WI: Worse Columbine?

A surprisingly large amount of people thought they were IOTL. It's all about misconceptions as much as it is fact.

ironically, most of the people they ended up killing are often classified as nerds (e.g. band nerds, religious nerds, etc.), and not jocks.

Those two were outcasts, what many would taunt as "losers". Nerds are usually part of social groups (demented and sad, but social), and generally are high achieving in something or other. They aren't who one needs to worry about.
 
In what world are Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold nerds or geeks?

they played video games, watched John Woo movies, and listened to Marylyn Manson. All three are kind of nerdy. The fact they were antisocial and didn't play on any sports teams alone would be enough for some schools to call them "nerds".
 
they played video games, watched John Woo movies, and listened to Marylyn Manson. All three are kind of nerdy. The fact they were antisocial and didn't play on any sports teams alone would be enough for some schools to call them "nerds".

True, but their barely passing GPAs and lack of any honors classes would immediately disqualify them as being nerds in most schools. The best way to classify them might be "freaks".
 
True, but their barely passing GPAs and lack of any honors classes would immediately disqualify them as being nerds in most schools. The best way to classify them might be "freaks".

To students perhaps. But to your typical "won't someone please think of the children" type? Nerds would be branded persona non grata faster then you could snap your fingers.
 
If some sectors, such as music and video games, suffer backlash in the UH, then some actors could emigrate abroad: Canada is just next at the border, along with Britain.

Death penalty, sure. You'd have to get Thompson v. Oklahoma overturned for any younger, but 16 or 17 year olds could still get executed. I bet few would be your school shooter type, though, since those people tend to kill themselves or choose suicide by cop.

What about death penalty for manufacturing or setting on an explosive device?
 
they played video games, watched John Woo movies, and listened to Marylyn Manson. All three are kind of nerdy. The fact they were antisocial and didn't play on any sports teams alone would be enough for some schools to call them "nerds".

You could argue though that "jocks" do the same things (heck, just look at the amount of sports video games released every year). Come to think of it, Football could be seen as too "violent" (and one could argue that the NFL never played down that image, at least not back then) as well. Maybe Soccer overtakes Football in popularity (hockey just has to lose the fights so it could stay popular, and basketball and baseball wouldnt have any image problems (at least not in the "violence" category)).
 
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What about death penalty for manufacturing or setting on an explosive device?

I highly doubt it. Nobody in the US tried to make hijacking an aircraft a capital crime after 9/11. I'd be very, very surprised if a law like that could pass in any state or federally, if only because it's almost certain the Supreme Court would strike it down. These are mostly the same Justices who struck down the death penalty for any crime besides murder in 2008. There were also cases that limited the application of the death penalty even beforehand. And nobody's been executed for a crime besides murder since 1964 anyway (in the 44 years it was legal to do so for some crimes), so odds are, no one would get executed for it. I just don't see how building a bomb could ever get you sentenced to death in the modern US.

Now, increasing the penalties for building them, setting them, using them in terrorism (assuming no one dies), that's a high likelihood.
 
On a side note, it wasn't a federal crime to destroy an airplane with a bomb in the 1950s; when United Flight 629 from Denver (interestingly enough) to Salt Lake City was blown up by Jack Gilbert Graham (to kill his mother (and 43 other innocent people) in order to collect $37,500 in life insurance he purchased on her in the airport terminal before the plane took off), the prosecution charged him only with the murder of his mother, the target of the bomb. He was tried, convicted, and executed in short order (it was a pretty compelling case).

Getting back to the death penalty for manufacturing or setting an explosive device, I don't see it happening. Even in Texas. I do agree that the penalties will go up TTL, though...

In addition, if many of the Columbine victims were shot ITTL, I see some states trying open carry in schools (yes, my home state, I'm looking at you)...
 
I would imagine that instead of massive attacks aimed at people who were Muslims, or of Arab descent, we would see similar type attacks occurring at goths. Instead of the massive unification we got at going toward the Middle East, we would multiple divisive audiences at what to do with "weird" teenagers who could represent a threat.
 
I wonder if speaking positively about teenagers would be considered "political correctness". Would teenagers be banned from more places? Would politicians have anti-teenager platforms?
 
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