to kill classmates or people who later started killing as adults, that's maybe a couple thousand. Some studies suggest as many as three million children and teenagers are bullied in America - if out of three million people less than 0.1% of them are committing or attempting rampage killings against their peers, I think there's something more to the picture.

---

There was something wrong with their personalities? Really? Well, that's weird because they seemed fine BEFORE starting at Columbine, there was no violent acts BEFORE starting at Columbine, there was no hatred of people BEFORE starting at Columbine, sure they may have had violent little fantasies, that's nothing compared to how they changed once attending Columbine. So, therefore, Columbine was the keg that lit the fire and started their problems.

No, not many kids do school shootings from being bullied, because you know what they're doing instead? They're COMMITTING SUICIDE, they're taking drugs and abusing alcohol to cope, so they're not hurting others but they're doing something equally or not far worst - they're hurting and/or killing themselves. No one - NO ONE who has endured bullying in their school years comes out unscathed, somewhere in their lives the effects of bullying shows up. So if it doesn't affect people by causing them to snap and kill, it affects them by causing them to kill themselves, or it affects them by them having self-esteem issues later in life, depression issues, relationship issues. Bottom line is bullying, severe bullying fucks people up in numerous ways and with Eric and Dylan, it fucked them up to where it drove them to kill, and who could they talk to about them bullied? Could Dylan talk to his "Mary Poppins" mom (no offense/disrespect to Sue but that's what I think about when I think of her, lol), or his father? Hell no, could Dylan tell Devon or Brooks? No, Dylan couldn't because a lot of times outside people don't truly GET what you're feeling.

Could Eric tell his tight-wad, military dad? Hell no, because Eric's dad would take Eric complaining about bullying as a sign of weakness in Eric and would probably just tell Eric to "man-up" and "suck it up." Eric's mother would just tell Eric something to the effect of, "oh honey, just ignore them, they're just jealous of you, just be the best you that you can be, dear", which would be absolute B.S. Could Eric and Dylan tell the school officials? Please, school officials don't do shit about bullying today and they wouldn't do shit about it back then either. So what could the two teens do? Keep taking the severe bullying from ninth grade to tenth grade to eleventh grade to senior year - FOUR YEARS, four years of taking it with no one doing anything to help them or stop it all....and with that, it's no wonder they both snapped and reacted violently.

bradt93 wrote:

42099_4EVA wrote:

Well if bullying wasn't the reason for Eric and Dylan carrying out NBK, then what other reason was it? It surely wasn't because they were natural born killers because upon researching their earlier years, they clearly weren't. They didn't carry out NBK because of financial or home issues, because both teens came from financially stable backgrounds, both teens had parents who were not dysfunctional nor physically or sexually or severely verbally abusive.

So what other issue besides bullying and abuse from those in Colorado (school and etc) - minus their parents/families could make them commit NBK? In my opinion, bullying was the sole factor. See, what some don't realize is that not everyone is mentally and emotionally strong enough to withstand severe bullying and abuse, some people - under that type of pressure can indeed snap and/or have a mental break and go off and decide to kill. If you keep pushing someone and pushing someone and pushing someone, eventually they will go off and act violently and despite all the interviews, the witnesses, the "he-say" "she-say" B.S., doesn't anyone know what it was like for Eric and Dylan when it came to them being bullied but Eric and Dylan and they aren't here to speak, so we can't say, "oh the bullying wasn't that bad for them," how do you know? Where you there walking the halls with Eric and Dylan? Were you feeling what they were feeling? No, then no one can say how much the bullying affected them or how much bullying they endured?

Exactly, some people here, not all seem to think bullying wasn't a sole motivator, it was. Like you said, some kids can't handle being bullied everyday and they snap. Some kids don't have the mental party to withstand it.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - exactly, thank you.

42099_4EVA wrote:

There was something wrong with their personalities? Really? Well, that's weird because they seemed fine BEFORE starting at Columbine, there was no violent acts BEFORE starting at Columbine, there was no hatred of people BEFORE starting at Columbine, sure they may have had violent little fantasies, that's nothing compared to how they changed once attending Columbine. 

Before Columbine they were also pre-teen children, for the most part. Mental problems usually don't crop up until you start becoming or are an adult. 

42099_4EVA wrote:

No, not many kids do school shootings from being bullied, because you know what they're doing instead? They're COMMITTING SUICIDE, they're taking drugs and abusing alcohol to cope, so they're not hurting others but they're doing something equally or not far worst - they're hurting and/or killing themselves. 

You prove my point exactly - most people, when faced with unceasing torment, do not decide that the best remedy to their problems is indiscriminate murder.

Yeah well, let's just politely agree to disagree, ok. There will always be those who will never understand the pain that Eric and Dylan endured and apparently you are one of those people, but it's cool, we can politely agree to disagree.

42099_4EVA wrote:

Yeah well, let's just politely agree to disagree, ok. There will always be those who will never understand the pain that Eric and Dylan endured and apparently you are one of those people, but it's cool, we can politely agree to disagree.

I was beaten badly in elementary school for being autistic, by fellow students and my father. 

I think we can politely disagree but I'd like to think I know what Eric and Dylan felt like aside from our similar temperaments. Maybe I don't know as much as I think, but I try to learn as much as I can.

QuestionMark wrote:

42099_4EVA wrote:

Yeah well, let's just politely agree to disagree, ok. There will always be those who will never understand the pain that Eric and Dylan endured and apparently you are one of those people, but it's cool, we can politely agree to disagree.

I was beaten badly in elementary school for being autistic, by fellow students and my father. 

I think we can politely disagree but I'd like to think I know what Eric and Dylan felt like aside from our similar temperaments. Maybe I don't know as much as I think, but I try to learn as much as I can.

Well I know as well, seeing as how for ten years of my life, I was bullied by all the students at my schools, no one in my family accepts me because I was a child born without a father, so I was ostracized and bullied there as well, so I know Eric and Dylan's feelings and pain exactly. A lot of days, I feel like picking up a gun and just shooting and killing everyone, but I don't, because 1) there's cops and 2) I have a conscience....sort of. I know what it feels like to want to die, to want to kill myself because no one accepts you, you feel like an outsider to the entire world, you feel like the entire world is against you. I know what it's like to have no friends, - even to this very day, I have zero friends. I know what it's like to abuse drugs, because I've done it. I know what it's like to create an alter ego/personality to cover the original one I have, because the original one I have, I hate. I know what it's like to feel like you hate everyone because you have it in your mind that everyone hates you. I know what it's like to feel such a severe depression every day that it feels like a monster is eating you from the inside out.

That is how I can have a complete understanding for what Eric and Dylan did, what they did wasn't right but I can one hundred percent and beyond understand what they did and sympathize with them.

QuestionMark wrote:

42099_4EVA wrote:

There was something wrong with their personalities? Really? Well, that's weird because they seemed fine BEFORE starting at Columbine, there was no violent acts BEFORE starting at Columbine, there was no hatred of people BEFORE starting at Columbine, sure they may have had violent little fantasies, that's nothing compared to how they changed once attending Columbine. 

Before Columbine they were also pre-teen children, for the most part. Mental problems usually don't crop up until you start becoming or are an adult. 

42099_4EVA wrote:

No, not many kids do school shootings from being bullied, because you know what they're doing instead? They're COMMITTING SUICIDE, they're taking drugs and abusing alcohol to cope, so they're not hurting others but they're doing something equally or not far worst - they're hurting and/or killing themselves. 

You prove my point exactly - most people, when faced with unceasing torment, do not decide that the best remedy to their problems is indiscriminate murder.

That’s an excellent point. I believe the school culture was a huge catalyst

I have aspergers and while I have facebook friends, I don't hang out with anyone, because I don't want to get hurt. To beat it all, I had a good time in HS, it was middle school where I got the brunt of cruelty. You see I also live in a hick town and if you're a little different, these dumb hicks judge you.

I'm pretty convinced I understand what their motivations and the main causes were by April 1999 (Which is not to say I understand everything about them and their behavior.)

For Dylan's the main cause was his depression, the disconnection with the world around him and the desire to be in "halcyon" with his imaginary girlfriend.

For Eric's it was his fundamental disagreement with being a part of a society he hated. Hie didn't want to be "a robot" and didn't want to "hop onto the boat and headdown the stream of life with all the other fuckers of your type."



Bullying and CHS as a whole was in my opinion a factor that added to their dislike of the world around them. But in the end, it wasn't the main issue for eitehr. By April 1999, for both E&D, NBK was about soemthign bigger than a few jocks.

bradt93 wrote:

42099_4EVA wrote:

Well if bullying wasn't the reason for Eric and Dylan carrying out NBK, then what other reason was it? It surely wasn't because they were natural born killers because upon researching their earlier years, they clearly weren't. They didn't carry out NBK because of financial or home issues, because both teens came from financially stable backgrounds, both teens had parents who were not dysfunctional nor physically or sexually or severely verbally abusive.

So what other issue besides bullying and abuse from those in Colorado (school and etc) - minus their parents/families could make them commit NBK? In my opinion, bullying was the sole factor. See, what some don't realize is that not everyone is mentally and emotionally strong enough to withstand severe bullying and abuse, some people - under that type of pressure can indeed snap and/or have a mental break and go off and decide to kill. If you keep pushing someone and pushing someone and pushing someone, eventually they will go off and act violently and despite all the interviews, the witnesses, the "he-say" "she-say" B.S., doesn't anyone know what it was like for Eric and Dylan when it came to them being bullied but Eric and Dylan and they aren't here to speak, so we can't say, "oh the bullying wasn't that bad for them," how do you know? Where you there walking the halls with Eric and Dylan? Were you feeling what they were feeling? No, then no one can say how much the bullying affected them or how much bullying they endured?

Exactly, some people here, not all seem to think bullying wasn't a sole motivator, it was. Like you said, some kids can't handle being bullied everyday and they snap. Some kids don't have the mental party to withstand it.

I'm sorry if some of you actually were bullied in high school--I was too--but the idea that bullying was SOLELY responsible is pure over-emotional crap. You people are simply responding that way because of what happened to you, no? It's like a feminist rape victim who snaps and says all men are rapists. This is the weakest iteration I know of of this board's single most over-recurring thread. And it's turning into a sort of broken record around here--BULLYING BULLYING BULLYING BULLYING BULLYING BULLYING KETCHUP INCIDENT KETCHUP INCIDENT KETCHUP INCIDENT KETCHUP INCIDENT.

Would any of you care to answer the question as to why E & D blew away people who had never met them or done anything to them? To ask my own broken record question for the ten trillionth time: if it was jock bullies, how come they didn't kill the people who bullied them? NO way in hell could bullying be the sole factor for that.

Sabratha wrote:

I'm pretty convinced I understand what their motivations and the main causes were by April 1999 (Which is not to say I understand everything about them and their behavior.)

For Dylan's the main cause was his depression, the disconnection with the world around him and the desire to be in "halcyon" with his imaginary girlfriend.

For Eric's it was his fundamental disagreement with being a part of a society he hated. Hie didn't want to be "a robot" and didn't want to "hop onto the boat and headdown the stream of life with all the other fuckers of your type."



Bullying and CHS as a whole was in my opinion a factor that added to their dislike of the world around them. But in the end, it wasn't the main issue for eitehr. By April 1999, for both E&D, NBK was about soemthign bigger than a few jocks.

Yes, I think you've hit the nail on the head.

The part of me that identifies with Eric, especially, is the part that finds living in this world an exercise in tedium. Most people are assholes, and most of the ones that aren't are boring as hell. There are moments of joy and fear and agony and ecstasy and terror and pain and pleasure, but there are vast stretches of stultifying emptiness that ultimately leave me numb. So much time is wasted on bullshit, and the cycle never ends - wake up in the morning, do meaningless shit for hours on end, go to bed at night, repeat until death.

But there is another part of me that a) fears the eternal consequences of suicide and/or homicide and b) can find enough meaning in the dreary nothingness of day-to-day existence to want to keep on going.

Eric reacted to the shittiness of life by fostering a deep, burning homicidal rage that ultimately destroyed him. At my lowest moments, I go in the opposite direction - I say, "Fuck it," and just shut down. My mentality is, "Nothing matters; nothing is worth doing; nothing is worth giving a shit about. I don't care whether anyone else lives or dies, and I'm not going to do anything for anyone but myself."

I don't like being around other people. I never have and I never will. But I don't hate them to the extent that I want to kill them. Whatever switches in Eric's head that enabled him to kill without mercy are flipped the other way in my brain.

More and more, it seems to me that 4/20 was nothing more than a horrific kind of performance art. Both boys had artistic aspirations (or pretensions, if you prefer). NBK was their own little production - their own little movie or video game. Eric wanted to experience the worlds of Doom and Alien firsthand, but he couldn't. So going NBK was the next best thing.

I genuinely agree with what you said.

I definitely feel like the boys were putting on a production and were almost playing characters. Especially Dylan

LPorter101 wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

I'm pretty convinced I understand what their motivations and the main causes were by April 1999 (Which is not to say I understand everything about them and their behavior.)

For Dylan's the main cause was his depression, the disconnection with the world around him and the desire to be in "halcyon" with his imaginary girlfriend.

For Eric's it was his fundamental disagreement with being a part of a society he hated. Hie didn't want to be "a robot" and didn't want to "hop onto the boat and headdown the stream of life with all the other fuckers of your type."



Bullying and CHS as a whole was in my opinion a factor that added to their dislike of the world around them. But in the end, it wasn't the main issue for eitehr. By April 1999, for both E&D, NBK was about soemthign bigger than a few jocks.

Yes, I think you've hit the nail on the head.

The part of me that identifies with Eric, especially, is the part that finds living in this world an exercise in tedium. Most people are assholes, and most of the ones that aren't are boring as hell. There are moments of joy and fear and agony and ecstasy and terror and pain and pleasure, but there are vast stretches of stultifying emptiness that ultimately leave me numb. So much time is wasted on bullshit, and the cycle never ends - wake up in the morning, do meaningless shit for hours on end, go to bed at night, repeat until death.

But there is another part of me that a) fears the eternal consequences of suicide and/or homicide and b) can find enough meaning in the dreary nothingness of day-to-day existence to want to keep on going.

Eric reacted to the shittiness of life by fostering a deep, burning homicidal rage that ultimately destroyed him. At my lowest moments, I go in the opposite direction - I say, "Fuck it," and just shut down. My mentality is, "Nothing matters; nothing is worth doing; nothing is worth giving a shit about. I don't care whether anyone else lives or dies, and I'm not going to do anything for anyone but myself."

I don't like being around other people. I never have and I never will. But I don't hate them to the extent that I want to kill them. Whatever switches in Eric's head that enabled him to kill without mercy are flipped the other way in my brain.

More and more, it seems to me that 4/20 was nothing more than a horrific kind of performance art. Both boys had artistic aspirations (or pretensions, if you prefer). NBK was their own little production - their own little movie or video game. Eric wanted to experience the worlds of Doom and Alien firsthand, but he couldn't. So going NBK was the next best thing.

This post is amazing, i never thought of it this way.

42099_4EVA wrote:

There will always be those who will never understand the pain that Eric and Dylan endured and apparently you are one of those people

4 million students are expected to enroll in 9th grade this semester(2018). Of those 4 Million, 20% report being bullied, so according to your logic, there should be about 20,000 school shootings per year. Assuming bullying is the overwhelming factor. I am not saying that I think bullying was not an overwhelming factor in Columbine, but it was decidedly not the ONLY factor of Columbine. Eric and Dylan had their own individual motives for NBK.

I think bullying certainly played a role in it. I think, however, that wasn't the main problem. It was certainly a combination of other things. I think Eric was homicidal and willing to die, and Dylan was suicidal and willing to kill. Meeting each other created a fatal and toxic combination. They both saw the school and the students in it as a pawn in their own ending goals (Dylan's to die and Eric's to way to show his disagreement and resentment for society). The school seemed like the perfect place for them both to play out their fantasies, Eric just had to die and Dylan just had to kill. In the end, they both got exactly what they wanted.

The whole sociopathic bullying culture surrounding the school was definitely a major factor. That, and their perfectly contrasting personality's combining just made for a disastrous combination, as hvernon explained.

I think every person who says "I know why they did it" is probably still wrong at some point.

I can only say "I think I know why they did it.", but I don't think I - nor any of us - can know all the details in their motive. Even Sue is probably not able to perfectly understand her son, despite her having much more information. Maybe we are projecting ourselves into them? People who are or feel bullied may think Eric and Dylan did it because of bullying. People who suffer from mental health, who are depressed may think depression was the reason why.

I don't think they were bullied, even if they were probably annoyed or ashamed at some points, but it was not something regular. I do think it was a mix of reasons, not only one. You don't kill someone because of only one thing. Mental health, loneliness, lack of prospect (in their mind), lack of self-confidence, generalized hate... all these probably took part in the shooting, and probably many more.

I can understand why they wanted to kill people. Even so called "innocents".

The part that is harder for me to empathize with personally is why they actually did this because it meant throwing their lives away.
As my first first therapist said: "If you'll kill a piece of shit, you'll still be held responsible for it as if you killed a human being".

I think one big reason was their interest in True Crime and even more importantly Dylan's interest in New Age ideologies.
I would classify Dylan as a typical New Age suicide cult leader.

For him it wasn't a suicide. It was an ascension into Halcyons. That's one thing that I realised when I was going through Randy Stair's suicide tapes. The idea of ascension into a generic New Age afterlife was a central motivation for Dylan.

For him the killing was merely enforcing his supremacy on Earth before ascending to paradise. Note that dates of his journal entries about killing sprees coincide dates of him being disciplined by authorities - the locker hacking incident and getting caught by police. It shows that being subjected to earthly authority was greatest humiliation to him.

I think that it's possible that Dylan would end up like that even without bullying basing solely on his personality traits and New Age interests.