Why Columbine? NY Times bestseller summarizes killers' motives for Columbine shooting

Columbine wasn't about jocks, goths or Trenchcoat Mafia. Award-winning author debunks myths & unravels the Columbine shooting motives. Rare access to film much of the video inside the Columbine cafeteria, to show you exactly where and how the attack played out.

We also used surveillance footage of the killers in the cafeteria during the attack, and the videos Eric and Dylan made, including Hitmen For Hire. You will get a sense of what drove the killers to perpetrate the Columbine shooting and what they wrought

Columbine should not be a mystery. A team of experts brought in by the FBI cracked the case years ago. This video and book explains how and why.

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There's much more info about the Columbine shooting and Dave Cullen's Columbine book here:

http://davecullen.com/columbine.htm

"Columbine Online" is a powerful research tool to navigate the overwhelming data on the case. Share a decade of Dave Cullen's research. The site includes analysis and links to thousands of police files, the killers' journals, crime scene photos, videos, the Basement Tapes transcripts, etc.:

http://www.columbine-online.com/

And there is an instructor guide for the book--expanded, Nov. 2010:

http://www.columbine-instructor-guide...

New Columbine Student Guide, Nov. 2010:

http://www.davecullen.com/students/co...

This video summarizes the Columbine book, as well as the tragedy, and it's a quick, easy way to gauge whether Columbine is the right book for you.

• Category

  News & Politics

[Skullteen]

I stumbled upon your book (if this is really you) at my college library. I'm really glad I toughed through the awkwardness of checking out a book on such a topic at my school because it changed my perspective on Columbine, which is a subject I first grew fascinated with in my sociology class when I was a high school student. Great work on the book, I intend on buying it soon so I may re-read it.

[Dave Cullen]

Thanks. (Yes, it's me. You can check my website, where this video is linked.)

[Jamie Crist]

I plan on reading your book as soon as I finish this school year but I just wanted to leave a friendly note that on your website, under the "Columbine" tab, the word "Research" is spelled "Reseach." I don't think that is purposeful but I just wanted to make you aware of it. :)

[Gabby Pirmann]

Im a friend with a boy who is going through some of the exact same things as dylan, and people tease him about it. Someone called his school and fed his principal lies that he was walking around it with a rifle when he was home sick in bed all day! He idolizes Dylan for putting up with it so long, even though it didnt work out so well in the end.

[Dave Cullen]

They were both involved in the planning for months, but "just the same as Eric"--I'd say no way on that. If you read their journals and Eric's plans, their involvement in the planning is radically different.

I have never heard anyone posit any scenario like you presented, but perhaps you talk to different people. That's definitely not the way I presented him in the book.

[AxisOrtiz]

I'm not judging that based solely off the shooting spree. Klebold was also planning this attack for months prior as well, just the same as Eric. Yet for some reason, some people act like Eric just picked Dylan up for school that morning, handed Dylan a Tech-9, and said "Oh by the way, we're going to kill a bunch of people today" which is hardly what happened. I acknowledge Dylan had a better upbringing and probably had to work harder to hide his homicidal inclinations, but that's it.

[Dave Cullen]

If you talk to hostage negotiators and forensic psychologists, they will disabuse you of that idea very quickly. The mood or face presented by a shooter when he finally acts can bear little resemblance to his psyche leading up to it. Trying to divine their character/motives/involvement based on 30 minutes of his life--an extremely atypical 30 minutes--does not lead to good results. And psychopaths like Eric are generally much more placid. Look at the years leading up to it.

[TheAgwoodliffe]

Perhaps I worded it wrong, but Dylan wanted revenge for everyone being so well off whilst he had to suffer, and Eric because society wouldn't allow him to indulge in his sadistic ways.

[AxisOrtiz]

I don't like the word "revenge" being used honestly, because I doubt there was any at play realistically, regardless of how they justified it. I think it's easy to see it that way, but the killings were so indiscriminate by both that I just can't see any valid retribution being carried out. I think it was more of an attack on society in general and the American system that made them depraved and miserable, but no one specific. They saw dying infamous as preferable to living in irrelevance.

[TheAgwoodliffe]

On the contrary, this idea makes most sense to me: One afternoon, Dylan rants to his friends about how he'd love to shoot up a load of the idiots at school. One of the people that happened to be listening was Eric..a conscienceless monster who enjoyed destruction. Eric said to him in return, ''You fool, we could just blow up the whole place instead & take out everyone in one go''.

I think for Dylan, it was revenge against his peers; for Eric, it was revenge against the authorities.

[AxisOrtiz]

According to the survivors from the library, Dylan was smiling the entire time and much more vocal and celebratory than Eric, so I don't buy that for a minute. I really hate the fact so many people think Dylan was just some poor guy who got caught up in a situation that was primarily orchestrated by Eric. There's just no way that assumption holds any water, especially if you read the transcript from that library 911 call.

[RIDEHOMEDOME]

Hemmingway killed himself bro! I don't know if Earnie was such a good choice, considering the homicide and suicide that happened there. lol..