Gunman went bowling before Arapahoe High School shooting, police say

[onehandle]

Source: NBC News



On the morning he walked into Arapahoe High School and shot a schoolmate in the head before killing himself, Karl Pierson went bowling. That detail — offering a chilling connection to the 1999 Columbine High massacre just eight miles away — and others about the Dec. 13 school shooting in suburban Denver were shared Monday at a morning news conference.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said Pierson, 18, planned and carried out the shooting on his own, likely motivated by a dispute with his former debate team coach. “There is no question that this was a very deliberate and planned event,” he said, adding that evidence thus far in the investigation did not suggest any “direct or indirect co-conspirators.”

The sheriff said Pierson began the day as he normally would and “gave no indication that anything was amiss,” adding that Pierson took the time to eat breakfast and go bowling alone before heading to the school.

That detail prompted comparisons to the Columbine High School shooting 14 years earlier. The shooters, students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 13 people and injuring 24 others before committing suicide on April 20, 1999. They originally were alleged to have attended a bowling class in the hours before the attack — an action made infamous in Michael Moore’s documentary, “Bowling for Columbine.”

Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/30/22112064-gunman-went-bowling-before-arapahoe-high-school-shooting-police-say

[TwilightGardener]

1. America is failing its children, guns or no guns. Mental illness, social isolation, a lack

of ability to cope with normal negative teenage emotions, a lack of family structure and support, parents emotionally immature, self-absorbed--or gone all day, every day (even if out of economic necessity)--it all adds up to trouble that was unheard of when I was a kid. My husband and I were just commenting the other day about how when we were teenagers, there was a funny song about a school shooting--"The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun"--because that's how unthinkable such an event occurring in real life seemed to us back then.

[maxsolomon]

3. Absent the gun, this incident doesn't happen.

Last edited Mon Dec 30, 2013, 06:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Angry teenager feels angry over disciplinary action, feels like killing himself, feels like hurting everyone the way he feels hurt, stews a couple days, gets over it, or doesn't, and graduates to become a GOP dirty-tricks video maker.

But when the suicidal teen can waltz into a store and purchase a shotgun to turn impulse into action (as soon as mom is out of town), it turns into a fatal school shooting.

America is failing its children because it places the barely-regulated 2nd amendment militia over life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

[TwilightGardener]

6. I think the gun culture makes it easier to act on the impulse to kill, but

there's little that can be done--in Colorado, the slightly tightened gun control laws have led to a near flip of Democratic control of the state Senate, by being used as an excuse to recall Senators that voted for it and replace them with Repubs.

[maxsolomon]

7. I agree, there's little to be done.

No one wants to move the elephant out of the room, they just want to change the drapes.

American Gun Culture is failing our youth. I am not part of that culture.

[valerief]

9. Use guns to shoot towers that broadcast Fox News. nt

[alp227]

2. Denver Post: Arapahoe High School gunman entered through door that should have been locked

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24815543/news-conference-planned-about-arapahoe-high-school-shooting

CENTENNIAL — The 18-year-old student who opened fire at Arapahoe High School entered through a door that should have been locked but rarely was, the sheriff said Monday.

Karl Pierson went bowling on the morning of the shooting, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said at a news conference. Initial reports — later disputed — suggested that the Columbine High School killers also went bowling on the day of the 1999 attack.

The school janitor was the first to sound the warning and prompt a lockdown when Pierson walked into the school on Dec. 13, Robinson said.

Uh oh. Expect some lawsuits.

[Archae]

4. Except the bowling didn't happen at Columbine.

The film title originates from the story that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold—the two students responsible for the Columbine High School massacre—attended a school bowling class early that morning, at 6:00 AM, before they committed the attacks at school starting at 11:17 AM. Later investigation showed that this was based on mistaken recollections, and Glenn Moore of the Golden Police Department concluded that they were absent from school on the day of the attack.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine#Bowling

[greyl]

5. Thankfully, the article does eventually make that clear.

They originally were alleged to have attended a bowling class in the hours before the attack — an action made infamous in Michael Moore’s documentary, “Bowling for Columbine.”

Investigators later found the shooters had not attended the class that morning.

[Purveyor]

8. Has anyone published a list of 'head-meds' this kid was on yet? eom

[Javaman]

10. Bowling for Columbine. nt