The presence of a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide fivefold.
“By state or region … for every age, for both genders, where there are more guns, there are more total suicides.”
Facts and Quotes
“The … cliques that rule American high schools are every bit as murderous as Harris and Klebold, only their damage is done in slow motion, over a period of many years, and fails to draw the attention of parents or teachers.” —a posting on the Internet
“ ‘Every day being teased and picked on, pushed up against lockers—just the general feeling of fear in the school. And you either respond to a fear by having fear, or you take action and have hate.’ ” —Brooks Brown, a student at Columbine High who knew both Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Rolling Stone, 6/10/99
Several news organizations pointed out that the ratio of students to counselors at Kipland Kinkel’s high school was roughly 700 to 1.“Like most students, I lived in fear of the small slights and public humiliations used to reinforce the rigid high school caste system: Poor girls were sluts, soft boys were fags. And at each of my schools, there were students who lived in daily fear of physical violence.” —a posting on the Internet after Columbine
“Outcasts loathed Columbine. With equal venom, they detested popular kids and an administration that in their minds kowtowed to the popular kids.” —Rolling Stone, 6/10/99
“How many kids ostracized, humiliated, and assaulted in American high schools, like the survivors of Columbine High, are left scarred for life? How many commit suicide every year? So long as some kids go out of their way to make high school hell for others, there are going to be kids who crack, and not all of the kids who crack are going to quietly off themselves.” —a posting on the Internet
More than 50 percent of male youths say it would be easy to obtain a gun.
“I went to three [high schools], and in none of [them] did I for a moment feel safe. High school was terrifying, and it was the casual cruelty of the popular kids that made it hell.” —a posting on the Internet
“Most of the attackers in the recent cases had shown signs of clinical depression or other psychological problems. But schools, strapped for mental health counselors, are less likely to pick up on such behavior or to have the available help.” —New York Times, 6/14/98
In 2016 the United States led all high-income countries in firearm deaths among its youth. The rate in the US was 36.5 times higher than in a dozen comparable countries. —CNN
“The hallways erupted in screaming, terror- stricken pandemonium as students realized this was … another, increasingly familiar scene: a student with a gun.” —USA TODAY, 5/21/99
In today's world, we can easily guess what a book will be about with a title like, Give A Boy A Gun. But 20 years ago, when Todd Strasser first published the book, I was fascinated by the fact that assignments were made to create book trailers for the story! I was pleased to see them and picked out a few to include with this article. To me, it is quite telling. What about you?
In an interview for the Velshi Banned Book Club, the author points out that, yes there were some concerns about guns, but that most of the time, it was caused by students who were actually attending that school. And caused by student bullying. While since then, there is no such connection for school shooting. There is simply a mass shooting epidemic that has sometimes had no connection to the location where the shooting occurs!
Still, Give A Boy A Gun, is an excellent story based upon just how some students become dominant, many times this group is made up of athletes or other students active in social events. The key question, though, is why do those dominant, or popular, students decide to bully classmates?
The book moves from excerpts of the associated suicide notes and the interviews with students related to the two individuals who came to school with guns--and more! Both the 8th and 9th grades were reviewed.
More of Eighth Grade: I thought I knew Gary better. We sort of went together on and off for nearly two years. It’s obvious now that I didn’t know him. Not really. I knew he had that whole other thing with Brendan. Sometimes it almost felt like they had their own language. They each just seemed to know what the other was thinking. But now it’s obvious he hid a lot. Not just from me, but from everyone except Brendan. —Allison Findley
Until Gary came into the picture, I think I was Brendan’s closest friend. I can’t say I was really sorry when that changed. By then I’d gotten to know some other girls who were like me—quote, unquote “outcasts”—and we were trying to have a life in spite of all that cliquey weirdness at school. I don’t know why, but Brendan couldn’t get past the weirdness. He was more fixated on it. It was almost all he would talk about. I was trying to get away from it. He just wanted to keep looking at it under a microscope.—Emily Kirsch.
Gary and I got into my mom’s car one day. It was parked in the driveway, facing the garage. Gary sat behind the wheel, and I was next to him. He put his arm around my shoulder, and we just pretended we were driving somewhere. We were staring at the garage door with big flakes of white paint peeling off it, but in our minds we were going through the desert. Gary had done that once, so he was talking about cactus and sun-bleached bones and jackrabbits and hot sun. I leaned my head on his shoulder, and I could see it all in my mind. The two of us, all alone, driving through the desert, a million miles away from everything. Just sagebrush and creosote bushes and burned reddish cliffs. A trail of dust flying up behind us. Gary pulled me close and kissed my hair, and it was one of those really happy moments. I guess it was about as close as we ever got to blissful puppy love. Ha, ha! Then Gary stopped. I looked up and saw that he was staring into the rearview mirror. I turned around, and Deirdre Bunson and Sam Flach and a bunch of other kids were in the street, pointing at us and laughing. I wanted to die. Gary did too. He couldn’t even turn around. He just slumped down in the seat and stared at that stupid garage door and the peeling paint. It was like they’d just stuck a knife in his heart. Sometimes Gary and I could escape into that world where no one bothered us or laughed or made fun. But it never lasted long, and then it was like waking up from a dream and facing the cold, bald truth that it wasn’t real and never would be. For the popular kids the dream was real. They lived it. They never had to be afraid of waking up. —Allison Findley
Ninth Grade: It started to change at the beginning of ninth grade. I went away with my parents for two weeks in August, and Brendan and Gary stayed home and just hung with each other. When I got back, it was different. I can’t exactly explain how, but I felt it. There was something dark in Brendan. I don’t know where it came from. Whether it had always been inside him, or whether it just started to grow because of the way people treated him in school. —Allison Findley
In many ways, the book is written as if it was a police file of what happened. Readers get to know the characters through their own notes or through the response to questions from classmates. Frankly, it is not an easy book to read. In fiction form, we would be able to separate our lives as well as the involved students from the actual reality of the events. In the book, Give A Boy A Gun, the stark reality of the shooting is so real--in one way, even more real than seeing the hundreds of news videos that show us what was occurring. Knowing students' named, their thoughts, feelings...and pain, forces us to absorb the lives of those who are no longer living into our minds...and hearts...Gary wasn’t always like that. When we were in eighth grade and some big jock would body-slam us into a chalkboard or rip the pocket off our shirt, we’d be pissed, and we’d grumble about how we’d like to kill this guy and kick his face in. The thing was it was all sort of make-believe wishful thinking...
No matter how you feel about the Second Amendment, in my mind after seeing so many killed through the use of a gun...and, if I remember right...all of them were just boys... Boys that had no real awareness of what he or she might have caused through their bullying... Or, because guns had become some type of symbol for them that led it to be available at such an early age, that even their minds have not yet matured enough to know and understand... and... control their thoughts... and actions! This book needs to be shared with teens--boys and girls. And, NOT banned by those that are using guns as a political issue rather than an epidemic caused by manipulation of our children... Just my personal opinion, of course!
Read this book... Share this book... Vote for Gun Control to keep guns out of the hands of our children... and to keep all of our children safe!
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