Editing Columbine High School massacre (section)

===Copycats===
The Columbine shootings influenced subsequent [[school shooting]]s, with several such plots mentioning it.<ref name=tape/><ref name=hands>{{cite news |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/04/18/vtech.nbc/ |title=Shooter: 'You have blood on your hands' |date=April 18, 2007 |access-date=October 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018123847/http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/04/18/vtech.nbc/ |archive-date=October 18, 2014 |url-status=live |publisher=CNN}}</ref> Fear of [[Copycat crime|copycats]] has sometimes led to the closing of entire school districts.<ref name="inter">{{cite web |url=http://www.mayhem.net/Crime/intermittent.html |title=Intermittent Explosive Disorder |publisher=mayhem.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101220034110/http://mayhem.net/Crime/intermittent.html |archive-date=December 20, 2010 |url-status=live |access-date=March 11, 2011}}</ref> Since Columbine, over 74 copycat cases have been reported, 21 of which resulted in attacks,{{When|date=January 2025}} while the rest were thwarted by law enforcement. In many of them, the perpetrators cited Harris and Klebold as heroes or martyrs.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/10/columbine-effect-mass-shootings-copycat-data/ |title=How Columbine Spawned Dozens of Copycats |work=Mother Jones |date=2015-10-05 |access-date=2020-04-24}}</ref>

==== Analysis ====
Harris and Klebold have become what the ''[[Napa Valley Register]]'' have called "[[cultural icon]]s" for [[Troubled youths|troubled youth]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://napavalleyregister.com/news/columbine-killers-becoming-cultural-icons-to-some-researchers-say/article_7231b5aa-424c-5c67-8f13-2d6ee09f82b4.html |title=Columbine killers becoming cultural icons to some, researchers say |last=Elliott |first=Dan |agency=Associated Press |website=Napa Valley Register |access-date=July 22, 2019}}</ref> According to psychiatrist [[E. Fuller Torrey]] of the [[Treatment Advocacy Center]], a legacy of the Columbine shootings is its "allure to disaffected youth".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/03/us/minnesota-foiled-school-massacre-john-ladue/index.html |title=The massacre that didn't happen |last=Drash |first=Wayne |date=November 3, 2015 |access-date=April 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170402011921/http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/03/us/minnesota-foiled-school-massacre-john-ladue/index.html |archive-date=April 2, 2017 |url-status=live |publisher=CNN}}</ref>

Sociologist Ralph Larkin examined twelve major school shootings in the US in the following eight years and found that in eight of those, "the shooters made explicit reference to Harris and Klebold".<ref name="yorker">{{cite news |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/thresholds-of-violence |title=Thresholds of Violence, How school shootings catch on |last=Gladwell |first=Malcolm |date=October 19, 2015 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=April 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327011302/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/thresholds-of-violence |archive-date=March 27, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Larkin wrote that the Columbine massacre established a "[[Play (theatre)|script]]" for shootings. "Numerous post-Columbine rampage shooters referred directly to Columbine as their inspiration; others attempted to supersede the Columbine shootings in body count."<ref name="larkin2009" />

A 2015 investigation by [[CNN]] identified "more than 40 people...charged with Columbine-style plots". A 2014 investigation by [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] identified "at least 17 attacks and another 36 alleged plots or serious threats against schools since the assault on Columbine High School that can be tied to the 1999 massacre." Ties identified by ABC News included online research by the perpetrators into the Columbine shooting, clipping news coverage and images of Columbine, explicit statements of admiration of Harris and Klebold, such as writings in journals and on social media, in video posts,{{efn|In 2012, sociologist Nathalie E. Paton of the [[Centre national de la recherche scientifique|National Center for Scientific Research]] in [[Paris]] analyzed the videos created by post-Columbine school shooting perpetrators. A recurring set of motifs was found, including explicit statements of admiration and identification with previous perpetrators. Paton said the videos serve the perpetrators by distinguishing themselves from their classmates and associating themselves with the previous perpetrators.<ref name="yorker" /><ref>{{cite book |title=School shootings: Mediatized violence in a global age |last=Paton |first=Nathalie E. |publisher=[[Emerald Group Publishing]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-78052-919-6 |editor-last1=Muschert |editor-first1=Glenn W. |volume=7 |pages=203–229 |chapter=Media participation of school shooters and their fans: Navigating between self-distinction and imitation to achieve individuation |access-date=April 2, 2017 |editor-last2=Sumiala |editor-first2=Johanna |chapter-url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/file/index/docid/835850/filename/Paton-Media_Participation_of_School_Shooters_and_their_Fans.pdf}}</ref>}} and in police interviews, timing planned to an anniversary of Columbine, plans to exceed the Columbine victim counts, and other ties.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/columbine-shootings-grim-legacy-50-school-attacks-plots/story?id=26007119 |title=Columbine Shootings' Grim Legacy: More Than 50 School Attacks, Plots |last1=Thomas |first1=Pierre |date=October 7, 2014 |access-date=April 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417084412/http://abcnews.go.com/US/columbine-shootings-grim-legacy-50-school-attacks-plots/story?id=26007119 |archive-date=April 17, 2017 |url-status=live |work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |last2=Levine |first2=Mike |last3=Cloherty |first3=Jack |last4=Date |first4=Jack |author-link1=Pierre Thomas (journalist)}}</ref>

In 2015, journalist [[Malcolm Gladwell]] writing in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine proposed a [[threshold model]] of school shootings in which Harris and Klebold were the triggering actors in "a slow-motion, ever-evolving riot, in which each new participant's action makes sense in reaction to and in combination with those who came before."<ref name="yorker" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/malcolm-gladwell-says-school-shootings-are-slow-moving-riots-2015-10 |title=Malcolm Gladwell says the school shooting epidemic is like a slow-moving riot |last=Weller |first=Chris |date=October 13, 2015 |access-date=April 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418081232/http://www.businessinsider.com/malcolm-gladwell-says-school-shootings-are-slow-moving-riots-2015-10 |archive-date=April 18, 2017 |url-status=live |website=[[Business Insider]]}}</ref>

In February 2016, after Klebold's mother, [[Sue Klebold]], spoke out on [[mental health]] and [[suicide prevention]] in an interview with [[Diane Sawyer]], then-[[Attorney General of Colorado]], [[Cynthia Coffman (politician)|Cynthia Coffman]], [[Twitter|tweeted]] that Klebold's interview had been "irresponsible and inflammatory, that Klebold had been "selfish", and that her interview could have "very negative consequences". Ted Zocco-Hochhalter, whose daughter Anne-Marie Hochhalter was a Columbine student paralyzed in the attack, countered that Klebold, as a remorseful mother, was productively sparking awareness on mental issues. Mental health organizations echoed Zocco-Hochhalter's remarks.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Greene |first1=Susan |title=Cynthia Coffman's Columbine Tweets blasted as 'ignorant,' 'insensitive' |url=https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2016/02/23/cynthia-coffmans-columbine-tweets-blasted-as-ignorant-insensitive/ |access-date=4 September 2021 |work=[[Colorado Independent]] |date=23 February 2016}}</ref> The day before the interview, Anne-Marie Hochhalter had addressed a social media post to Sue Klebold, saying: "I have forgiven you".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Slevin |first=Colleen |date=18 February 2025 |title=Columbine survivor Anne Marie Hochhalter, who forgave gunman's mother, dies at 43 |url=https://apnews.com/article/columbine-anne-marie-hochhalter-forgive-klebold-obit-f8e8aabd8cf7fe23d71d81d1e6eac423 |access-date=19 February 2025 |work=[[The Associated Press]] |quote="She said she was sure Klebold had agonized over what she could have done differently just as she had thought of ways she could have prevented the death of the mother she loved. "A good friend once told me, 'Bitterness is like swallowing a poison pill and expecting the other person to die.' It only harms yourself. I have forgiven you and only wish you the best," Hochhalter said in a message she posted on Facebook. She also included a photo of a card Sue and Tom Klebold sent to her as she recovered in the hospital after the shooting."}}</ref>