Inside the chilling cult of the 'Columbiners': Disturbing number of school shooters around the world inspired by 1999 bloodbath as it's linked to latest tragedy where Natalie Rupnow, 15, killed teacher and student
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On April 20, 1999, two teenage boys dressed in black trench coats went on a killing rampage at Columbine High School in what was at one time the deadliest school shooting in American history. Armed with an assortment of weapons and homemade bombs, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher at the Colorado school, and wounded two dozen others before taking their own lives.
![[The gunmen who, in hopes that their story would outlive them, created home videos of the preparations for their attack and detailed their plans in a manifesto. Harris and Klebold are pictured examine a sawed-off shotgun at a makeshift shooting range the year of the shooting]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/16/45201559-14206199-For_months_Sue_was_in_denial_about_what_her_her_son_had_done_and-m-18_1734627058901.jpg)
Twenty-five years later, the name Columbine has become synonymous with school and mass shootings in America and across the world. The massacre has spawned a subculture of fans, known as Columbiners, who are fascinated with the killers and have created an online community with an estimated more than 70,000 members worldwide.
![[Eric Harris (left) and Dylan Klebold (right), perpetrators of the Columbine massacre]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/16/93229489-14206199-Eric_Harris-a-21_1734627357178.jpg)
Harris and Klebold’s infamous slaying has created a school shooting blueprint for 'copycat' shooters and been linked to more than 50 fatal hate-filled attacks across the globe including in Russia, Germany, Finland and Canada. But the Columbine effect has seemingly had the worst impact on America with 32 fatal school shootings having been connected to the attack, including the three deadliest school massacres in US history.
![[Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz researched the 1999 massacre before gunning down 17 people at his Florida high school]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/16/93277587-14206199-image-m-26_1734627451660.jpg)
Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho said he wanted to 'repeat Columbine' before carrying out his 2007 attack. Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza had an 'obsession' with Columbine and Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz researched the 1999 massacre before gunning down 17 people at his Florida high school.
![[Investigators said that Cruz, who was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in 2022, aspired to be 'the youngest mass murderer']](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/16/93278069-14206199-image-a-25_1734627422570.jpg)
