School Shootings Quotes

“Take a little thought experiment. Imagine all the rampage school shooters in Littleton, Colorado; Pearl, Mississippi; Paducah, Kentucky; Springfield, Oregon; and Jonesboro, Arkansas; now imagine they were black girls from poor families who lived instead in Chicago, New Haven, Newark, Philadelphia, or Providence. Can you picture the national debate, the headlines, the hand-wringing? There is no doubt we’d be having a national debate about inner-city poor black girls. The entire focus would be on race, class, and gender. The media would doubtless invent a new term for their behavior, as with wilding two decades ago. We’d hear about the culture of poverty, about how living in the city breeds crime and violence. We’d hear some pundits proclaim some putative natural tendency among blacks toward violence. Someone would likely even blame feminism for causing girls to become violent in a vain imitation of boys.

Yet the obvious fact that virtually all the rampage school shooters were middle-class white boys barely broke a ripple in the torrent of public discussion. This uniformity cut across all other differences among the shooters: some came from intact families, others from single-parent homes; some boys had acted violently in the past, and others were quiet and unassuming; some boys also expressed rage at their parents (two killed their parents the same morning), and others seemed to live in happy families.”
― Michael S. Kimmel, Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era

“Guns kill far more quickly and efficiently than knives, or crossbows, or toenail clippers; and, unlike bombs, you don't need to build one in your basement -- they come ready-made! There's a reason why guns are the overwhelming weapon of choice among mass murderers.”
― Quentin R. Bufogle

“Mass shootings are all part of a vast Left-wing conspiracy to undermine the 2nd Amendment and deprive your 6-year-old of his God-given right to bring a Bushmaster to class for "show and tell" ... The one he got from his psychotic, meth-addicted uncle's trailer while the latter was out getting the Confederate flag tattooed on his face. Remember, guns don't kill: the dimwits who insist EVERYONE should have the right to own 'em do.”
― Quentin R. Bufogle

“The NRA kills more Americans than Muslim terrorists do.”
― Oliver Markus Malloy, Inside The Mind of an Introvert: Comics, Deep Thoughts and Quotable Quotes

“Remember: Guns don't kill! -- The dimwits who insist EVERYONE should have the right to own 'em do!”
― Quentin R. Bufogle

“Your gun may be able to mow down a bunch of elementary school kids, but it can't stop a tank.”
― Allison Kilkenny Jamie Kilstein

“It wasn't the first time Moss had heard the pop of a gunshot. Nor was it the first time he'd heard the sickening sound of air leaving someone's body. The sound meant the worst.”
― Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift

“Do you think the Y2K thing is going to mess everything up? Katie asked.
"I don't know. I think everything's already messed up after Columbine. Like, what kind of world do we live in if you can get shot up in your high school?"
"That was horrible. But I think it's kind of a one-time thing. People won't stand for that kind of tragedy to keep happening.”
― Sara Farizan, All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages

“. . . we now live in a politically charged world of endless entitlement and victimization; anything upsetting, unfulfilling, or considered disenfranchising or oppressive is to be laid at the feet of society and the cultures that are produced—everything is society's fault. With its evolutionary understanding of life and reality, retaliation is not only expected it is culturally applauded—society must evolve—people must change. This cultural conditioning has become the necessary catalyst for murder and suicide. It not only sets the expectation but practically grants permission. This is the message today's young people are taught every day of their lives.”
― Roger Ball, American Bloodlust: The Violent Psychological Conditioning of Today’s Young People

“America is drowning in guns. Even if they were all banned from midnight tonight, it would probably take a century or two to get them all out of circulation and maybe not even then.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Was he evil? I've spent a lot of time wrestling with that question. In the end, I don't think he was. Most people believe suicide is a choice, and violence is a choice; those things are under a person's control. Yet we know from talking to survivors of suicide attempts that their decision-making ability shifts in some way we don't well understand. In our conversation, psychologist and suicide researcher Dr. Matthew Nock at Harvard used a phrase I like very much: dysfunction in decision making. If suicide seems like the only way out of an existence so painful it has become intolerable, is that really an exercise of free will?
Of course, Dylan did not simply die by suicide. He committed murder; he killed people. We've all felt angry enough to fantasize about killing someone else. What allows the vast majority of us to feel appalled and frightened by the mere impulse, and another person to go through with it? If someone chooses to hurt others, what governs the ability to make that choice? If what we think of as evil is really the absence of conscience, then we have to ask, how is it a person ceases to connect with their conscience?”
― Sue Klebold, A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy

“It’’s very hard to know who is going to commit an act of violence. But... prevention does not require prediction. It does require, however, that we increase overall access to brain health interventions.
...
A... tiered system is already working in some schools. At the tier-one level, everyone should have access to brain health screenings and first aid, to conflict resolution programs, and to suicide prevention education. Peer intervention programs teach kids to seek help from trained adults for friends they’re worried about without fear of repercussion.
A second tier of attention is trained on kids going through a hard time—a student grieving a lost parent, one who has suffered teasing or bullying, or those in known high-risk populations. For instance, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender kids are at disproportionate risk for bullying, so special efforts might be made to connect those kids to resources.
The third level of intervention comes into play when a child has emerged as a particular concern. Perhaps he or she has an ongoing emotional disorder, has talked about suicide, or—as Dylan did— has turned in a paper with violent or disturbing subject matter. The student is then referred to a team of specially trained teachers and other professionals who will interview him or her, look at the student's social media and other evidence, and speak to friends, parents, local law enforcement, counselors, and teachers.
The real beauty of these measures is not that they catch potential school shooters, but how effectively they help schools to identify teens struggling with all different kinds of issues: bullying, eating disorders, cutting, undiagnosed learning disorders, addiction, abuse at home, and partner violence — just to name a few. In rare cases, a team may discover that the student has made a concrete plan to hurt himself or others, at which point law enforcement may become involved. In the overwhelming majority of these cases, though, simply getting a kid help is enough.”
― Sue Klebold, A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy

“If gun control in the US proves impossible to get over the line, it may be time for architects to design new buildings with special lockdown alarms that divide buildings into six or seven sections, trapping potential shooters and denying them access to everyone in an entire school, workplace or place of worship.”
― Stewart Stafford

“By right we arm but by love, disarm. Now is the nation called to love. By gun control we challenge not your rights to arms but your heart to sacrifice that love entails. So give me not a reading of the law but tales of love's deeds in hearts and homes -- how racks have shed arms like autumn leaves and turned the land from red to gold.”
― Agona Apell

“Jessica's head is in Feather's lap. She is stroking her long blonde locks that look stunning as always. Her legs are bent at the knees, and she is still wearing her T-shirt and shorts from P.E. On the television Rory Calhoun is playing a malarial big game hunter who has set his rifle's target on a skinny castaway in a red shirt. Jessica has tried to introduce Feather to the joys of the Flashback Channel, but it doesn't seem to be sticking.”
― Timothy Sexton, Triggered: The Story of a School Shooting

“people don’t just “snap.” There is a process as observable, and often as predictable, as water coming to a boil.”
― Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence