Give a Boy a Gun (23 page)

“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

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

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

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 student 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.