Columbine what if

I always asked myself, why the people in the library couldn't fight back. I mean Corey Depooter was a athletic and a wrestler. Some other boys were athletics too. The people at Flight 93 (on 9/11) fight back. The people in the library were more than enough. I hope it doesn't sounds strange. But Dylan and Eric had to reload their weappon,so that would've been a perfect chance i guess.
I mean if Corey,Matthew,Craig, Daniel Rohrbrough and some survivors would have attacked them,wouldn't they had a chance? (8 or 10 against 2)



Sorry for my English. I hope you don't think It's disrespectful. I just asked my self this question since over 10 years.

This is a really common question.

You have to remember that these are teenage kids, in a very very serious situation they’re being told by their teachers to hide under the tables. Also Eric and Dylan had  guns, a gun is quicker than trying to tackle someone.

Also just because someone is an athlete doesn’t mean they can fight or have  skills To disarm and tackle a 6 foot four guy with 2 guns etc..

It’s not their job to fight back, they were kids

I know but imagine You would be in this Situation and no help is coming , wouldn't you do something? Ot at least the staff members. There were 3 staff members in the library.

For me the poliece did a bad job. The door to the library was open and they heared the kids dying.

Me now in my 30’s... I don’t know, Probably not. Since I’m petite

Me at 17, I hope I’d have the calmness of John Savage but I will probably just sit there frozen and crying

No I would not confront someone with a gun. I would try to run but I would not try to fight back against them.

I don’t even know what I would’ve done had I been friends with them and in the library that day

It is one thing to sit here in the safety of my own home and say that I would fight back in some way. That i would be a hero and save the day etc. But it is another to actually be there. To see others getting shot.

And these were children. If you look at all the mass shootings very very little of them have "heroes". Most people just stay and hide and try not to be seen. It is fight or flight and I think most in that situation are flight. Some people there were as young as 14. I cannot imagine what anyone thought in that scenario.

No one wants to get shot. And the amount of people that would willingly take a bullet for someone they don't know/vaguely know is very little.

It's so weird - the OP of this thread created their account today, made a few posts and then messaged me asking me to delete their account.

I'm gonna leave the thread up though because it's an interesting topic for discussion. I just wanted to let you guys know that she asked to have her account deleted in case you're wondering what happened to her.

They may be afraid they are on some list somewhere for joining this site.

I imagine not only the guns, which are a big factor, but there being two gunmen. Even if you managed to completely subdue say Eric, it would cost you your life when Dylan noticed.

Good point. You’d have to get both of them at once.

Yeah. The only solutions I could think of would be pretty fantastic and risky. Hurl chairs or computers at both of them, use a table as a shield and rush them, or be quick enough to toss one of their own pipe bombs back at them

The biggest issue with this (apart from the guns) is that there were two of them. Perhaps if there was only one gunman you could take a chance and succeed, but not with two of them.

cakeman wrote:

Yeah. The only solutions I could think of would be pretty fantastic and risky. Hurl chairs or computers at both of them, use a table as a shield and rush them, or be quick enough to toss one of their own pipe bombs back at them

That just made me think. Mikai hall grabbed a CO2 cartridge and threw it out of the way he could’ve thrown it at them. However during that time nobody was thinking about doing things like that.

Screamingophelia wrote:

cakeman wrote:

Yeah. The only solutions I could think of would be pretty fantastic and risky. Hurl chairs or computers at both of them, use a table as a shield and rush them, or be quick enough to toss one of their own pipe bombs back at them

That just made me think. Mikai hall grabbed a CO2 cartridge and threw it out of the way he could’ve thrown  it at them. However during that time nobody was thinking about doing things like that.

Well how much damage did that CO2 cartridge end up doing? Eric and Dylan's exceptionally poor bomb making skills would've been an asset for them had the victims thrown some of their bombs back at them.

QuestionMark wrote:

Screamingophelia wrote:

cakeman wrote:

Yeah. The only solutions I could think of would be pretty fantastic and risky. Hurl chairs or computers at both of them, use a table as a shield and rush them, or be quick enough to toss one of their own pipe bombs back at them

That just made me think. Mikai hall grabbed a CO2 cartridge and threw it out of the way he could’ve thrown  it at them. However during that time nobody was thinking about doing things like that.

Well how much damage did that CO2 cartridge end up doing? Eric and Dylan's exceptionally poor bomb making skills would've been an asset for them had the victims thrown some of their bombs back at them.

How many unexploded bomb’s did they find? What was the ratio between exploded and not exploded?

That is an excellent point.

QuestionMark wrote:

Well how much damage did that CO2 cartridge end up doing? Eric and Dylan's exceptionally poor bomb making skills would've been an asset for them had the victims thrown some of their bombs back at them.

This made me chuckle, but you're completely right.


Back to the topic:
I think it's natural to wonder about this, but you have to keep in mind they were all so young; they were told to hide by a teacher; and it's very scary to have someone point a gun at you, let alone two people pointing guns at you. Plus, it's not like they had time to plot against the threat. They were all just minding their own business in their school's library when a teacher came running in screaming to "get down." They were all confused and didn't know what was coming, then BAM! Two gunmen were there shooting at whoever they wanted to.

Well, they hated athletes the most and if they tried to fight back, they would've been dead in a second.

Screamingophelia wrote:

QuestionMark wrote:

Screamingophelia wrote:

cakeman wrote:

Yeah. The only solutions I could think of would be pretty fantastic and risky. Hurl chairs or computers at both of them, use a table as a shield and rush them, or be quick enough to toss one of their own pipe bombs back at them

That just made me think. Mikai hall grabbed a CO2 cartridge and threw it out of the way he could’ve thrown  it at them. However during that time nobody was thinking about doing things like that.

Well how much damage did that CO2 cartridge end up doing? Eric and Dylan's exceptionally poor bomb making skills would've been an asset for them had the victims thrown some of their bombs back at them.

How many unexploded bomb’s did they find? What was the ratio between exploded and not exploded?

That is an excellent point.

The vast majority were duds. 21 out of 35 pipe bombs were duds, and 37 out of 45 crickets were duds.

And yes, indeed, Makai threw a cricket off of Dan S's leg. Very much the kind of thing which inspired the idea. Supposedly, that one worked pretty well, things shook from it. Also it was his table which Dylan probably shot at for its white hats. Maybe Eric saved a good one for them.

And yes, Question Mark is also right. Indeed, even if they made their bombs perfectly, you would have to throw them perfectly. You are certainly a dead man if you only get one of the gunmen with the bombs, or if you only blow their legs off or whatever.  But, especially with the larger pipe bombs, if you could time it to explode at head level when you tossed it back at them, it might have been the way to go.

Though all things considered, unplugging two computer monitors and hurling them at each shooters head might have been the best option. A 90s computer monitor to the head would probably at least disorient you if not knock you out, And it's something you could do from across the room, duck behind a counter, etc. It wasn't as certain death as some other options like rushing them when you don't have a gun or knife, or using a shield they could shoot through, or having the guts to touch a live bomb and make sure it hits them and hope they don't see you doing it.

If few of them could manage to rush both Dylan and Eric ofcourse it's possible we could have been talking about less victims today. Though the thing is that we have to remember is that they were spread out and out of sight of one another while hiding. There were not able to form a 'plan' while also hiding, remember there first thought was to be quiet and out of sight. Thing is rushing them doesn't guarantee that anyone else will

Would you fight back with not one, not two but four guns aimed in your direction if you even moved slightly?

I have good firearm experience but nothing can begin to describe the feeling of piss your pants fear from having your own life at someone else's mercy, which they could snuff out in seconds is genuinely terrifying.

Not to mention they had bombs, so even if they didn't shoot you, you wouldn't be in one piece for a proper burial.