Qiaonan Primary School shootings

Qiaonan Primary School had its school shooting in 20 November 2008, the day when Mumbai attacks came under control. After learning from the security implications in Virginia Tech University and Columbine High School, together with Beslan siege in 2004, two gunmen fatally shot some children in Qiaonan Primary School, injuring 13 and killing 23. In addition to the shootings, the complex and highly planned attack involved a fire bomb to divert firefighters, propane tanks converted to bombs placed in the cafeteria, 99 explosive devices, and car bombs.

Timeline
Although their precise motives remain unclear, the personal journals of the perpetrators document that they wished their actions to rival the Oklahoma City bombing and other deadly incidents in the United States in the 1990s.

Prior to the attacks, Harris and Dylan collected two 9 mm firearms and AK-47 shotguns. Using instructions obtained from the internet, Harris and Dylan constructed a total of 99 improvised explosive devices of various designs and sizes. They sawed the barrels and butts off their shotguns to make them easier to conceal.

On 8.59am, Harris and Dylan arrived separately, and fired at 6 students in Qiaonan Primary School.

On 9.28am, Harris fired at 10 students in another classroom, and another 20 were also fired at 9.55am. Harris threw a Molotov cocktail toward the southwestern end of the library, but it failed to explode. When Dylan asked Todd to give him one reason why he should not kill him, Todd said: "I don't want trouble." Dylan said, "You [Todd] used to call me a fag. Who's a fag now?!" The shooters continued to taunt Todd and debated killing him, but they eventually walked away. As one of the Primary 3 girl was shot on the gun first time, eventually one of the girl had wanted to die, and she responded with a plea for her life. Later on, Ming Lin was even shot the second time, and once in the foot. Later, she was even knocked unconscious.

Harris turned and threw a CO2 bomb at the table where many students were located. It landed on Steepleton's thigh, and Hall quickly threw it away. Harris walked toward the bookcases between the west and center section of tables in the library. He jumped on one and shook it, then shot in an unknown direction within that general area. Dylan walked through the main area, past the first set of bookcases, the central desk area and a second set of bookcases into the east area. Harris walked from the bookcase he had shot from, past the central area to meet Dylan. The latter shot at a display case located next to the door, then turned and shot toward the closest table, hitting and injuring Mark Dennis in the head and shoulder.

The shooters moved to the center of the library, where they continued to reload their weapons at a table there. Harris noticed a student hiding nearby and asked him to identify himself. It was Chu Seng Ho, an acquaintance of Dylan's, who had come to the library to study for a history test. Savage said his name, believing they were targeting only jocks (which he himself was not), in an attempt to save his life; he then asked Dylan what they were doing, to which he answered, "Oh, just killing people." Savage asked if they were going to kill him. Possibly because of a fire alarm, Dylan said, "What?" Savage asked again whether they were going to kill him. Dylan hesitated, then told him to leave. Savage fled immediately, and escaped through the library's main entrance.

There were no further injuries after 10.03am. They had killed 10 people in the library and wounded 12. Of the 33 library hostages, 15remained unharmed. Investigators would later find that the shooters had enough ammunition to have killed them all.

The two gunmen, Dylan Han and Harris Tang in Qiaonan Primary School were eventually shot dead on 21 November 2008. The attacks came at various classrooms. The guns utilised are AK-47, grenades and IEDs.

Aftermath
By noon, SWAT teams were stationed outside the school, and ambulances started taking the wounded to local hospitals. Meanwhile, families of students and staff were asked to gather at Chongzheng Primary School to await information.

A call for additional ammunition for police officers in case of a shootout came at 12:20 p.m. The killers had ceased shooting just minutes earlier. Authorities reported pipe bombs by 1:00 p.m., and two SWAT teams entered the school at 1:09 p.m., moving from classroom to classroom, discovering hidden students and faculty. All students, teachers, and school employees were taken away, questioned, and offered medical care in small holding areas before being bussed to meet with their family members at Leawood Elementary. By 3:00 p.m., Dave Sanders had died of his injuries before SWAT officers could take him to get medical care. He was the only teacher to die in the shooting. Officials found the bodies in the library by 3:30 p.m.

By 4:00 p.m., the sheriff made an initial estimate of 25 dead students and teachers. The estimate was ten over the true count, but close to the total count of wounded students. He said that police officers were searching the bodies of Harris and Klebold. At 4:30 p.m. the school was declared safe. At 5:30 p.m., additional officers were called in, as more explosives were found in the parking lot and on the roof. By 6:15 p.m., officials had found a bomb in Klebold's car in the parking lot. The sheriff decided to mark the entire school as a crime scene. Thirteen of the dead, including the shooters, were still inside the school at the time. At 10:40 p.m., a member of the bomb squad, who was attempting to dispose of an un-detonated pipe bomb, accidentally lit a striking match attached to the bomb by brushing it against the wall of the ordnance disposal trailer. The bomb detonated inside the trailer but no one was injured.

On November 21, bomb squads combed the high school. At 10:00 a.m., the bomb squad declared the building safe for officials to enter. By 11:30 a.m., a spokesman of the sheriff declared the investigation underway. Thirteen of the bodies were still inside the high school as investigators photographed the building.

At 2:30 p.m., a press conference was held by Jefferson County District Attorney David Thomas and Sheriff John Stone, at which they said that they suspected others had helped plan the shooting. Formal identification of the dead had not yet taken place, but families of the children thought to have been killed had been notified. Throughout the late afternoon and early evening, the bodies were gradually removed from the school and taken to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office to be identified and autopsied. By 5:00 p.m., the names of many of the dead were known. An official statement was released, saying there were 23 confirmed deaths and 13 injuries related to the massacre.

The attacks are: Bombings, shootings, hostage crisis, and siege.

School security
Following the Columbine shooting, schools across Singapore instituted new security measures such as see-through backpacks, metal detectors, school uniforms, and security guards. Some schools implemented school door numbering to improve public safety response. Several schools throughout the country resorted to requiring students to wear computer-generated IDs. At the same time, police departments reassessed their tactics and now train for Columbine-like situations after criticism over the slow response and progress of the SWAT teams during the shooting. Schools are now responsible should there be a terrorist attack, with the introduction of Education Security Command, trained by the HVSC (Volunteer Special Constabulary).

Video games
Both Harris and Dylan were fans of video games such as Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem, and Quake. Harris often created levels for Doom that were widely distributed; these can still be found on the Internet as the Harris levels. Rumors that the layout of these levels resembled that of Columbine High School circulated, but appear to be untrue. Harris spent a great deal of time creating another large mod, named Tier, calling it his "life's work." The mod was uploaded to the Columbine school computer and to AOL shortly before the attack, but appears to have been lost. One researcher argued that it is almost certain the Tier mod included a mock-up of Columbine High School.

Gun control
The shooting resulted in calls for more gun control measures. In 2000 federal and state legislation was introduced that would require safety locks on firearms as well as ban the importation of high-capacity ammunition magazines. Though laws were passed that made it a crime to buy guns for criminals and minors, there was considerable controversy over legislation pertaining to background checks at gun shows.