Columbine is the Woodstock of school shootings, sure, but the fire was lit in the 80's. That's when you start to see incidents with double digit casualties go from once per decade to occurring roughly every two years.
Speaking of 'the Woodstock of School Shootings', in 1989 we get the movie Heathers, in which a trench-coat clad boy shoots two classmates and bombs his school in an act he describes as 'a Woodstock for the 80s'.
With regards to mass shootings, nothing much changes in the rate of 10+ casualty events - but the background noise of low casualty events has been climbing since forever, and it shows not signs of stopping. Then, back to back, Coming hot on the heels of the previous year's 29 casualty (4 killed, 25 wounded) mass shooting by Kip Kinkel, Columbine upped the ante with two protagonists and 15 killed, and 24 wounded. The act itself is particularly reminiscent of Heathers in that like the movie, it included trenchcoats, bombs, and, uniquely, wasn't a lone wolf affair. The build up to it was documented on video, and beneath the coats, were shirts with 'Natural Selection' and 'Wrath' on them - just like Heathers, it was a performance intended to be seen by others. Columbine is the point where school shootings are no longer directionless 1979's 'I hate mondays' shooting, but rather become the live action performance art of people with manifestos, who dress up for their big day on stage. Attention and sympathy for a tragic anti-hero are deliberately sought from this point on. The act becomes the same opportunity for the killers that is is for the media and politicians; an opportunity to stand on a pile of corpses and say something.
We barely had this style of school shooter 20 years ago. Columbine was only four years earlier.
Columbine is the Woodstock of school shootings, sure, but the fire was lit in the 80's. That's when you start to see incidents with double digit casualties go from once per decade to occurring roughly every two years.
Speaking of 'the Woodstock of School Shootings', in 1989 we get the movie Heathers, in which a trench-coat clad boy shoots two classmates and bombs his school in an act he describes as 'a Woodstock for the 80s'.
With regards to mass shootings, nothing much changes in the rate of 10+ casualty events - but the background noise of low casualty events has been climbing since forever, and it shows not signs of stopping. Then, back to back, Coming hot on the heels of the previous year's 29 casualty (4 killed, 25 wounded) mass shooting by Kip Kinkel, Columbine upped the ante with two protagonists and 15 killed, and 24 wounded. The act itself is particularly reminiscent of Heathers in that like the movie, it included trenchcoats, bombs, and, uniquely, wasn't a lone wolf affair. The build up to it was documented on video, and beneath the coats, were shirts with 'Natural Selection' and 'Wrath' on them - just like Heathers, it was a performance intended to be seen by others. Columbine is the point where school shootings are no longer directionless 1979's 'I hate mondays' shooting, but rather become the live action performance art of people with manifestos, who dress up for their big day on stage. Attention and sympathy for a tragic anti-hero are deliberately sought from this point on. The act becomes the same opportunity for the killers that is is for the media and politicians; an opportunity to stand on a pile of corpses and say something.