Why didn't they shoot more students running out of the commons?

thelmar wrote:

Also, this part I’m not 100% sure about, so please correct me: Dave Sanders heard the gunshots and explosions outside before the boys got to the commons area. They shot Rachel and Richard, then spent time shooting towards students fleeing through Clement Park. By the time they got to the commons the students had fled up the staircases and exited at the opposite ends/doors of the school. Dave wasn’t shot in the commons or running up the stairs to warn others. He was shot by Dylan in a hallway. If I’m not mistaken he was trying to lock doors from the outside.

According to witness reports and the police timeline, Sanders ran up the stairs and then down the library hall to warn people to flee and/ or hide. He then ran towards the Science hall and as he began to turn the corner, he was shot from behind by Eric.

Okay, thanks for clearing that up for me! For some reason I was thinking that Dylan had shot him. So to answer the initial question, the reason why the boys didn’t shoot more people in the commons area is because of Sander’s quick actions of emptying out the vast majority of students having lunch there.

Screamingophelia wrote:

I even think Laurens  table got the brunt of it because that was the table then there were a lot of students under. But we simply don’t know we are speculating

You are correct. I wonder if it's because they knew who they were. After all most of them were the same grade as them.

Miasmom1028 wrote:

Screamingophelia wrote:

I even think Laurens  table got the brunt of it because that was the table then there were a lot of students under. But we simply don’t know we are speculating

You are correct. I wonder if it's because they knew who they were. After all most of them were the same grade as them.

I doubt they knew the majority of those kids, especially since Columbine High School was huge. When I was a senior year I didn't know 50% of my class, and I wasn't a loner.

Yeah, we can all ponder on and on why they didn’t kill more but ultimately we will never know WHY:.: but we do know this shooting could have been indeed far FAR more deadly then this was. Now the library had 56 people inside of it, they had more then enough ammo to kill all. Instead they killed 10, injured 12 and stopped because they wanted to and went to the commons. Then they walked by classroom after classroom. They could of shot off the lock on the door and killed classroom after classroom and this is true because the swat team didn’t reach the library last of all 3 and a half hours after they committed suicide, the whole library could have been killed. And many classrooms could have been slaughtered. Instead they just looked inside many classrooms and never attempted to get in, they never attempted to get into the bathroom where they knew there was people. They said “let’s kill everyone we find in there” to taunt the people inside the locked bathroom but then never attempted to get in and never killed them. This is not including that they could have killed more people then they did outside, a lot were injured and not killed. Plus they ultimately missed a lot of people they could have killed in the hallways who weren’t, Including the huge swarm of students who came up right after Dave sanders who they did shoot. So yeah this could have been the biggest shooting of all time even though the bombs failed.

lol wrote:

Miasmom1028 wrote:

Screamingophelia wrote:

I even think Laurens  table got the brunt of it because that was the table then there were a lot of students under. But we simply don’t know we are speculating

You are correct. I wonder if it's because they knew who they were. After all most of them were the same grade as them.

I doubt they knew the majority of those kids, especially since Columbine High School was huge. When I was a senior year I didn't know 50% of my class, and I wasn't a loner.

I agree. I doubt Dylan and Eric really ever knew most of their victims. They might have seen them in the halls. Dylan did the lighting for Rachel's play, but I don't count that as actually knowing her. She was just another girl that went to school at Columbine with them. I'm guessing that's how most of the victims were.

VoDKaComeHere wrote:

Yeah, we can all ponder on and on why they didn’t kill more but ultimately we will never know WHY:.: but we do know this shooting could have been indeed far FAR more deadly then this was. Now the library had 56 people inside of it, they had more then enough ammo to kill all. Instead they killed 10, injured 12 and stopped because they wanted to and went to the commons. Then they walked by classroom after classroom. They could of shot off the lock on the door and killed classroom after classroom and this is true because the swat team didn’t reach the library last of all 3 and a half hours after they committed suicide, the whole library could have been killed. And many classrooms could have been slaughtered. Instead they just looked inside many classrooms and never attempted to get in, they never attempted to get into the bathroom where they knew there was people. They said “let’s kill everyone we find in there” to taunt the people inside the locked bathroom but then never attempted to get in and never killed them. This is not including that they could have killed more people then they did outside, a lot were injured and not killed. Plus they ultimately missed a lot of people they could have killed in the hallways who weren’t, Including the huge swarm of students who came up right after Dave sanders who they did shoot. So yeah this could have been the biggest shooting of all time even though the bombs failed.

If the second bomb was supposed to go off at 11:35, which would explain why they thought everybody in the library was going to die along with several other facts (including not shooting in the commons), then it wouldn't be merely "because they wanted to" nor "we will never know why", which strike me as cliches and possibly contradictory. Not sure why so many find punting on explanations to be a virtue.  If they wandered the halls looking for police in the building, then it could explain not caring about students.  It's also not clear they never attempted to get into classrooms, and I don't see how they would've known when SWAT was arriving.  I agree that without Gardner stalling their entering at the west entrance, they may have killed a lot more of that 'swarm' running up the cafeteria stairs. It seems to me their being on the stairs, shooting Rachel and Richard first, and no sense of panic or the like after Dylan looks into the cafeteria and sees people fleeing up the stairs, means they planned to enter the west entrance and cut off their escape once their victims turned around.