Long-term impact
From Columbine Wiki
Michael Moore made a documentary, Bowling for Columbine. In this movie he tries to give the world a look into gun-related violence in the United States. The title is chosen because of the story that the shooters attended their bowling class before the massacre, which was incorrect (though they did go bowling with their gym class). Bowling for Columbine tries to show that gun-related crimes are not caused by bowling classes, computer games or music, but due the easy availability of guns. As a result, Kmart stopped selling handgun ammunition, which they claimed to be a "business decision."[1]
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Other shootings
The Columbine shooters unfortunately "inspired" some other school shootings.
Virginia Tech shooting
Seung-Hui Cho indicated in an essay written by him in April 1999 that he wanted to repeat Columbine.[2] On April 16, 2007 he killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia Tech. He also sent video messages in which he discusses Eric and Dylan to NBC, wich he posted during the shooting.[3] Cho had a long history of mental problems.[[5]] He killed himself afterwards, while the police enterd the building.
Jokela shooting, Jokela, Finland
Pekka-Eric Auvinen had a YouTube account where he displayed various violent movies about shooting, Columbine, and other massacres. On November 7, 2007, he posted a video on YouTube announcing that he would go on a killing spree at Jokela High School. At 11:40 AM local time on the same day, he entered the school and killed 8 people.[4] The shooter idolized Eric Harris' ideas. His screennames were naturalselector89 and sturmgeist89; he wrote about how he hated mankind and that he wanted to start a revolution; and he used the song "Stray Bullet" by KMFDM as background music to his killing spree announcement video.[5] After the massacre, he shot himself and later died in the hospital.
Kauhajoki school shooting, Finland
Matti Juhani Saari attacked his school on September 23, 2008 at 10:40 AM.<refGunman sprayed bullets in classroom and corridor, and threw petrol bombs - hs.fi</ref>He used a .22 semi-automatic gun and self-made molotov cocktails. He had placed Columbine-related videos on his IRC galleria account prior to the massacre, and a police inspector suggested it was likely Auvinen (Jokela shooting) and Saari knew each other (and possibly even met).<refFinland school shooting: Gunman Matti Saari made phone call during slaughter - Telegraph</ref> Saari also uploaded videos of him shooting guns on the internet. The Kauhajoki shootings' relation to Columbine is not as clear as with the Jokela shooting, but the "revolution" the Columbine killers wanted to start did seem to occur, at least to some extent.
Geschwister school shooting, Emsdetten, Germany
Sebastian Bosse was 18 years old when, on November 20, 2006, he went on a killing spree against his former school, armed with with four guns and many bombs.[6] He wounded more than 30 people, 3 of them badly. Amazingly and very fortunately, all of his victims survived, and the only casualty was his suicide. Bosse idolized Eric Harris in his journal,[7] although Bosse's hate for "the system" was not so all-consuming; he was more unhappy and depressed. He hated school, and planned the attack ahead, writing about it in his journal. He also recorded a "goodbye" video.[8] His weblog is still available to read online.[9] His video garnered a lot of sympathy from viewers. This event could well have cost many lives. It did not get too much attention because only the perpetrator died, but is nevertheless a shooting inspired by Columbine.
