20 Years After Columbine, What Have We Learned?

We've learned nothing except for the fact the the GOP is filled with cowards unwilling to stand up to their NRA overlords.

While I am not opposed to banning assault rifles, it is difficult to think of a measure that would have less impact on the number of murders. The 2017 FBI Uniform Crime Report shows more Americans are killed by unarmed assailants than by assailants armed with rifles. Of 15,129 Americans murdered in 2017, 7,032 were killed by handguns; 1,591 were killed by knives; 696 were beaten, choked, kicked or stomped to death; 467 were bludgeoned to death by blunt objects; 403 were killed with rifles, including military-style rifles; And 264 were shotgunned to death. Rifles were used in about 2.5 percent of murders, but you would not reduce murders by 2.5 percent by banning all rifles, including assault rifles. Murderers denied rifles would use handguns, shotguns, knives, blunt objects or their bare hands. It wouldn’t make much difference in the number of mass shooting victims, either. The numbers o dearths in mass shootings depends more on the nature of of the target then the type of weapon used. We need to work on making American less homicidal. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8.xls

what we learned is that you have public servants (looking at you republicans) bought and paid for by gun lobbyist, who care more about guns than the safety of teachers, parishioners, concert-goers, and most importantly children.

All mass shootings are tragic but the hypocrisy of gun control advocates and the press who remain silent at the city of Chicago's 5 or more children who over many weekends are killed by criminal elements. Is it not as dramatic as being killed in one incident?

As we reflect on the Columbine massacre and the mass shootings that followed, we might consider looking beyond the usual suspects. Certainly, gun manufacturers and the NRA as their mouthpiece have whipped up Second Amendment fundamentalism without regard to the reasoned boundaries of other Constitutional rights, while legislators have shown little pro-life courage. But law enforcement has also reinforced the cult of the gun. Following Columbine, feds promoted active shooter doctrine -- the notion that officers should seek and destroy the shooter without waiting for backup. This set the stage for NRA's "good guy with a gun" nonsense. As it turns out, those we hire to be "good guys" too often become killers of innocents because their reliance on guns undermines their developing other skills and tactics for safely interacting with the public. If police can't deal with disorderly persons better than amateurs, why are we paying and arming them? [BTW, more sworn officers are killed in motor vehicle accidents than by gunfire -- so they should also have more vehicle & traffic safety training.] Meanwhile, the murderers of Columbine were incorrectly profiled as outsiders, feeding another in a series of distractions from identifying the actual causes of mass gun violence -- including widespread access to guns and ammunition, not to mention Americans' willingness to fund drug violence. Time to look in the mirror. If you hate gun violence, stop buying illegal drugs.

What have we learned? Obviously, not much considering how many sad gun related disasters we have had since. We still have not adopted national gun control laws to prevent this tragedy from happening again.

I don't know what America has learned but I have learned that America and republicans love their guns more than they love our children and that is a rather pathetic lesson.

We obviously haven't learned anything, excdpt maybe who our masters are and how spineless America really can be when she puts her mind to it.

To answer you question: Nothing.

Judging from the youth suicide rate, we have much to learn. At the other margin, the strident arguments for the overarching right to own military weapons in the face of such manifest suffering demonstrates a cold, political indifference by too many people toward a distressing problem. There is a surplus of despair, and a deficit of caring.

What have we learned ? People with a heart and some morals have learned that there are many unlike them who want to protect their 2nd amendment rights over human life. We have learned that a large majority of our representatives in Washington do not have the courage to do the right and moral thing by enacting sane gun restrictions. And I am afraid 20 years from now some other reader of the NY times will be saying the exact same thing.

"Some analyses show an increase in Columbine-like episodes, others a decline." Really? Just a cursory look at a list of school shootings shows a dramatic increase. Shootings by decade through April 1: 1860s 6 shootings 8 dead 1870s 7 shootings 3 dead 1880s 11 shootings 2 dead 1890s 9 shootings 14 dead 1900s 15 shootings 13 dead 1910s 19 shootings 12 dead 1920s 10shootings 5 dead 1930s 9 shootings 10 dead 1940s 8 shootings 11 dead 1950s 17 shootings 13 dead 1960s 18 shootings 44 dead 1970s 30 shootings 35 dead 1980s 39 shootings 49 dead 1990s 62 shootings 88 dead 2000s 63 shootings 107 dead 2010s 179 shootings 179 dead (296 wounded) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States

I remember when Columbine happened, it was brutal, my sheltered life was never the same. I also remember Charlton Heston griping about guns being taken from "his cold dead hands" and how disgustingly powerful that message was. There you go, America, another "celebrity" controlling the national dialogue.

Some analyses show an increase in Columbine-like episodes, others a decline....I already commented on school shootings, here are some mass shooting stats. Spoiler: its getting worse. The deadliest 25 shootings by decade, 40s - 1 shooting, 13 dead 3 injured 50's - none 60's 1 shooting 18 dead 31 injured 70's 1 shooting 11 dead 0 injured 80's 5 shootings 73 dead 26 injured (ban on assault weapons proposed) 90's 2 shootings 39 dead 51 injured (90's shootings had one in 1991, pre assault weapon ban, one during ban) 2004 assault weapon ban expires 00's 4 shootings 72 dead 66 injured (all post 2004) 10's 11 shootings 256 dead 662 injured Prior to the 80's there were three mass shootings with over 10 people killed. Coincidentally perhaps, modified M16s (assault weapons) began to be mass marketed in the 70's. During the 80's mass public shootings increased in severity and assault weapons gained traction. In the years leading up to the assault weapons ban, there were 6 top 25 shootings. In the years 1994-2004, there was one. In the years since expiration there have been 15. Pro gun death people will tell you that correlation doesn't equal causation. Maybe, but its a heck of a coincidence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_shootings_in_the_United_States

Evidently, we’ve learned how to do it even better.

Things that should have been covered in this article: 1. Media's 1990s depiction of all Millennials as soulless killers. 2. Media's oft-repeated claim that video games caused Columbine. 3. Whether Boomers care at all how many kids die in schools.

I'm a bit surprised that I didn't see mention of the Sutherland TX shooting during church services in 2017. Here's the summary from the massacre's Wiki page: "A mass shooting occurred at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of the city of San Antonio, on November 5, 2017.[1] The gunman, 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley of nearby New Braunfels, killed 26 and injured 20 others."

We have learned nothing. I was a student teacher in South Mississippi during this. It was after Luke Woodham’s fun rampage in Jackson, MS. I went on to teach in a jail for boys in upstate NY, in a prison and then in a Bronx middle school and high school. I am now in Australia, still in education. The US system is broken (& yes, I am only here because I couldn’t find a job in 2008/2009 that would pay my student loans AND rent.

That's easy. We've learned that our children can (and will) be slaughtered in their schools and we will do nothing to stop it.

I think it is not hyperbole to say that the NRA - and their mainly Republican supporters in Congress by their inaction - are responsible for the extraordinary level of gun violence in America. They are responsible, even if they didn't pull the trigger themselves, for the countless lives lost and people injured and scarred, both physically and emotionally. When planes crash we make them safer. When cars crash we make them safer. When disease breaks out, we try to cure it. In no other area of society do we ignore causes of such large amounts of death and injury. It is heartbreaking, sickening, and enraging to see such insanity continue. If the NRA was run by Muslims it would have been labeled a terrorist organization long ago.

We have learned nothing, because mental health care for children and teens is still scarce, and the NRA still controls DC.

I will never forget that day. It is as indelible in my mind as the day that Kennedy was shot. I was a professor in a teacher education program and was on my way to a conference out of town. One of my children was in high school 40 miles away. We have friends whose children were at Columbine. I had a student who taught there. I was terrified for them. I was terrified for my own children. I spent the entire weekend glued to the TV in Tucson and on the phone with my family instead of at the conference. I spent a lot of time thinking about what teachers and children now have to fear. I've learned how much power the gun industry and its enablers have and how little they care about the victims. I've learned how frightened so many people are and how carrying a gun makes them feel powerful. I've learned that while the majority of Americans feel for the victims of gun crimes, there is a loud and vocal group that demonizes the brave survivors who choose to fight for limitations on gun ownership. I've learned that some sheriffs in Colorado believe that they don't have to enforce laws they don't agree with. I feel less safe today than I did twenty years ago and much sadder. One of the few positive lessons that I think we have learned is that first responders should respond and enter the building immediately instead of waiting until the entire SWAT team is there. I still think of the terror of the children and teachers who had to wait hours to be allowed out of hiding.

Sadly, what we’ve learned is that a false belief in the right to own military style weapons is more important than human life.

To answer your headline, not too much as judged by the app. 40k people killed by guns last yr. an aberration re our peer countries and a perversion of what Madison and the founding fathers wanted, a well trained militia. The gun death toll had been going down in the recent past simply because of demographics. Now it is on the rise again. Only when we adapt a policy of legality, regulation, responsibility and non promotion of the gun like we did with drunk driving and cig. smoking will we be in line with our peer countries.

This author uses disingenuous tricks to try and make his point, which discredits folks who might be interested in honest solutions (instead of the same tired already tried ideas) to gun violence. If you are talking about school shootings, don't include suicides to inflate your statistics. If you talk about the now-lapsed national ban on "assault weapons" without discussing both the gaming of that rule, and it's lack of any tangible result to be given as an example of a policy that works, you lose credibility. I'd also point out that while there were school shootings in the 1920's and earlier when fully automatic weapons of war were legal to own, none of them had as many victims as those done in times where fully automatics have been effectively banned. So if it is the firepower, why weren't there more casualties in incidents that happened when the firepower legally available was much more lethal? Most "common sense" gun laws have been tried more than once, and haven't proven to affect the numbers. Quit trying the same thing and expecting a different result! Come up with something new, and have an honest discussion about social problems.

What I learned was that military machinery and bombs were made in Columbine and under the cloak of night quietly transported by rail as if mass destruction and death were not being manufactured there. But everyone did know, and everyone did suffer the weight and sadness of the death and carnage that was being plotted there and this had a direct result upon the psyche of those children. I learned that the current administration is a manifestation of the same depression that occurs when citizens are faced with the prospect of helplessness when they witness their nation as wanton rouge murders.

Easy question to answer. NOTHING. We Americans are incapable of learning. We are more and more a nation of "Trumps."

Judging by results, I learned that Americans will not do anything for gun control, regardless of anything. It is all talk.

I remember how shocking it was to watch kids getting shot and the whole thing unfolding on CNN. Now it’s so common, I’m numb to it. Also, Columbine stayed in the news for weeks but mass shootings today are forgotten after a few days (at most).

We have learned absolutely nothing. The NRA is as strong as ever. Political leaders remain just as weak. ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ has lost its meaning. Discussions between parents and children about school intruders is gut wrenching. America deserves better. But nothing will change. Even after the inevitable next mass shootings of children.

What have we learned since Columbine? We’ve learned that no matter how many people we bury because of brutal gun usage, no matter how much we resist, no matter how much we plead with legislators to change gun laws, no matter how much we try to have the NRA stand up for lives instead of money, we are expected to read and hear about mass shootings one day and forget about them and accept them the next day. I stood at the March for Our Lives event in DC last year with my daughter and my ten year old grandson. We had come from Wisconsin and joined others from all over the country. The world watched us. We were filled with emotion. I stood there thinking in the next days to come anyone there could just be shot down somewhere, either to die or be maimed. And we would be expected to accept that and just go on, because our government had done nothing to preserve safety. Our government will not even allow the most meager changes in our gun laws. A woman at one of the DC museums from another state, the day before, told me how she feared the government coming to her door to take all her guns away....an educated stranger pleading her ridiculous case astounded me. When I see Steve Scalise, a legislator, limping and parading around with a crutch, still grinning, and never attempting to change any gun laws after being a victim of guns himself, I realize how futile this all is. They’d rather see funerals and rehab settings, people struggling emotionally and physically. Sad.

I was raised in Littleton, a few short miles from Columbine High School. The wound and pain remain - less raw but ever-present. This week will be particularly difficult for my hometown. Not just the memorials but also the shocking number of people who actually idolize the shooters. Read the Denver Post article from last week about the people who have visited the school to pay some sort of twisted tribute to violence. We have apparently learned nothing from the experience given the continued carnage in our schools. The country truly lost its moral compass - its soul - when it failed to respond to the slaughter of the innocents at Sandy Hook. All was lost at that moment. I am a university professor in Georgia - a state which permits concealed carry weapons in classrooms and tried without success to allow such carry without a permit this past legislative session. My syllabus has a firearms policy, and my university has offered active shooter training. Fortunately, I have never had to enforce my syllabus or utilize the training, but I often think about the safety of my students and personal security during the course of a semester. A sad commentary on higher education, society, our children and their parents, and our politicians. I love what I do for a living but increasingly look forward to retirement.

It is like asking if we listened to Eisenhower's warning about the military industrial complex. We didn't, and are now engaged in perpetual wars across the globe, so the war lovers can make millions on their war industry. "We" aren't in charge, so it just doesn't matter what we learn or care about. Private interests have overweighed the public good for all of America's history, other than perhaps during WWII. So many lost and abandoned young men, who feel the thrill of power when holding a loaded firearm... as long as firearms are as available as hate media, we will be at risk in our schools and business and public life. Did we learn from Vietnam? Hugh

We have learned that the Second Amendment is not just an interpretation of law in the US Constitution but also an all encompassing religion to its proponents. Nothing else matters to those folks, corporations and think tanks than keeping the 2nd Amendment completely free and clear of fetters and common sense. This comes at a huge cost to the parents and loved ones of those massacred and wounded in mass shootings, suicides and simple homicides (which are the majority of shootings). We have learned also that this will never change even tho the majority of Americans want reasonable laws without loopholes and for the manufacturers of weapons to be held accountable for how they market their wares to inappropriate audiences. I repeat. Nothing will change. I propose that any victim (or their families) should have an automatic payment from the Federal Government of five million dollars (not taxed as income). That way we can at least make being shot in a mass shooting at least somewhat desirable.

Hopefully the video documentary points out that school massacres are not a uniquely American phenomenon, and that they happen with regularity all around the world. This suggests that the American constitutional right to bear firearms is not the only source of this problem, and that there are other factors at play here as well.

We have learned almost nothing. Many leaders express their sympathies, offer "thoughts and prayers" and do nothing. Two Democratic Colorado State Senators courageously pushed through tougher gun legislation after Columbine and lost their jobs. We need to ban all assault weapons now, enact tougher gun legislation requiring registration, training, insurance, and not let the NRA dictate policy. I will not vote for anyone who takes NRA money.

There is no need for anyone aside from law enforcement or military to own automatic assault type weapons - their sole purpose is to kill many as quickly as possible. Let people have all the hand guns and rifles they want but there should be a government ban on automatic weapons period. There will be more shootings even if this were to become a law (fat chance) but the number of people killed and maimed would be significantly reduced and police would have a much greater chance of intervening. And please, don't let me hear the NRA faithful invoke the pathetic refrain involving the Second Amendment, an arcane law in need of abolishment or amending - the authors could not even have envisioned how this law would be employed to justify ownership of such weaponry people feel they need. Like I said, guns for the people, sure - as long as they aren't automatic weapons. Gun reform laws making it more difficult for certain people to purchase, given the powerful lobby the NRA will continue to employ, seems more realistic. And as we continue to see a climate in this country where fear, anger, racism and angst are served up by the POTUS we shall see demented people inflict their carnage - sadly it will continue but its impact would be significantly attenuated if they did not have access to automatic weapons. Look how New Zealand responded but then again they don't have the NRA and their lobby.

Twenty years? There are now shootings annually almost. The adults have been bad stewards of society. Capitalism has some fault as well because it drives a mass media culture that doesn’t nurture the better side of humanity and community. The political leadership holds a lot of blame as well for sponsoring a tolerance for violence that appears acceptable, but is not. Kids can see the hypocrisy. Empty spiritual values are presented as social goals. Religion is seen as tradition but empty of morals. Teachers, firemen, nurses, who should be among the most valued of society are not held in honor by mass media or the society at large. These kind of shootings grow directly out of US culture. As American as Chevrolet and baseball. It’s a bad job our parents’ parents did, and are parents, and also we as parents now. This is the world we wanted? We have the means to change it, but we don’t or can’t fight the greater powers. Now, I’ve learned that a NYC high school is closed tomorrow because of threats on social media. Thanks NRA and violet video games and social media and thank you cowardly politicians and divisive politics and people who look the other way and gun manufacturers and sales and mass media glorifying shooting in practically every show because of lazy dramatic writing and the rest you know who you are.

This is the sort of reporting that is terribly unfair to the death industry. Consider all the jobs lost in that sector if our representatives actually challenge unrestricted access to firearms.