[Rare Books]

Remembering Columbine

by Reviewer Rob

I sold a like-new copy of Time Magazine among my used / rare books this week. It was the Columbine Tapes issue from December 20, 1999. It went to a buyer in New Jersey who paid $70 for it plus tax and shipping.

With all the news of gun violence in America — despite the Covid pandemic continuing — I’m surprised it hadn’t sold sooner. But then it was priced higher than the copies I saw on Ebay.

Wasn’t this America’s first big school mass-shooting? 1999 seems like a century ago. The internet was new, Bill Clinton was in office, peace and prosperity were on the rise, social media had yet to become the world force it is today, nightclub dance floors were full. The shooters preyed on an unexpecting society not trained in active shooter response drills.