Did Columbine start the "loner" school shooter stereotype

I'm listening to the audio book of "Why Kids Kill" and Dr. Langman talks about many school shooters and their motives, going as far back as Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden he keeps saying "but they were not a loner" for every shooter and it got me thinking...

It may be because Columbine was the first shooting that I ever got interested in, but that was the first time I heard of this. We know Eric and Dylan were not the most popular kids in school, but there were people in school that had less friends etc...

Where did the "angry loner school shooter" come from? Was it the media, or was there a school shooter who was the angry person in back of the class that spoke to no one... or did it come from a movie?



i still maintain that just because you have a friend, it does not mean you cannot be bullied or feel isolated... but that's not the point. Dr. Langman does get some things wrong, he mentioned Eric was the one having the "time of his life" yet witnesses all say it was Dylan. You can clearly hear Dylan yelling and laughing on the 911 tape...

Screamingophelia wrote:

Where did the "angry loner school shooter" come from? Was it the media, or was there a school shooter who was the angry person in back of the class that spoke to no one... or did it come from a movie?

Most likely the stereotype came about purely thanks to prejudice and hatred of introverts rather than any movie or news report. It's easy for people to demonize someone who doesn't like to talk; the less they know, the more they assume.

I think it was the media's portrayal of Columbine as a whole. They really took the whole TCM thing and ran with it. From there it morphed into people associated with the TCM being quite loners with no friends that no one liked. Dylan and Eric were both associated with it. I wouldn't call them loners, they had a small group of friends. I think the association of them with the TCM bred the idea of the loner type school shooter. If anything, Cho fit that bill way more than Dylan or Eric ever did.

Screamingophelia wrote:

Where did the "angry loner school shooter" come from? Was it the media, or was there a school shooter who was the angry person in back of the class that spoke to no one... or did it come from a movie?

Not sure. I think Kip Kinkel and Barry Loukaitis were more loners than Eric and Dylan, though I think even they had a friend or two.

I remember Bree Pasquale saying a couple of things that didn't really match reality;

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- shooting anyone of color
- white hats
- they were mean to him last year....
- etc

I think that it contributed to the whole "racist" and "bully" theory too.

I am not condemning Bree, because she said it right after the horrible escape from the Library, but it wasnt correct, but mainstream news picked this up and spread it as true.

Not. It's was before Columbine. And I can't say that E&D were loner.

TheBigLebowski wrote:

I remember Bree Pasquale saying a couple of things that didn't really match reality;

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

- shooting anyone of color
- white hats
- they were mean to him last year....
- etc

I think that it contributed to the whole "racist" and "bully" theory too.

I am not condemning Bree, because she said it right after the horrible escape from the Library, but it wasnt correct, but mainstream news picked this up and spread it as true.

But it was reality. When they came in the library they said, "Everyone with white hats stand up." So to her, that means they were targeting people in white hats.

Dylan spotted Isaiah and said something to the effect of, "Oh, what do we have here? A n*****," "let's kill him," "you're a dead black boy," and they repeatedly used racial epithets before they shot him. So to her, it certainly appeared they were targeting people of color.

Patti Nielson told police they said, "Kill all the jocks." Kacey Ruegsegger heard, "Everyone with a white cap or baseball cap, stand up." Steven Greenwood said that when they entered the library they told all the jocks to stand up and when no one did, one of them said, "just get the kids with the white hats on." That would sound like targeting, especially if you were one of the kids in white hats. Several, like Dan Steepleton and Craig Scott took off their hats and hid them.  

Pat Ireland told police they said, "This is for all the shit you put us through."Dan Steepleton said,"this is for the four years of bullshit you've given us," Brittany Bollerud heard, "hell yeah, this is revenge," Andrew Fair heard, "This is for all these years of shit you've put us through."

Bree herself reported hearing Dylan say, "All you jocks, stand up," and he made reference to "white hats."
She heard them say they were "getting revenge" and "this is for all you put us through this last year."  
She heard Eric say, "Oh, look, it's a n*****."

There are more examples from other students for each claim, but this is fairly represented. Even though they didn't end up actually killing a bunch of jocks, they did verbalize that they wanted to at the time of the attack. They did verbalize at that time, that this was revenge for "all the shit" they had received. Their racial epithets made it sound like they hated people of color, and so she made the assumption they, too, would be a target. Obviously their motives were more complex but she's taking them at their word for how they are representing themselves at the time of the attack and her recollections of everything are really spot on, by far the best witness in the library.

It is a natural intuition that those who who act out in indiscriminate rage against humanity are likely to be unsociable, compounded by profiles from reality. Hermit. Recluse. Loner. The term used is probably irrelevant, but if for some reason one were to find the cultural labelling of "loner" in association with school shootings significant, this did not begin with Columbine:

The Evening News, 1974:

Quote :

Nicol described Barbaro as "quiet, more of a loner than not,"

The Times-News, 1978:

Quote :

Authorities have described Needham as a brilliant loner.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1989:

Quote :

the aunt, Julie Michael, told him West was a loner

The Ellensburg Daily Record, 1996:

Quote :

I would classify him as kind of a loner.

Them and Kip Kinkel most likely.

I think the bigger question is why do kids at these schools think the loners are "weird" and "not worthy" of recognition?

bradt93 wrote:

I think the bigger question is why do kids at these schools think the loners are "weird" and "not worthy" of recognition?

Because they have obvious physical or mental problems? You think adults are less judgemental as a whole or just less vocal?

Ivan wrote:

bradt93 wrote:

I think the bigger question is why do kids at these schools think the loners are "weird" and "not worthy" of recognition?

Because they have obvious physical or mental problems? You think adults are less judgemental as a whole or just less vocal?

OMG, you don't want to socialize much, you must be an "awful" person right?

bradt93 wrote:

Ivan wrote:

bradt93 wrote:

I think the bigger question is why do kids at these schools think the loners are "weird" and "not worthy" of recognition?

Because they have obvious physical or mental problems? You think adults are less judgemental as a whole or just less vocal?

OMG, you don't want to socialize much, you must be an "awful" person right?

If you eventually kill others, yeah, you're weird.

thelmar wrote:

Screamingophelia wrote:

Where did the "angry loner school shooter" come from? Was it the media, or was there a school shooter who was the angry person in back of the class that spoke to no one... or did it come from a movie?

Not sure. I think Kip Kinkel and Barry Loukaitis were more loners than Eric and Dylan, though I think even they had a friend or two.

I don't think Kip was a loner, he was probably the most "popular" school shooter among his peers relatively speaking. Going off a documentary and news report where's numerous friends are being interviewed