LITTLETON: Dozens of people gathered for a vigil on Friday on the 20th anniversary of the Columbine high school massacre, laying flowers at a memorial for the victims.

Twelve students and a teacher were killed on April 20, 1999, when two teenagers armed with an assortment of weapons and home-made bombs went on the rampage at the school, whose name has become synonymous with school shootings. There have been more than a dozen other shootings at schools across the US since Columbine.

Only last year, 17 students and staff were killed when an ex-pupil went on the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, while 27 people, mostly children, were killed at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012 and 32 at Virginia Tech university in 2007.

On Friday survivors of the Columbine massacre and families and friends of the victims gathered in Littleton, Colorado. They lit candles and prayed at a memorial in the town, and laid flowers on plaques bearing the names of victims.

An inner circular wall bears biographies of the victims carved into marble, while an outer wall lists those injured in the attack. “Never forget” is carved in stone on the floor.

Speaking earlier this week, survivor Amanda Duran expressed anger that school shootings were still taking place.

The aftermath of Columbine is still felt. An American teenager whose obsession with the massacre set off school closures and a manhunt in Denver was found dead on Wednesday from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2019