Another factor and maybe the biggest in blame is the parenting of these shooters. In the case of Columbine Eric Harris talked about the scapegoat he knew would be used and said, “My parents couldn’t have helped it … My parents have been some of the best parents I’ve known. Don’t arrest any of our friends or family. They didn’t have a clue (Shapiro (67).” Despite the word of their son the family of Harris was sued for 250 million by one of the victims families contending that the Klebolds and Harrises ignored warning signs that preceded the shootings. Educators, policy-makers, law enforcement officials, and adolescent-development specialists came to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at the National Conference on Lethal School Violence in 2000. Katherine S. Newman profiled Michael Carneal the shooter from Kentucky. The Carneal family, prominent and stable, "was almost exactly the opposite of a dysfunctional family," she said (Fronline). Yet as he progressed through middle school to high school, Michael Carneal showed subtly disturbing signs: His grades slipped, he had minor discipline problems, he began to hang out with older kids in the "Goth" group (Frontline). Researchers at the convention found that these kids usually don’t come from extreme dysfunctional families but their parents were not involved enough to always catch the warning signs something was wrong. Kip Kinkel’s parents for example were described as “loving” and had known something was wrong and put their son in therapy (Frontline). However, like Carneal it wasn’t enough. Newman also said, “"In general, we find that the shooters, they tend to be flying right underneath that radar screen. They are rarely people who have no history of disciplinary problems, but they are also not the first kid that any teacher or principal would say, 'Oh, yes, I'm not surprised it was Johnny.' They're usually quite surprised it was Johnny (Frontline)."

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold worked together to plot out the deaths of their classmates. They obtained guns through a friend at a gun show and put two propane bombs in the cafeteria. With these bombs and guns they planned on killing at least 450 students (Shapiro 67). Fortunately the bombs did not go off but they still were able to kill 12 people, themselves, and wound 23 more (Shapiro 65). As soon as word got out about the shootings once again people tried to figure out why they had done it. Some people blamed Marilyn Manson even though it was later found the boys didn’t listen to him. Then the blame was put on video games because Klebold and Harris played a lot of the game “doom.” Then finally the nation looked to the parents but the boys said on a tape that it had nothing to do with them and they both had great parents. Although there were many different possibilities, the blame for their actions was all over the map. At the time of the shooting there was a group at school named the Trench Coat Mafia and they also took part of the blame but in the end the boys were not even directly associated with this group. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department issued a report stating the "trenchcoat mafia" is a "loose, social affiliation of former and current Columbine High School students with no formal organization structure, leadership or purpose such as that typically found in traditional juvenile street gangs (Shapiro 68)." Harris and Klebold "had a few close associates in the TCM, but overall were not described as having any particular influence or leadership roles within the Trench Coat Mafia (Shapiro 68)." Although Columbine took the most victims and seemed to be the worst shooting it was not the last.

It has now been six years since the first shooting but no resolution has been reached, no solution to this problem, and no answer to the ongoing question of why. Over the years the reasons for these horrible acts have been plentiful but they have boiled down to four major targets, video

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