“Take your hatred out on me / Make your victim my head,” growls Manson on the 1996 track Tourniquet, and the religious right took the bait without a second thought. He wears black makeup, cuts himself on stage, and yells like a demon into a microphone which may or may not have been inserted into a rectum at some point. They didn’t understand it, so his music was blamed for the tragedy.

Funny thing was, though, Harris and Klebold weren’t fans of Manson’s music. Manson wrote in Rolling Stone in 1999 that they liked German industrial metal bands like Rammstein and KMFDM. Sunday school teachers may not be able to tell the difference, but discerning young listeners surely do. He said he remembered initial reports that they wore makeup and dressed like him. “These two idiots weren’t wearing makeup, and they weren’t dressed like me or like goths. Since Middle America has not heard of the music they did listen to (KMFDM and Rammstein, among others), the media picked something they thought was similar.”

Manson’s career may have survived the Columbine massacre, but unfortunately hundreds of victims of mass shootings over the decades did not. And those with the power to change it only continue to seek out scapegoats, rather than take responsibility and enact change that would save lives.