Boulder Store shooting compared to 1999 Columbine High School Massacre, Internet asks if 'anything has changed'
BOULDER, COLORADO: Ten people were killed on Monday, March 22, including a police officer, when a gunman opened fire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, the second mass shooting in the US in a week. As soon as the latest shooting happened, Internet remembered the Columbine High School massacre of 1999.
"These were people going about their day, doing their shopping," Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty said at a late-night press briefing. He described the day's events as "a tragedy and a nightmare." The police officer who died was identified as Eric Talley, 51, an 11-year veteran on the Boulder force. Talley was responding to the King Soopers grocery market when he was gunned down. His police chief, Maris Herold, appeared to be choking back tears as she spoke to the media on Monday night and confirmed the death toll.
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As soon as the news of the Boulder shooting made its way to social media, people started comparing it with the 1999 school shooting that took 15 lives. One Internet user remembered the Columbine shooting, saying "Listening to the coverage of the Boulder shooting. The news anchor said people don’t have plans for when this stuff happens. Wrong. I think we all do. I was 11 when Columbine happened. I make an exit plan as soon as I enter a building." Another one said: "I was a senior in HS in Boulder when Columbine happened. I remember parsing through things with friends the next week at the Abos in Table Mesa right behind that King Soopers. It's crazy that in 20+ years we've made no progress at all with these things."
Listening to the coverage of the Boulder shooting. The news anchor said people don’t have plans for when this stuff happens.
— Alexa Martin (@AlexaMBooks) March 22, 2021
Wrong. I think we all do.
I was 11 when Columbine happened. I make an exit plan as soon as I enter a building.
I was a senior in HS in Boulder when Columbine happened. I remember parsing through things with friends the next week at the Abos in Table Mesa right behind that King Soopers. It's crazy that in 20+ years we've made no progress at all with these things.
— YeahMychal Domenico (@Johnny_Domenico) March 22, 2021
While referring to other shootings, one person said: "Growing up in Colorado and having yearly moments of silence for Columbine, having classmates/friends at the Aurora movie theater shooting, having the day of the Arapahoe High School shooting burned in my memory (among many others)... Why are we still allowing this to happen???" Another one said: "Gun violence in Colorado. Boulder is about 40 minutes away from Aurora. 12 people died in the movie theater shooting there in 2012. Aurora is about 30 minutes from Littleton. 13 ppl were murdered at Columbine HS there in 1999."
Growing up in Colorado and having yearly moments of silence for Columbine, having classmates/friends at the Aurora movie theater shooting, having the day of the Arapahoe High School shooting burned in my memory (among many others)... Why are we still allowing this to happen???
— Michelle Chen (@MichelleX_Chen) March 23, 2021
Gun violence in Colorado.
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) March 23, 2021
Boulder is about 40 minutes away from Aurora. 12 people died in the movie theater shooting there in 2012.
Aurora is about 30 minutes from Littleton. 13 ppl were murdered at Columbine HS there in 1999.
The Boulder shooting is said to be the deadliest in the US since the El Paso Walmart shooting in August 2019, in which 22 people were killed, and the Columbine high school shooting in 1999.
El Paso Walmart shooting
On August 3, 2019, people of a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, became victims of the mass shooting. A 21-year-old gunman, Patrick Wood Crusius shot and killed 23 people and injured 23 others. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has investigated the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime. The shooting has been described as the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history.
Police believe a manifesto with white nationalist and anti-immigrant themes, posted on the online message board 8chan shortly before the attack, was written by Crusius; it cites the year's earlier Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand and the right-wing conspiracy theory known as the Great Replacement as inspiration for the attack.
Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School shootings, a massacre that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, left 15 dead, including the two students responsible for the attack. It was one of the deadliest school shooting incidents in the history of American.
On April 20, 1999 shooters Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17 entered Columbine High School in Jefferson county with semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and several explosives. In less than 20 minutes both of them killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded 21 others. The violence came to an end when Harris and Klebold took their own lives. Later, officials found two propane tank bombs in the cafeteria; had they detonated, the death toll would have been much higher.
Other mass shootings in the US
In May 2019, two men loaded with guns allegedly shot and killed 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo and wounded eight others in a shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch.
In November 2017, a gunman shot and killed three people at a Walmart in Thornton.
In November 2015, a man allegedly shot and killed three people, including a University of Colorado-Colorado Springs police officer, in a shooting at Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs.
In October 2015, one man killed three people in Colorado Springs.
In July 2012, a man shot and killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a movie screening at an Aurora movie theater.
In December 2007, a man killed four people and wounded five others at churches in Arvada and Colorado Springs.