Live Bait

As far as I am concerned, the biggest thing which upsets the usual narrative on Columbine, though there are several, is that both gunmen said several times the library was about to experience one of the cafeteria bombs.  It simply cannot be written off, and sheds light on many other issues.

However, of course, since, to quote Eric, "everybody's going to die," when they "blow up the school"; then why, exactly, are they shooting people? No need to do that if they all die in the explosion. It could even be a waste of ammo. The only reason I can think of is hoping shooting people will make the cops rush in and have them die as well.

Indeed, witnesses seem to recount with surprise their confidence when they walked in to the library. Had they expected to have a bomb explode underneath them in five minutes, which seems to be the case, then they need not fear police. I think they wanted police to rush in and die too, for otherwise they would not have chosen to shoot people there.

One may also wonder though, why tell anyone about the bombs? Better to hush lest, say, a 911 call like Patti Nielson's picks up why they are in there. This could well just be cockiness or not caring about that with only 5 minutes time, but I imagine it has something to do with their wanting the students to "stand up", and, as everybody seems to agree, this was to shoot them once they did.

The first thing Dylan says after shooting Kyle, the first thing said to everyone in the library, according to our best witness Bree Pasquale, is that everybody needs to get up and they are about to blow up the library.  Not sure why this would make them stand up, I guess to run away, but it is interesting they seem to say "get up" or "stand up" and not "run" when they seem to be threatening to shoot them. Also, it is interesting that in shooter video games, enemies are usually standing.

Of course, their original vision for the massacre was people fleeing the bombs being shot, and shooting the cops responding, and then almost certainly another bomb for those who rushed in to the cafeteria to help, perhaps the police responding.

Once the first bomb failed, it seems the real "plan B" was to make people run out of the library, shoot them as they try, and then die in the explosion along with the cops who rushed in. This may also explain why they shoot themselves in the library and not elsewhere, as they expected to die in there earlier.

And this may also partly explain why the cops stayed outside, along with fearing motion detection.