Reflections from a Columbine Survivor: 25 Years Later
The father of a Columbine victim mourns for those lost, and hopes for the future.
This week we will be focusing on the 25th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado. Tom Mauser lost his son on that day. He has offered to share his thoughts with us during this dour commemoration.
The Columbine Memorial's Wall of Healing in Littleton, Colorado (Library of Congress, Carol M. Highsmith)
By: Tom Mauser
This April 20th will mark 25 years since the tragedy at Columbine High School.
It was such a tragedy that it has become a one-word descriptor — just say “Columbine” and one thing comes to mind for many Americans, and it’s not the beautiful columbine flower that graces Colorado’s mountains. It has come to symbolize school shootings. And, unfortunately, it has led to copycat plots and shootings.
I’m all too aware of Columbine. My son Daniel was killed there that day. One of the thirteen murdered.
Many Americans over a certain age can tell you where they were or what they were doing when they watched the live news coverage or saw it on the news that night and in on-scene coverage for countless days thereafter.
It wasn’t the first school shooting in America, but it was the largest at the time. It was so impactful because of the live video coverage, because there were two shooters, because they intended to kill hundreds of students, because the killings were so cold blooded, and because it happened in middle class, suburban America.
We learned much from Columbine. We learned that we cannot have police merely protecting a perimeter outside an active shooting; we now have new active shooter protocols. We learned that children can be mass murderers, so we must now make our children endure frightening active shooter drills.
We learned that school shooters often signal their intentions to others, and that it’s important for parents, teachers, and classmates to listen for and report those signals, and important to take threatening internet postings more seriously. Colorado established the Safe 2 Tell program. It takes reports anonymously, any time, any day of the year, from students or other community members who are concerned about their safety or the safety of others, with a guarantee that officials will follow up on the reports.
We learned that it’s important for schools and police to communicate with each other about criminal records and school maps, and that individual police departments need to have tools that allow them to communicate with each other over their radios. Colorado took steps to enable greater communication between these groups.
We learned that it’s important to be aware of loopholes in our gun laws, and to close those loopholes. The gun show loophole was a factor in the Columbine massacre — three of the four guns used at Columbine were purchased exploiting that loophole. I am proud that Coloradans closed that loophole the following year.
In 2000, when the Republican legislature refused to close the loophole, we at SAFE Colorado decided to put it to a vote of the people. We collected signatures and put it on the 2000 ballot. Despite being a leaning red, pro-gun state, the voters approved Amendment 22 by an overwhelming vote of 70% to 30% on the 2000 ballot.
What it showed, as I said at the election celebration, was that it was easier for the gun lobby to buy, badger, and bully 51 legislators than it is to buy, badger, and bully millions of voters, and people will support a common sense gun violence prevention law when presented the evidence. Unfortunately, it is expensive to run a ballot initiative campaign, which means we have to work even harder to offset the gun lobby going forward.
It is worthy of note — and celebration — that this past week we saw the Biden Administration issue a new rule that expands background checks, requiring many private sellers to register as a Federal Firearms Licensee, and thus to conduct background checks of all customers. Essentially it closes the gun show loophole.
It is reason to celebrate and be thankful. And yet it is also reason to reflect: it took 25 years to close such an obvious loophole, so we must ask ourselves whether it will take another 25 years to close the next loophole. No, we must build on what has been accomplished.
We lost so much on April 20th, 1999. We lost 13 wonderful, promising human beings. 23 students were injured, some very seriously who are still struggling with lifelong injuries. And we must never forget the impact of the trauma on so many people beyond those who were shot.
In closing, I would like to honor the 12 students and one teacher who lost their lives that tragic day:
Cassie Bernall
Steven Curnow
Corey DePooter
Kelly Fleming
Matt Kechter
Daniel Mauser
Dan Rohrbough
Rachel Scott
Isaiah Shoels
John Tomlin
Lauren Townsend
Kyle Velasquez
And the heroic teacher, Dave Sanders
May they never be forgotten, and may the lessons from Columbine never be forgotten.
Tom and his son, Daniel (Photo credit: Tom Mauser)
Tom Mauser is the father of Columbine High School victim, Daniel Mauser. He has been a fierce gun safety activist for 25 years, and is a board member of Colorado Ceasefire. He is the author of Walking in Daniel’s Shoes (Ocean Star Publishing, 2012).