Young Rage and Guns

“We should be safe at school,” the girl sobbed. School “should be a safe place.”

The violence that swept through a high school in Littleton, Colo., Tuesday was far worse in sheer numbers than any of the lethal rampages that have struck campuses throughout the nation since 1996. But many of the same frightening ingredients were present. Again, the killers carried out the mayhem with firearms. Again, they were described by their student peers with comments like “social outcasts . . . people to stay away from.” Again, they were young males apparently filled with alienation and seething, irrational rage.

The bloody series began in February 1996 when a 14-year-old boy walked into a classroom in the Pacific Northwest and calmly gunned down three students and his teacher. In 1997, there were at least three incidents--in Bethel, Alaska, Pearl, Miss., and West Paducah, Ky. Boys ranging in age from 14 to 16 fatally shot seven and wounded 12 at their respective schools. In 1998, four more incidents: in Springfield, Ore., Fayetteville, Tenn., Edinboro, Pa., and Jonesboro, Ark. The shooters ranged from a pint-sized 11-year-old to an 18-year-old honor student. The deadly outcome: nine slain, 30 injured. And now, the worst of all, at Columbine High School in Littleton, with dozens killed--including two shooters--or wounded.

“Perhaps now America will wake up to the dimensions of this challenge and try to prevent anything like this from happening again,” President Clinton said about the tragedy Tuesday. “We must note the early warning signs and reach out to children [who are] building up these grievances in their own minds. They are not being reached.”

Who knows what went on in the minds of the young killers? Did they think they were avenging some adolescent slight? In a culture where real and fantasy violence is broadcast 24 hours a day, did they fully realize the permanence of their actions? Why is it that other kids seem to recognize a volatility in troubled youths that adults seem to miss? To these questions, there are no answers yet. There’s only the ongoing fatal mix of hormones, hurt feelings and high-powered firearms.