There is a lot of speculation as to why Eric and Dylan only killed thirteen people before their own lives ended on April 20, 1999. Did they run out of ammunition? Did they get tired of killing people? Were they intimidated by the cops? Did they start to have feelings of remorse? Although most anything that is said about the small casualty count classifies as speculation, there are multiple indications that the low casualty count had to do with something a bit more complicated than what may seem obvious.
Eric and Dylan had a plan for destroying Columbine High School alongside killing as many students as possible before ending their own lives. They planned to detonate propane tank bombs in the cafeteria in order to drive students out to the parking lot where they could shoot at the students who escaped the blast. They expected their car bombs to explode as the students ran out to the parking lot, just as police and/or emergency personnel arrived. They hoped for complete chaos, and although in a sense that is what they got… it wasn’t quite what they had in mind.
Columbine was supposed to be more of a bombing than a shooting and their plan failed miserably. The bombs in the cafeteria did not detonate and students never ran outside, so Eric and Dylan improvised. They shot at students randomly– anyone that was in their line of sight became a target for their wrath. They detonated most of their bigger pipe bombs and incendiary devices outside of the school and on top of the roof before entering the cafeteria, and finally, the library. They taunted students in the library, who in turn begged for their lives. Dylan focused on destroying the bookshelves and computers while Eric’s attention was focused on the arrival of the police department. Both Eric and Dylan were screaming at everyone, telling them how horrible life had been for them at Columbine. Eric focused on asking people if they wanted to die while Dylan asked people why he should let them live, sparing a few lives in the process.
Wait a minute. If their plan was to kill as many students as possible, why didn’t they put a bullet in everyone’s head when they entered the library? They certainly had enough ammunition to kill every last person in that library. They could have walked up to each student and fired one shot to kill. So why didn’t they?
Some people believe the only reason they didn’t kill more people is because they didn’t really want to kill anyone in the first place. This theory, however, is not very well supported considering they had quite a bit of fun with those that they did kill. They didn’t close their eyes and shoot; they taunted people and blew their brains out at close range and then laughed about it.
Eric and Dylan were not just there to kill. They were there for a power trip. They wanted to hold people’s lives in their hands and decide who lives and who dies. They wanted control. As much as they would have loved to kill each and every person that crossed their paths, it wouldn’t have given them the sensation they were looking for. They thrived on the idea of letting people go after instilling as much fear as possible in them.
They walked by classrooms with locked doors to peer in and scare the students inside; however, not once did they shoot open the doors. They had other things on their minds. They had mass destruction in mind. They still had two propane tank bombs in the cafeteria below that had not exploded.
Once Eric and Dylan entered the library for the first time, they were still curious about their bombs that had not yet detonated directly below them in the cafeteria. They spent a little while in the library shooting at people and objects and then made their way back down to the cafeteria to attempt to detonate their bombs. They could have killed more people while they were in the library, but they really wanted their bombs to explode to result in what they believed would be massive casualties and structural damage. While they were trying to get their bombs to detonate in full, most of the students managed to escape from the library leaving behind only the dead, the severely wounded, and a few stragglers. When Eric and Dylan came back to the library, they realized that there was nothing more to do. There were no more lives to take. Their plan had failed, as the cafeteria bombs never exploded and neither had their car bombs.
Were they upset that their plan didn’t work out as expected? Most likely. Did they know they only killed thirteen people? Probably not.
Eric and Dylan only killed thirteen people, but they wounded twenty-one others. This means that they successfully hit a total of thirty-four people. Most of the injured had severe injuries including multiple wounds to the head and torso. In the short amount of time Eric and Dylan were tearing through the school (less than an hour) the thirty-four people they did hit probably seemed like more to them. They were so pumped full of energy and excitement that it is very likely that they thought they hit and killed more people than they actually did.
A combination of their desire for destruction and thirst for power on top of not knowing how many casualties they had played a huge role in the low casualty count. Eric and Dylan may have wanted to kill more than 500 people, but they had their minds set on a massive explosion in order to do it. The explosion never happened, and without their estimated casualty count from the cafeteria bombs, it seems as though they lost interest in quantity and focused on destruction instead. Either that or they lacked the courage to kill so many people face to face.
Did you know?
Eric and Dylan planned a school bombing with a subsequent shooting. They never expected to have to face their victims one-on-one. They expected to shoot fleeing survivors from a distance. The failure of their plans played a huge factor in how little casualties they created.