The Writer-of-Violence-as-School-Shooter-Stereotype: How Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Public Fear Make Writing Violence Dangerous for High School and College Students

This Time Magazine excerpt from “The Legacy of Columbine,” published on March 11, 2001, nearly two years after the infamous attack at Columbine High School, is a chilling reminder of the culture of fear that consumed the United States in the wake of the massacre, at that point the most horrific incident of gun violence in a United States school. The bloody rampage of teenage gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, respectively 18 and 17 years old and both seniors at upper class, mostly white Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, instantly captured the awe, grief and outrage of the public and the commercial news media