Klebold and Harris were both seniors at Columbine High School. According to students, they were members of the Trenchcoat Mafia. The Trenchcoat Mafia was a group of high school kids who reportedly wore black trenchcoats and black clothes with swastikas on the sleeves, spoke German, and often spoke of whom they hated, which included minorities and jocks. Student also reported that they were a group of outcasts, who were often teased and harassed by the "jocks" (the social elite of the high school). Eric Harris had a web page that detailed how to make pipe bombs and told of how he wanted to place bombs over the entire town, not caring if he lived or died. Harris and Klebold were said, by friends, to pass time by playing extremely violent videogames, including Doom II. Both had previous criminal records for breaking into a van and stealing electrical equipment.

Another contributing factor is the media, which includes television, radio, the Internet, and video games. Studies have shown that viewing television violence has a clear influence on boys' violent behavior, even through adulthood. Centerwall's (1992) study involving the effect of television programs on murder rates, showed that children who were raised in front of televisions began to show evidence of viewing violent programs (Balk, p.472). Other studies also showed that viewing violence affects many aspects of people, including behavior, attitudes, and values, by causing people to become more nonchalant about violence and its victims, igniting distrust between people, and making people more likely to accept violence as proper behavior (Balk, p.473). It is a well-known fact that the Harris and Klebold both liked to pass the time playing violent video games and watching violent television and programs. The boys' favorite game was Doom II. The object of the game is to kill the enemy by shooting them to death. According to Zillmann (1989), exposure to pornography desensitizes viewers' to the crime of rape (Balk, p. 388). Can this theory also apply to violence? Klebold and Harris killed their fellow classmates apparently without remorse. Reports say they were laughing during at least one scene. Are children more likely to "copycat" things that they see on television? Evidence that they would exists in the correlation between the school murder and current movies. The Matrix is a movie in which the star can only overcome the "bad guys", by killing them and also boasts a clique of people who wear trenchcoats. Carrie 2: The Rage is a movie that tells of a young girl who goes on a killing rampage and kills all of her

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