“The Allure of Columbine Fandom”— Vice News, 2020, 12:28 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJu28fSMk5M

Contributed by Mary Scafidi, Cabrini University

The Columbine shooting is one of the most influential events in modern American history. The shooting has also impacted pop culture, and there is a world of teenage obsessives who openly glamorize the gunmen. Indeed, many acts of gun violence committed in schools post-Columbine were committed by a gunman who cited Columbine as an inspiration (including the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech shooting).  

This video profiles people who glorify mass shooters and serial killers. It shows us how people can create fandoms or followings around anyone, even despicable people. The main focus here is the case of Sol Pais, a young woman who followed these communities until her self-inflicted death. Sociologist Jim Hawdon claims such groups legitimize violence by portraying it as a solution to personal problems. This includes violence against others and the self. Indeed, nearly 95% of mass shooters in schools are suicidal.

Why are people attracted to these dark fandoms? Is there a way to prevent fandoms from being made around violent people? What social interventions might prevent followers of these fandoms from committing violence?

From the video’s description: Shortly before the 20th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting, an 18-year-old named Sol Pais sent much of the United States into a panic. Without telling anyone her plans, Pais had flown from her home in Miami to Denver, where she bought a shotgun and then disappeared. When the FBI learned about her obsession with Columbine, it launched a manhunt involving more than 20 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Hundreds of schools closed, affecting more than 500,000 students. Pais’s picture was all over the news, which described her as “armed and dangerous." All of it — the manhunt, the school closures, the wall-to-wall coverage on local and national TV — was for naught. Law enforcement and the media had fundamentally misunderstood the story of Sol Pais: She never made any explicit threats, nor was there any indication that she intended to cause harm to others. That misunderstanding was based on a deeper failure to comprehend what drives young people to become fixated with the Columbine massacre — and what lies at the root of school shootings themselves.