The Columbine High School massacre was a school shooting that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County , Colorado , United States, near Littleton in the Denver metropolitan area. The perpetrators, senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher. They injured 21 additional people with gunshots, and exchanged gunfire with the police. The pair subsequently committed suicide. The crime has inspired several copycats, and Columbine has become a euphemism for a school shooting. At the time, it was the most deaths ever to happen from one. In addition to the shootings, the attack involved several homemade bombs. The largest of these were two placed in the cafeteria of the school, car bombs were in the parking lot, and at another location were those intended to divert first responders. The cafeteria and car bombs failed to detonate. The pair's motives remain unclear, but they planned for about a year and wished the massacre to rival the Oklahoma City bombing and cause the most deaths in United States history. The attack has been referred to by USA Today as a suicidal attack [that was] planned as a grand—if badly implemented—terrorist bombing.Due to a delay in entering the school, local police have been heavily criticized for not intervening during the shooting. It resulted in the introduction of the Immediate Action Rapid Deployment tactic, used in situations with an active shooter whose goal is to kill rather than take hostages. It also resulted in an increased emphasis on school security with zero tolerance policies, and sparked debate over gun control laws, high school cliques, subcultures, and bullying; as well as a moral panic over goths, gun culture, social outcasts, the use of pharmaceutical antidepressants by teenagers, teenage Internet use and violence in video games.
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