Dr. Langman focuses on ten school shooters, dividing them into three types: psychopathic, psychotic, and traumatized.

A psychopathic killer is someone with no empathy towards other human beings; he may have delusions of grandeur as well. A psychotic killer hears voices and sometimes sees things. A traumatized shooter was abused as a child and often has trouble socializing.

The two psychopathic killers are Eric Harris and Matthew Golden, the eleven-year-old who, along with Mitchell Johnson, 13, ambushed their fellow Jonesboro, Arkansas, middle-schoolers after Golden had set off a fire alarm. Eric Harris also had some birth defects that may have led to his mental problems. He had a deformed foot and a sunken chest. Golden was a little bully who harassed other students but was never made to pay for his misdeeds because his parents took his side. Golden was given his own rifle at the age of six. He and Harris were obsessed with guns.

The most famous of the psychotics was Dylan Klebold, Harris's partner in the Columbine shootings. Despite his privileged upbringing (he drove his own BMW) he was ultra shy and had trouble socializing, but he had a conscience. He walked away from several people he could have killed in the Columbine library. He may have gone along with Harris's nefarious scheme because he was so starved for friendship. The other well-known psychotic was Kip Kinkle who complained about hearing voices telling him to kill people.

Mitchell Johnson was a traumatized killer, having been sexually abused by a neighbor kid, and his father was pretty much a ne'er-do-well. He was generally well-behaved in school but liked to tell other kids he belonged to a gang. Jeffrey Weise, of Red Lake, Minnesota, had alcoholic and drug-addicted parents and was constantly handed off between relatives.

Langman goes into some detail about how to prevent school shootings. He's not all that enamored of metal-detectors and school security since Jeffery Weise was able to get past them rather easily. He's not a big fan of the proliferation of guns either. Matthew Golden got his weapons from his grandfather's gun collection. Just about all of the shooters hinted at what they were going to do. Kip Kinkel was caught with a loaded gun in school. Rather then follow up immediately, the school administrators left it to Kip's father, a teacher, to handle the situation. That night Kip shot and killed his parents and went to school bent on annihilation the next day. Lambert recommends that weapons be kept at a gun club or someplace out of reach of adolescents. He also suggests that administrators take threats seriously and stand up to parents who lie to protect their child. Kip Kinkel's father said there were no other guns in the house. Langman also suggests that if a child has had a previous violent episode that parents search the kid's room.

There are some problems with this book. It is exceedingly repetitive for one thing, and there's some psychobabble that would make Tom Cruise proud. One thing I did learn, however, is that all of us have these symptoms to a degree. Apparently I'm a masochistic personality. I am easily offended and hold grudges. Comment | Permalink