I read somewhere just a little earlier today that a 10 yr old had been arrested for sending a threatening text to someone. Apparently the text threatened to shoot up another school.
Copy cats ....... copy cats!
In the article linked above, The "Columbine" tapes, the two shooters actually made several tapes of themselves going through the process of readying themselves for the attack/shoot they were planning. They talk about how they knew they were disappointing their parents but didn't really care; they were both basically fed up with this life and ready to go. They even leave little personal notes to their parents at various spots on the tapes. But the most surprising thing is that they were actually planning on creating a new type of threat to schools in general by their methodology and that they hoped to set a new standard in copy cats who they hoped would follow suit.
In almost every school shoot since 'Columbine', the number of copied things like black trench coats, mil style boots, etc are really mind boggling when you read them and think back over them. The one thing that has changed from then to now is the type of firearm typically used .... the AR platform. Yes it was available back in 1999 but not nearly as popular at that time.
Back in 1999 when 'Columbine' occurred, the two shooters, Harris and Kleybold used a SBS they called 'Arlene' and a Tech9 IIRC. Anyone have a guess where the name 'Arlene' came from, and the Tech9, and the black trench coats? Right out of a video game called "Doom" which the two were known to have played A LOT!
Now I'm not going to argue whether or not video games lead to this kind of madness, only that in this case the two shooters copied many aspects of this particular game. And many aspects of what was done at 'Columbine' has been copied by many of the school shoots since then.