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tudents at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, used the term "new normal" when discussing their state of mind in the wake of the hellish violence that shattered their lives on April 20, 1999. Twelve students and a teacher were killed that day and 23 others were wounded before their teenage assailants took their own lives.
It was one of the bloodiest episodes in U.S. history, and one of a dozen shootings in schools from Bethel, Alaska, to Conyers, Georgia, during an 18-month period.
The shootings aroused concerns about school safety and gun control, fears that were still very real for many Americans a year later. Just days before the one-year anniversary of the Columbine shooting, a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 70 percent of Americans believed such a shooting could occur at a school in their own community.
Below are stories about the incidents and the issues at the heart of a uniquely American debate.
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