Give a Boy a Gun Read online

  —Ryan Clancy

  We live in a culture of brutality. People seem to think that it’s perfectly acceptable to be violent. Look at wrestling on TV. Even when it’s fake, we love the savageness of it. Maybe that’s the norm outside of school, but I am just plain sorry—when it happens in school, you cannot simply walk away from it and say boys will be boys. It must be stopped.

  —Beth Bender

  “It’s not my fault. It really isn’t’”

  —the president of a major gun manufacturer, when asked about the gun industry’s responsibility for firearms violence, Making a Killing

  Postscript

  I have spent hundreds of hours interviewing, listening, and reading. Even after all that, I still don’t know what went on in Gary’s mind. Didn’t he know there were alternatives? He could have transferred to another school or even dropped out altogether. How did he get to the point where he believed guns and bombs were the only way to solve his problems?

  I stand outside Middletown High, the school I graduated from just three years ago, and I know I’m a changed person. We all are. In Middletown, in our state, in this country. Around the world. Can anything good come from this? Is any lesson worth this cost? Two lives destroyed at Middletown High School. At other schools, dozens more lives lost. Kids who had as much right to live as any of us, gone. Robbed in moments of absolute insanity.

  What I do know is that from now on I will pay attention more carefully—not just to the words and what they mean, but to whom they’re coming from. I think we are too often fooled by the outward sophistication of teenagers. We forget that they are still children, and that they are impressionable and impulsive and likely to follow the example of adults. If the teachers and administrators at a school are intolerant of differences between students, then some of the students are likely to follow their lead.

  And if I ever decide to have children, I will make sure they go to a school where civility is taught and where differences between people are embraced, not ridiculed. In this country we have raised consciousness about drunk driving, smoking, and drug use.

  After a school shooting in Canada, the Canadian government spent $1 million to expand programs to combat bullying in schools and to help students before they get into trouble.

  We can do the same with respecting others.

  And the guns. There are millions of people in this country who own hunting and target weapons and use them responsibly. I don’t think hunting weapons should be outlawed, but I do believe it is time for compromise. Most semiautomatic weapons serve no purpose other than to kill people. They should be outlawed. In this time of budget surpluses, the government should pay a fair price for the semiautomatics that already exist and destroy them. Handguns should be in the hands of law enforcement agencies. The sale and importation of ammunition should be strictly regulated.

  “ ‘What made the difference [in my vote]? . . . Twelve dead children, one dead adult, twenty-four injured kids, and a community that has had its heart broken . . . .’”

  —Colorado Republican congressman Tom Tancredo, who accepted a campaign donation from the NRA but voted for gun control after seeing what happened at Columbine High School. Congressman Tancredo lives in Littleton, Colorado. New York Times, 6/21/99

  Gary Searle was my stepbrother. He wasn’t a monster, just a boy who thought he’d run out of options. He was part of my life. I loved him; I still do. It is too late to help him, but we all know others like him. I will try to help them. And maybe, after reading this story, you will too.

  —Denise Shipley

  While This Book Was Being Written

  7/29/99—Mark O. Barton kills nine and wounds twelve in an office in Atlanta. He uses two handguns.

  8/10/99—Buford O. Furrow Jr. kills a postal worker with a Glock handgun and uses an Uzi submachine gun to wound four children and one adult at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles.

  9/15/99—Larry Gene Ashbrook kills seven people (including four teens) in church. He uses a 9 mm semiautomatic Ruger pistol.

  10/4/99—A New York City school principal is wounded by a student carrying a gun.

  * 10/11/99—Under the weight of twenty-eight lawsuits filed by various cities and counties, the Colt Manufacturing Company announces plans to stop selling handguns to the public. Sales in the future will be limited to the military and law enforcement agencies.

  * 10/13/99—New Jersey becomes the fourth state to prohibit the sale of any new handgun unless it is accompanied by a trigger lock.

  10/29/99-South High School in Cleveland is closed and the homecoming dance canceled after officials discover an alleged plan by four students to shoot others. The school was searched and no guns or other weapons were found, prompting some to wonder how serious the plan was. Other students reported that the four were among a group of kids who were considered outcasts and were often picked on.

  11/1/99—A high school in Redmond, Washington, is closed by the administration after threats are made on the Internet to kill everyone at school.

  11/2/99—Byran Uyesugi, age forty, described as a gun enthusiast who owned close to twenty weapons, shoots and kills seven people in an office in Honolulu.

  11/19/99—A thirteen-year-old Denver boy is wounded when a bomb goes off in his bedroom. Authorities say that the boy had been involved in a fight at school several days before.

  11/19/99—Victor Cordova, thirteen, critically wounds a thirteen-year-old classmate in the lobby of their New Mexico middle school. Cordova uses a handgun in the attack.

  12/6/99—In Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, a thirteen-year-old boy wounds four classmates. He uses his father’s semiautomatic handgun.

  12/8/99—In Veghel, Netherlands, in the first school shooting in the country’s history, a seventeen-year-old boy wounds four students and a teacher with a handgun.

  12/21/99—In Oswego, Kansas, five teens are charged with conspiracy to commit murder after their plot to kill students, teachers, and administrators is discovered. Police confiscate close to forty weapons from their homes.

  12/30/99—In Tampa, Florida, a man armed with a semiautomatic handgun kills five and wounds three in the lobby and pool area of a Radisson hotel.

  2/29/00—In Mount Morris Township, Michigan, six-year-old Kayla Rolland is shot to death in her first-grade classroom by a six-year-old classmate who used a handgun he had found at home.

  * 3/17/00—Reacting to lawsuits, Smith & Wesson, the country’s biggest handgun manufacturer, agrees to add trigger locks to each new handgun it sells, and to restrictions designed to make it more difficult for criminals to purchase handguns.

  * 5/11/00—In Prairie Grove, Arkansas, a seventh-grade student and a police officer are both wounded from firing at each other after the student was reported walking down a country road with a shotgun. According to police reports, the student had obtained the gun from his home and was returning to school after he was angered by something the principal had said to him.

  5/14/00—Hundreds of thousands of mothers and their families gather in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., for the Million Mom March. The event was organized for “common sense” gun control legislation. In addition to licensing and registration, the marchers called for built-in locks on all guns and a ban on military-style assault rifles.

  * positive developments

  A Partial List of School Shootings

  The following list comes from articles in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Windsor Star of Canada, Time magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, and other sources.

  1974—Olean, New York

  Anthony Barbaro kills three and wounds nine at his high school.

  5/75—Centennial Secondary School, Brampton, Ontario, Canada

  Sixteen-year-old Michael Slobodian kills one teacher and one student, and wounds thirteen others, then commits suicide.

  10/78—Sturgeon Creek Regional Secondary School, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

  A seventeen-year-old stude
nt kills a sixteen-year-old student.

  1979—San Diego, California

  Sixteen-year-old Brenda Spencer uses a rifle given to her as a birthday present to kill two and wound nine at an elementary school near her home.

  1985—Connecticut

  A thirteen-year-old student opens fire at a junior high school, killing a janitor and wounding two others. He uses a TEC-9 semiautomatic handgun.

  12/16/88—Atlantic Shores Christian School, Virginia Beach, Virginia

  Sixteen-year-old Nicholas Elliot kills a teacher and a student with a Cobray semiautomatic handgun with multiple thirty-two-round clips.

  1/5/93—Brentwood High School, Brentwood, New York

  Shooting erupts during a high school basketball game. One student is wounded.

  1/18/93—East Carter High School, Grayson, Kentucky

  Seventeen-year-old Scott Pennington kills a teacher and a custodian. He uses a handgun.

  2/1/93—Amityville, New York

  Seventeen-year-old Shem McCoy kills one student and wounds another. He uses a nine-shot .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun.

  10/94—Brockton High School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

  A student allegedly unhappy with his grades shoots two guidance counselors.

  10/12/95—Blackville, South Carolina

  A sixteen-year-old kills one teacher and wounds another, then kills himself.

  10/23/95—Redlands, California

  A thirteen-year-old kills one student and wounds another.

  11/15/95—Richland High School, Lynnville, Tennessee

  Seventeen-year-old Jamie Rouse opens fire with a rifle in a crowded school hallway. He kills one student and one teacher, and wounds one teacher.

  2/2/96—Frontier Junior High School, Moses Lake, Washington

  Fourteen-year-old honor student Barry Loukaitis kills two students and one teacher, using two guns he took from an unlocked cabinet at home and a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol from the family car.

  2/28/96—St Louis, Missouri

  A teenager is shot to death on a school bus and the driver is wounded. The assailant uses a .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun.

  2/19/97—Bethel, Alaska

  Sixteen-year-old Evan Ramsey kills two students and wounds two others with a 12-gauge shotgun left unlocked in his home.

  10/1/97—Pearl High School, Pearl, Mississippi

  Sixteen-year-old Luke Woodham kills his mother, then goes to school and kills two students and wounds seven others.

  12/1/97—Heath High School, Paducah, Kentucky

  Fourteen-year-old Michael Carneal opens fire on an early-morning prayer circle, killing three girls and wounding five other students. He uses a .22-caliber Ruger semiautomatic handgun he had taken, along with two shotguns and two rifles, from a neighbor’s house. He carries five hundred rounds of ammunition in his backpack.

  12/15/97-Stamps High School

  Fourteen-year-old Joseph Todd kills two students.

  3/24/98—Westside Middle School, Jonesboro, Arkansas

  Eleven-year-old Andrew Golden and thirteen-year-old Mitchell Johnson kill four students and one teacher, and wound ten others. They arm themselves with three handguns taken from Golden’s parents’ house, and four handguns and three rifles taken from Golden’s grandfather’s home, where they were left unlocked.

  4/24/98-J. W. Parker Middle School, Edinboro, Pennsylvania

  Fourteen-year-old Andrew Jerome Wurst shoots and kills a science teacher and wounds two students and another teacher at an eighth-grade graduation dance. He uses a .25-caliber handgun registered to his father.

  5/19/98—Lincoln County High School, Fayetteville, Tennessee

  Jacob Davis, an eighteen-year-old honor student, kills a student allegedly dating his ex-girlfriend.

  5/21/98—Thurston High School, Springfield, Oregon

  Fifteen-year-old Kipland Kinkel kills his parents and then goes to school and kills two students and wounds twenty-two others. He uses a .22-caliber semiautomatic Ruger handgun, a 9 mm Glock handgun, and a Ruger semiautomatic rifle with a fifty-round clip. The rifle was purchased for him by his parents. The handguns were his father’s.

  6/15/98—Armstrong High School, Richmond, Virginia

  Fourteen-year-old student Quinshawn Booker shoots and wounds a basketball coach and a volunteer aide. Another student was the intended victim. He uses a .32-caliber Llama semiautomatic handgun.

  4/20/99—Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado

  Eighteen-year-old Eric Harris and seventeen-year-old Dylan Klebold kill twelve students and one teacher and wound twenty-three others, then kill themselves. They use a TEC-9 semiautomatic handgun, a 9 mm Hi-Point semiautomatic carbine rifle, and two sawed-off shotguns.

  4/28/99—W. R. Myers High School, Taber, Alberta, Canada

  A fourteen-year-old student kills one student and wounds a second. He uses a .22-caliber rifle.

  5/20/99—Heritage High School, Conyers, Georgia

  Fifteen-year-old T. J. Solomon wounds six students. He uses a .22-caliber rifle and a .357-caliber handgun. Both had to be sneaked past a school security officer and two other security staffers.

  2/29/00—Mount Morris Township, Michigan

  Six-year-old Kayla Rolland is shot to death by a six-year-old classmate.

  Final Thoughts

  Anyone looking for one simple black-and-white answer to the problem of school violence involving guns will not find it here. Like Beth Bender and Dick Flanagan, I have no one answer. But I do have suggestions: The manufacture, importation, and possession of all semiautomatic assault-type weapons should be banned. The sale of handguns should be restricted to the military and law enforcement agencies. Children should be taught from the earliest age to respect one another’s differences. Schools should enact zero tolerance for teasing. Students’ achievements off the field should be valued as highly as those on the field.

  If these changes are going to occur, they will have to start with you, the young person reading this book. If this story has moved you, then it will be your job to keep these ideas alive, to examine your own life and your own school, to keep these issues in the forefront with open discussions and debate. Mine is the generation that will see true gun reform continually stalled by lobby-fattened politicians. Yours is the generation that may someday have the power to make the real changes that will save young lives.

  If you would like to read and explore more about these issues, the following are some valuable resources:

  Books

  Friday Night Lights, by H. G. Bissinger (Addison-Wesley, 1990), explores the lives of high school football players in a small Texas town and brings to light the conflict between sports and education.

  Making a Killing, by Tom Diaz (New Press, 1999), explores the gun industry’s efforts to increase profits by constantly introducing deadlier weapons to the gun-buying market, and shows how powerful gun lobbies work to impede the government’s efforts to control gun use.

  Lethal Passage, by Erik Larson (Crown, 1994), follows the actual history of one semiautomatic, from its creation to the day a sixteen-year-old schoolboy uses it to kill one teacher and severely wound another. Despite being written long before the shootings in Jonesboro, Paducah, and Littleton, the book predicted such incidents.

  Magazine Articles

  Hall, Stephen S., and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. “The Troubled Life of Boys.” New York Times Magazine, 22 August 1999.

  Labi, Nadya, et al. “Two Boys and Their Guns.” Time, 6 April 1998.

  Sullivan, Randall. “A Boys Life.” Rolling Stone, 17 September 1998; 1 October 1998. Wilkinson, Peter, and Matt Hendrickson. “Humiliation and Revenge: The Story of Reb and VoDkA.” Rolling Stone, 10 June 1999.

  Other Printed Materials

  The Violence Policy Center. “Start ’Em Young: Recruitment of Kids into the Gun Culture.” April 1999.

  The Violence Policy Center. “Young Guns: How the Gun Lobby Nurtures America’s Youth Gun Culture.” March 1998.

 
; Web Sites

  Many of these sites can also provide printed pamphlets and other materials.

  www.vpc.org

  The Violence Policy Center

  Information on guns and youths

  www.millionmommarch.com

  Million Mom March Foundation

  Stopping gun violence

  www.pledge.org

  Student Pledge Against Gun Violence

  Organized to stop violence in schools

  www.paxusa.org

  Pax

  Stopping gun violence

  www.gunfree.org

  Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

  Stopping gun violence

  www.handguncontrol.org

  Center to Prevent Handgun Violence

  Stopping gun violence

  Todd Strasser

  Ever since his 1981 bestseller, The Wave, based on a true incident in which a teacher conducted an experiment in peer pressure with his students, Todd Strasser has been concerned with problems of teenage stress and violence. With the recent rash of shootings in schools, he feels compelled once again to address these issues, as well as how the availability of guns can affect the emotional decisions of teens.

  Strasser has written many award-winning novels for teenagers, including How I Changed My Life, How I Spent My Last Night on Earth, and Girl Gives Birth to Own Prom Date, which became the feature film Drive Me Crazy. A novelist for more than twenty-five years, Strasser speaks frequently at schools about the craft of writing and conducts writing workshops for young people. He lives with his family in a suburb of New York City.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.