Where Did Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris Buy the Guns They Used at Columbine? Details Explained
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were able to get their hands on an upsetting amount of firearms. Here's how they did it.
Updated April 19 2024, 4:35 p.m. ET
A man looks at guns at the Tanner Gun Show , the same event where Klebold and Harris bought guns.
When Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris walked into Columbine High School the morning of April 20, 1999, they were carrying an arsenal of weapons. According to the Violence Policy Center they had and "Intratec TEC-DC9 assault pistol, Hi-Point 9mm Carbine, Savage 67H pump-action shotgun, and a Savage 311-D 12-gauge shotgun." They were also carrying an alarming amount of homemade incendiary devices, 76 to be exact reports CNN. If Harris' journals are to be believed, the plan was to kill everyone.
When the shooting occurred, Klebold and Harris were 17 years-old. In April 1999, Colorado gun laws stated you had to be at least 18 years-old to purchase a firearm. So, how did these two underage kids procure their weapons? They asked their friend Robyn Anderson to help. Where is she now? Here's what we know.
Robyn Anderson
Where is Robyn Anderson now?
After the shooting, Anderson remained out of the public eye except for one interview she did with Good Morning America on June 4, 1999. She told Diane Sawyer that in December 1998, Klebold and Harris gave he money to buy guns. Anderson had recently turned 18 and as such, was the only one out of the three of them who was legally able to do so. They headed to the Tanner Gun Show in Adams County where the gun show loophole would allow Anderson to buy guns without being subject to a background check.
While testifying to the Colorado Legislature about her experience, Anderson said she was "not asked any questions at all." Not a single vendor asked Anderson for any personal information prior to purchasing the guns. She told Good Morning America that buy guns for Klebold and Harris didn't strike her as odd because that was "just the type of thing that they were into." The day of the shooting, Anderson had a friend had left the school grounds to buy guns. Many suspected this meant she was aware of the attack.
Anderson maintained she had "no idea" what Harris and Klebold were planning that day. She said they did a good job of hiding their hatred from their friends. "I wish that I had questioned more," she said. "I wish now that I hadn't gone with them, that I would have said, 'I feel uncomfortable. Maybe you could find someone else.'" Despite her ignorance, Anderson still had to answer for her involvement in the shooting by agreeing to pay $300,000 to roughly three dozen families of victims, via Deseret News.
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris bought a fourth gun from someone else.
On May 3, 1999, police arrested 22-year-old Mark Manes who was charged with "providing a handgun to a minor in connection with the Columbine High School shooting deaths," reports the Washington Post. Manes sold Harris and Klebold a "TEC-DC9, a semi-automatic handgun banned under legislation enacted by Congress in 1994."
Eric Harris (L) and Dylan Klebold (R) at Columbine High School April 20, 1999
The Denver Post reported that Manes met Klebold and Harris through a mutual friend who worked with him at the Blackjack Pizza shop. Harris and Klebold told Philip Duran they were looking to buy guns so Duran introduced them to Manes at a gun show in January 1999. Manes sold them the TEC-DC9 for $500, and gave $200 of that fee to Duran.
In November 1999, Manes was sentenced to six years in prison, per CNN. Seven months later in June 2000, Duran was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison. "I apologize to you for my part and ask you for forgiveness," he said to the families of the victims who were present for his sentencing. "I am willing to take my punishment." Anderson received no prison time because she purchased guns through a private, unlicensed vendor. Duran and Manes were ordered to pay a combined $1 million to the grieving families.