Do you wish they felt pain when they died or not?

I hope they did. No matter how much I like them in the moments up to the shooting, the shooting was a very evil action and I wish they died a slow painful death to make up for all the suffering they caused.

Eric died instantly and Dylan was probably dead within minutes. But that's nothing compared to the suffering they caused.

Their suffering was before they died so no, I don't wish they felt pain. They were just two teenagers who felt so bad that they committed the shooting, it's really pathetic. And I usually don't wish pain for people, death is enough, I would have to be directly impacted to wish pain to someone.

No, I would not wish that pain upon them. I would not wish pain upon anyone.

It seems to me that Eric and Dylan both felt plenty of mental and emotional pain leading up to the shootings - they did suffer, just not by bullet.

Very well said to both ladystardust and Neah. I also do not wish the physical pain on them Imagine the pain already felt when you feel suicide is your only option

The suffering happened while they were alive for sure.
Their suicides was the portal to release them from their suffering so to speak.

I also don't believe in wishing pain on anybody, no matter how bad of a person they are.

Sorry if it seems cruel. But it's just that what they did was unforgivable. The things they said to people as they killed them. Very sad.

Sorry if it seems cruel. But it's just that what they did was unforgivable. The things they said to people as they killed them. Very sad.

Their words don’t bother me as much as the killing...

I think what they said was cruel but I’m more offended by them murdering people in cold blood.

I hope they did, but if they didn't they're feeling plenty of pain in Hell.

Yeah, they'd pretty much deserve to feel pain.

InsaneIntruder wrote:

I hope they did, but if they didn't they're feeling plenty of pain in Hell.

The only person who deserves to burn in Hell is whomever made it.

I too wouldn’t wish pain on anyone. I agree that they suffered enough in their life. Mental illness is destructive.

Some people don't realize that "mental pain" is often worse than physical pain.
Psychical pain is just a sensation, but "mental pain" affects your whole being.

It's why seeming normal people are driven to suicide.

Their existence was filled with misery and torment, so they suffered before their deaths, while the families of the victims suffered after.
Besides, what would change if they felt pain before they died?
As someone stated what they did was unforgivable, but wishing pain on them will do nothing to change the outcome of what happened.

Many people who lost someone that day ended up forgiving them, because in the end holding all that hate inside will end up eating you alive

No I don't wish that they felt pain when they committed suicide as there is absolutely nothing to be gained from it besides just adding more to the extreme unnecessary pain and suffering that was already caused on that day. Saying that they shouldve is just wish fulfillment.

.

Wish they felt an extraordinary amount of pain. Two true pieces of shit.

And being bullied...yeah..it wasn't even close to what the TCM actually went through, not Eric and Dylan, not to mention other outcasts who were treated far worse than Eric and Dylan, yet never killed any innocent kids.

No

Gold Digger wrote:

I hope they did. No matter how much I like them in the moments up to the shooting, the shooting was a very evil action and I wish they died a slow painful death to make up for all the suffering they caused.

It's an understandable human reaction for those whose lives have been completely changed by the event, but it doesn't solve anything. Feeling physical pain, no matter how excruciating that can be, doesn't imply actual conscious regret of one's actions.

Absolutely not.

As someone who suffered from severe mental illness and relentless bullying, they were living in agony in their own personal hell for a long while before the shooting. Mental illness is a cruel disease, where your own mind plays tricks on you. It makes you truly believe that every single person is against you, and that you are nothing but a complete burden to the world. Suicide is about ending the pain. The feelings are so intense that they completely take away your process to think rationally.

After all, how messed up do you have to be to fantasize about killing innocent children and then ending your own life?

After intensely studying this tragedy for at least a dozen years now I am more and more convinced that they completely checked out of any emotions weeks before and it was a completely fabricated persona they took on that day. Dylan, in particular, acted like he was having the time of his life. Why did they do this? To have that image of them be the one people would remember in infamy. This attack was all about notoriety and revenge.

If I had a wish, it would be that they both got the professional psychological help they needed before they felt they had to do such a terrible thing.

true_crime wrote:

Absolutely not.

As someone who suffered from severe mental illness and relentless bullying, they were living in agony in their own personal hell for a long while before the shooting. Mental illness is a cruel disease, where your own mind plays tricks on you. It makes you truly believe that every single person is against you, and that you are nothing but a complete burden to the world. Suicide is about ending the pain. The feelings are so intense that they completely take away your process to think rationally.

After all, how messed up do you have to be to fantasize about killing innocent children and then ending your own life?

After intensely studying this tragedy for at least a dozen years now I am more and more convinced that they completely checked out of any emotions weeks before and it was a completely fabricated persona they took on that day. Dylan, in particular, acted like he was having the time of his life. Why did they do this? To have that image of them be the one people would remember in infamy. This attack was all about notoriety and revenge.

If I had a wish, it would be that they both got the professional psychological help they needed before they felt they had to do such a terrible thing.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I recently experienced a postnatale depression after a miscarriage.
It completely ate my soul. I remember sitting in the garden surrounded by birds and trees on a perfect sunny afternoon and feeling NOTHING.
The voices and sounds of everyone and everything around me sounded like they were smothered by something.
I felt nothing when my son hugged me or gave me a drawing or something. It was horrid.
But even though i never thought of hurting other people because of my own pain, i'd never wish E&D more pain than they'd already experienced.
In order to hurt people like they did you have to at least have that numbness, that big black hole inside of you.
At the same time i'm also convinced they indeed took on a persona to actually carry out their horrendous crime.
They had to, because they weren't evil at heart. I'm pretty sure of that.

QuestionMark wrote:

InsaneIntruder wrote:

I hope they did, but if they didn't they're feeling plenty of pain in Hell.

The only person who deserves to burn in Hell is whomever made it.

I think it is unfair for people to wish that Eric and Dylan to be tormented in hell forever.

Runes wrote:

Couldn't have said it better myself. I recently experienced a postnatale depression after a miscarriage.
It completely ate my soul. I remember sitting in the garden surrounded by birds and trees on a perfect sunny afternoon and feeling NOTHING.
The voices and sounds of everyone and everything around me sounded like they were smothered by something.
I felt nothing when my son hugged me or gave me a drawing or something. It was horrid.
But even though i never thought of hurting other people because of my own pain, i'd never wish E&D more pain than they'd already experienced.
In order to hurt people like they did you have to at least have that numbness, that big black hole inside of you.
At the same time i'm also convinced they indeed took on a persona to actually carry out their horrendous crime.
They had to, because they weren't evil at heart. I'm pretty sure of that.

Wow. that was a really powerful description of what it would be like to feel such depression. That's awful. I'm sorry you went through that experience.

LadyStardust wrote:

Runes wrote:

Couldn't have said it better myself. I recently experienced a postnatale depression after a miscarriage.
It completely ate my soul. I remember sitting in the garden surrounded by birds and trees on a perfect sunny afternoon and feeling NOTHING.
The voices and sounds of everyone and everything around me sounded like they were smothered by something.
I felt nothing when my son hugged me or gave me a drawing or something. It was horrid.
But even though i never thought of hurting other people because of my own pain, i'd never wish E&D more pain than they'd already experienced.
In order to hurt people like they did you have to at least have that numbness, that big black hole inside of you.
At the same time i'm also convinced they indeed took on a persona to actually carry out their horrendous crime.
They had to, because they weren't evil at heart. I'm pretty sure of that.

Wow. that was a really powerful description of what it would be like to feel such depression. That's awful. I'm sorry you went through that experience.

Thank you for your kind words! Luckily i started to feel better as soon as my hormones were getting in place again.
But i've been there before as a teen and wrote a lot about it, so that's why i can still recall how it felt pretty precisely.
It's like living behind glass that mutes everything. Reality changes because of that, i felt i was in a different world.
That probably happened to them too.
I think one of the main reasons E&D did what they did was not because they were evil, but they had a big hole inside themselves that they (eventually) filled with rage.

Lol @ anyone here thinking that Eric and Dylan would not have blown their brains out, regardless of how much you can "relate" to them (Yeah..they weren't legitimate loners and they weren't relentlessly bullied either).

Fuck both of them.

And by the way it's funny how no one here relates to Cho, who actually suffered relentless amounts of bullying when he was younger, but relates to those two pissants who pissed their lives away, and were by no means bullied more than other classmates.

lol wrote:

And by the way it's funny how no one here relates to Cho, who actually suffered relentless amounts of bullying when he was younger, but relates to those two pissants who pissed their lives away, and were by no means bullied more than other classmates.

There are 2 possibilities.
1. They just want to have sex with E and D.
2. Cho wasn't an edgy teenager so he's less relatable.

I don't see anyone here saying that. I'm sure they would've shot me if i were in that library that day.
I absolutely hate what they did. But that doesn't mean you can't relate to them up to a certain point.
I'm not sure how much they were bullied, i wasn't there. It's all about how sensitive you are for it.
You can also feel very (mentally) lonely even though you have a nice family and friends and so on.
A lot of celebrities commit suicide while they seem to have everything.
I don't know about Cho, i haven't researched that case and this topic is not about him.
I can and will never relate to the fact that they decided to end innocent lives because of their own pain.
That's the most selfish act i have ever seen.

lol wrote:

Lol @ anyone here thinking that Eric and Dylan would not have blown their brains out, regardless of how much you can "relate" to them (Yeah..they weren't legitimate loners and they weren't relentlessly bullied either).

Fuck both of them.

And by the way it's funny how no one here relates to Cho, who actually suffered relentless amounts of bullying when he was younger, but relates to those two pissants who pissed their lives away, and were by no means bullied more than other classmates.

What is your source for Seung being bullied? According to a student who went to school with him, he was basically invisible, and none of his roommates said anything about him being picked on. I hope you aren't taking his manifesto at face value. I believe it was written during a schizophrenic episode (while Ax Ishmael, a personality who believed himself to be a persecuted martyr, was in the driver's seat.)

Is it bad that I do?

I know I shouldn’t feel that way, especially about two kids I never knew nor would have ever wanted to. And I know I shouldn’t feel that way about two kids, because no matter what, that’s what they were, was two kids. And, even more so, I know I shouldn’t feel that way in general just because I know in both my heart and my mind that I shouldn’t wish pain on another person, no matter what.

But, I also can’t help but think about all of the destruction and all of the pain that they caused in their wake.

See, you have to think about this: these two young men knew they were going to school to die that day. The other students and teacher had no idea they were going to school to die that day.

They mercilessly slaughtered these children and teacher...and, if they were to have their way, the destruction, devastation, and loss of life would have been far greater than what it was.

So...yeah, I hope they felt pain.

There’s no way Eric did, his death was so instant. Boom, gone.
Dylan, though...that one is a different story.

It hurts me to say that about another person, because I try not to wish any kind of pain on anybody. But, in this case, I’ll make an exception.

I'm pretty sure Eric didn't feel a thing. Half of his brains were stuck to the ceiling, which you can see in the Fire Department library aftermath video.

Kinda ironic with Dylan. He was concerned with fuckin up his suicide, way back before he did it.

Didn't part of his journal read something like...."I hope I don't fuck it up & become a vegetable"

It still makes me wonder why he chose the TEC-9 & not the Shotgun he had been using that morning?

Adzybear wrote:

I'm pretty sure Eric didn't feel a thing. Half of his brains were stuck to the ceiling, which you can see in the Fire Department library aftermath video.

Kinda ironic with Dylan. He was concerned with fuckin up his suicide, way back before he did it.

Didn't part of his journal read something like...."I hope I don't fuck it up & become a vegetable"

It still makes me wonder why he chose the TEC-9 & not the Shotgun he had been using that morning?

I don’t think he wrote anything like that.

I'm pretty sure Eric didn't feel a thing. Half of his brains were stuck to the ceiling, which you can see in the Fire Department library aftermath video.

Kinda ironic with Dylan. He was concerned with fuckin up his suicide, way back before he did it.

Didn't part of his journal read something like...."I hope I don't fuck it up & become a vegetable"

It still makes me wonder why he chose the TEC-9 & not the Shotgun he had been using that morning?


I don’t think he wrote anything like that.

I had thought he did as well but after going back just now and reading over all of his entries he does not.

The TEC-9 would be much easier to handle, but you’re right. The shotgun would have inflicted the most damage.

You must really hate yourself to blow your brains out and half your skull out with a shotgun at point blank range. IMO Eric hated himself more than Dylan did.

True Crime..... Yes Dylan deffo wrote about not fuckin up the suicide and becoming a vegetable. He even used the word vegetable

true_crime wrote:

It still makes me wonder why he chose the TEC-9 & not the Shotgun he had been using that morning?

Using that morning as in the shot to Lance? He used the TEC-9 a lot more, even outside when he barely used it (3 shots to 1).

I doubt a double barreled shotgun is that easy to get in your mouth compared to a single barrel. Also, during the library massacre, for the most part, Eric uses the shotgun and Dylan uses the TEC-9; and pretty apparent to me they expected to die during the library massacre when the second cafeteria bomb exploded. "Everybody's gonna die" would include them. So, finishing what they started on top of the guns most comfortable to them, perhaps.

Adzybear wrote:

True Crime..... Yes Dylan deffo wrote about not fuckin up the suicide and becoming a vegetable. He even used the word vegetable

Well if you could find it and link it that would be great. I read it through twice this evening and didn’t see it.

Well, I believe that Dylan actually did feel physical pain as he died, while Eric shot himself in the mouth with his shotgun essentially blowing his brains out, Dylan shot himself (a few minutes after Eric possibly) in the temple and there were reports that Dylan was moaning and crying in the minutes before his death. His shotgun blast hadn’t killed him instantly, he would end up choking on his own blood for the next 5 or so minutes. He may have felt that he may not have. The choking sounds that he was making may have sounded like the crying that they described. So the question is, do I wish that REB felt any pain when he died? Well if he did or didn’t it doesn’t really matter to me, the end result would’ve been the same anyways.

wolfycannibalismparty wrote:

Well, I believe that Dylan actually did feel physical pain as he died, while Eric shot himself in the mouth with his shotgun essentially blowing his brains out, Dylan shot himself (a few minutes after Eric possibly) in the temple and there were reports that Dylan was moaning and crying in the minutes before his death. His shotgun blast hadn’t killed him instantly, he would end up choking on his own blood for the next 5 or so minutes. He may have felt that he may not have. The choking sounds that he was making may have sounded like the crying that they described. So the question is, do I wish that REB felt any pain when he died? Well if he did or didn’t it doesn’t really matter to me, the end result would’ve been the same anyways.

More than likely it was just his death rattle. I highly doubt he felt any pain when he shot himself (unfortunately).

wolfycannibalismparty wrote:

Well, I believe that Dylan actually did feel physical pain as he died, while Eric shot himself in the mouth with his shotgun essentially blowing his brains out, Dylan shot himself (a few minutes after Eric possibly) in the temple and there were reports that Dylan was moaning and crying in the minutes before his death. His shotgun blast hadn’t killed him instantly, he would end up choking on his own blood for the next 5 or so minutes. He may have felt that he may not have. The choking sounds that he was making may have sounded like the crying that they described. So the question is, do I wish that REB felt any pain when he died? Well if he did or didn’t it doesn’t really matter to me, the end result would’ve been the same anyways.

I see this claim a lot but there were no reports about Dylan moaning and crying. The only report that might possibly reflect Dylan's final moments was a statement by Patrick Ireland, pg. 42
When asked to relate his next recollection, Pat Ireland stated when he awakened he remembered his ears were "ringing" and he remembered hearing what he thought was a "coughing" sound. Pat Ireland stated he believed the coughing was coming from a male due to the fact the "voice sounded deeper." Pat Ireland stated he was confident the coughing he heard was coming from the east side of the library. Pat Ireland pointed out at some point later the coughing stopped and he did not hear it again. At the time Pat
Ireland was unable to expound further on that point.

A cough is all that was heard. People assume that Dylan was the person coughing but there's no way to know this for certain.

I think they already tasted what pain is their whole life with mental health issues, rejection, relation to their parents, suicidal thoughts, bullying, and on and on. That would be weird from me to wish more pain to two barely 18y/o who killed and died 20 years ago.

What i wish is that they never felt that much pain when they were alive and never killed, hurted, traumatised so many people...

Supacocky wrote:

I think they already tasted what pain is their whole life with mental health issues, rejection, relation to their parents, suicidal thoughts, bullying, and on and on. That would be weird from me to wish more pain to two barely 18y/o who killed and died 20 years ago.

What i wish is that they never felt that much pain when they were alive and never killed, hurted, traumatised so many people...

And many teenagers experienced the same thing, but 99% of them don't go on shooting sprees, and kill innocent people who had nothing to do with their pathetic hatred towards everyone.

It is a natural part of life to go through rejections. It is natural to have subpar relationships with your parents as a teenager, and by the way Eric had a good relationship with his mother, and an average to okay relationship with his father, while Dylan had okay relationships with both his mother and father. They never dealt with any legitimate abuse from them as far as we know, but make no mistake that those two kids would've easily stated their parents abused them if they did, because they had to go so far back, and use any type of "bullying" that happened to them as a way to fuel their anger and use as an excuse to blow up Columbine High School.

It is natural to have suicidal thoughts. It is part of human life as well to deal with bullying, but these guys didn't even deal with bullying to the extent of the TCM did, or that other kids at Columbine High did. They were just messed with, and because they were so sensitive, and couldn't deal with the fact that they could never be jocks, and have their lives they hated them for it. Even Dylan mentions that in his journal talking about how he's jealous of jocks, and how they have great lives.

It seems so very day 1 spinning wheels to say they had PTSD from bullying, or make bullying or no bullying to be the issue. Might as well discuss whether Rachel was shot for being a Christian, and the only opposition buying into their presuppositions with "hey a lot of people dealt with Christians and didn't go on a rampage" instead of just "lol no"

And while I'm sure they felt emotional pain, neither had felt their head explode or drowned.

It seems so very day 1 spinning wheels to say they had PTSD from bullying, or make bullying or no bullying to be the issue. Might as well discuss whether Rachel was shot for being a Christian, and the only opposition buying into their presuppositions with "hey a lot of people dealt with Christians and didn't go on a rampage" instead of just "lol no"

And while I'm sure they felt emotional pain, neither had felt their head explode or drowned.

I never said they did or even remotely did. I only posted the link to show that severe bullying does have longstanding effects, particularly on someone’s mental health. But it’s also about the tolerance level of some people versus others as well as perception.

There’s no need to be condescending

Posting that link as a response is a lot more than "remotely" saying they did, and in fact you defend it right after saying it wasn't about that.  The comment wasn't about people in general, it's on a forum dedicated to one topic, to a person talking about only one thing.

My post was directed against all sides of the 3 posts above it and is meant more as exhaustion that condescension.

[quote="true_crime"]

lol wrote:

I think they already tasted what pain is their whole life with mental health issues, rejection, relation to their parents, suicidal thoughts, bullying, and on and on. That would be weird from me to wish more pain to two barely 18y/o who killed and died 20 years ago.

What i wish is that they never felt that much pain when they were alive and never killed, hurted, traumatised so many people...
And many teenagers experienced the same thing, but 99% of them don't go on shooting sprees, and kill innocent people who had nothing to do with their pathetic hatred towards everyone.

It is a natural part of life to go through rejections. It is natural to have subpar relationships with your parents as a teenager, and by the way Eric had a good relationship with his mother, and an average to okay relationship with his father, while Dylan had okay relationships with both his mother and father. They never dealt with any legitimate abuse from them as far as we know, but make no mistake that those two kids would've easily stated their parents abused them if they did, because they had to go so far back, and use any type of "bullying" that happened to them as a way to fuel their anger and use as an excuse to blow up Columbine High School.

It is natural to have suicidal thoughts. It is part of human life as well to deal with bullying, but these guys didn't even deal with bullying to the extent of the TCM did, or that other kids at Columbine High did. They were just messed with, and because they were so sensitive, and couldn't deal with the fact that they could never be jocks, and have their lives they hated them for it. Even Dylan mentions that in his journal talking about how he's jealous of jocks, and how they have great lives.

Where did I say others teenagers didn’t experience the same things? If you read me correctly I just say I don’t wish them pain because they already knew what is it. And saying 99% of teenagers who experience the same things don’t go on a rampage doesn’t solve the problem where 1 % do.

Adzybear wrote:

It still makes me wonder why he chose the TEC-9 & not the Shotgun he had been using that morning?

Probably because he knew the TEC9 would cause less of a mess.

Colorado wrote:

Adzybear wrote:

It still makes me wonder why he chose the TEC-9 & not the Shotgun he had been using that morning?

Probably because he knew the TEC9 would cause less of a mess.

I think, being a teenager, he wanted his death to look "cool." That's why he lit the molotov beforehand. He didn't even throw it at anything, just lit it, almost like a ritual. So his choice of weapon is probably related to this too. Maybe he thought leaving his head intact, unlike Eric, would make the suicide look more poignant.

I personally think that he was ready to die but didn’t want to hurt his family. Having seen the result of Eric’s gunshot, he might have thought leaving a better body for his family was enough to warrant a change of weapon.

Forgive the tl;dr as my posts often are but I only do this in hopes of giving proper weight to the several issues. I know it's a popular thing to say in these parts of the internet, but it seems to me like an unwarranted assumption, without some further reasoning or evidence, that Dylan was initially going to use the shotgun for the suicide but switched to the TEC-9 at the last minute.

It seems to me the body positions, his hat's position, direction of the bullet, etc suggest Dylan was on his knees at a right angle to Eric when he shot himself, facing to the North (at least I think that's North). The brain matter under the Molotov cocktail remnants only suggests there was some time between when they shot themselves; i. e. it could have been fractions of a second. Again, without offering something more than that alone, it does not mean Dylan saw Eric shoot himself while he was say lighting the cocktail or something.  It could just mean they were preparing to do it as the fuse burned; and an instant before the fuse lit the contents, Eric went, and the instant it did, Dylan went - and that's assuming Dylan's brain matter would have even traveled over there, which seems another unwarranted assumption. This whole discussion is predicated on him not using the shotgun! That's why we assume it's Eric's brain in the first place.

Further, they had already shot and killed several people with a shotgun to the head. So, there's no reason to think he saw Eric shoot himself, and there's no reason I know of why to think what happened would be a surprise to him.  He shot Lance in the face with one for Heaven's sake, not to mention Kyle. Perhaps the picture makes us forget there were several corpses in the library with them. In a small, high school library. If Dylan was facing the way I think he was, he would see Cassie's shotgun wound just as well - as if he had not seen it before.  

Again further, Dylan's shotgun is lying in the same direction and near Eric's carbine, with the triggers facing away from them. I don't think anybody suggests Eric reluctantly decided not to use the carbine.  Presumably if Dylan pointed the shotgun at himself, and let out a sigh seeing Eric's destroyed head, then tossed that gun down to use the other, chances are it would be facing him. That's how the TEC-9 fell.  Admittedly, Eric's shotgun has the trigger facing away, but there's the force of the shotgun blast/recoil along with questions about cops/etc moving things for that one, possibly. Just the way Dylan's shotgun is hugging the chair and horizontal looks to me more like placement than some anguished drop I would expect if he was going to use it but changed his mind at the last minute.

On top of all that is the simple fact that Eric was more comfortable with his shotgun in the library, and Dylan with the TEC-9. Whether it was because of something on their end (felt better, worked better, w/e) or the other (i. e., it killed better), either one would explain using it to kill themselves.

Jenn seems to think Dylan planned to use the shotgun. I'm sure that's one reason for its popularity. She cites how many things they did that day that matched, to the point of I suppose taking it for granted as an assumption when there is some question about them, to infer they were both doing it. I can see why that's quite reasonable at first blush, with a paradigm case being their trench coats, say.

But, there are many things they did which did not match, such that this should not be an assumption, in my opinion. Perhaps most notably and certainly most relevant here: their guns didn't match - the very thing in question. Not exactly anyway. They both had shotguns, and both probably because of Doom, but both took different kinds with the pump action and the double barrel, obviously. One can cite many other differences. For example, their t shirts did not say the same thing; where they dropped their trench coat was not the same, etc. If you want to say "well but they both wore t shirts with a word or two on it, and they both dropped their trench coats at some point." Fair enough, one can cite then e. g. Eric shot at cops, Dylan didn't. Dylan descended the stairs, Eric didn't. Dylan checked on the bombs from outside, Eric didn't, and so on. This isn't meant to just be nitpicking to annoy. It is meant as giving counterexamples to "Everything they did that day matched" so that it is a false premise and cannot be used in a deduction concluding that Dylan planned to use the shotgun.

Lastly can one even fit a double barreled shotgun in their mouth? That does not seem like an easy task. While they had the internet to look stuff up, and one can imagine them doing so, I don't think they were focused on going for the brain stem for a quick death. If somebody can show me they went to a web-page on doing that or something I would be inclined to rethink all of this if not change my opinion to the one everyone else seems to have, but I think Eric just got lucky if his death was less painful or quicker than Dylan's. I am more inclined to believe he was copying Postal than had researched it. I doubt Dylan had some care for his family having his face (more) intact or anything much at all at that point, else he would not have committed the massacre; nor do I think, even if he did, that he could be persuaded to choose a painful death over a painless one.  I think they were two teenagers who knew little more than films and thought if you shoot yourself point blank in the brain, you're dead. If Dylan had gotten skittish about using the shotgun in the same way as Eric, presumably he would have killed himself like Lanza with the TEC-9 to the back of the head, and not to the temple.

Also, as a post-script, they tried to make the bomb explode on the cafeteria CCTV, surely a suicide attempt; and I believe quite strongly, only slightly less strongly than I believe e. g. this happened in Colorado, that when they entered the library they expected to die there from the bomb 5 minutes later. Hence in part why it's where they return after trying to make the bomb go off, and die there. Dylan even talked about killing himself by tying a pipe bomb to his neck in his journal. All of this I think undermines the idea that they were thinking about shotgun to the brain stem for painless death, or that Dylan feared leaving people a messy one.