I will be speaking on Sunday at a Colorado Authors book festival in Denver (free admission). They have given us each six minutes to speak before answering questions, and selling and signing books. Speaking for myself, while it will only be six minutes, it will be a good six minutes.

I’ll talk about the first days covering Columbine, and what set me on the road to writing the definitive book on the shootings, Columbine: A True Crime Story (Ghost Road Press, 2009). I’ll also be talking about a couple of the exclusives in the book, and how I uncovered them. Sometimes it’s a question of good reporting or an innovative approach, such as obtaining the college essay of killer Dylan Klebold.

“During my sophomore year and junior years, I had trouble keeping a high G.P.A.,” Klebold wrote to the University of Arizona about three months before the shootings. “This was partially a result of my hanging out with the wrong crowd; not caring about my future. It took me a long time to finally realize that the decisions I was making would affect me for the rest of my life.”

Sometimes, it’s simply calling someone up and asking the right questions. That helped get the psychological profile featuring Klebold’s mom that was published under a pseudonym long before the shootings. Psychiatrist Hugh Missildine quoted her as saying, “I think the fear of death will always be there. I wish I could turn off this part of my mind.”

Event Details:

Colorado Authors Program.

1 p.m., Sunday, October 23.
JCC (Jewish Community Center) at Phillips Social Hall. 350 S. Dahlia St. Denver, CO 80246
Phone: (303) 316-6360

Free.

Reporters, understandably, are focused on getting out the details before trying to make sense of them. The New York Times is now saying 93 dead in the Oslo bombing and nearby shootings allegedly undertaken by right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik. The Times is also noting 96 ­injured.

Norway, according to various postings, seems to have strict gun control. The Times had this:

“Arild Groven, secretary general of the Norwegian Shooting Association, a sports shooting group, confirmed that Mr. Breivik had belonged to Oslo Pistolklubb, one of the 520 clubs in the association, which has 30,000 members.

“‘We all read and watch the news about ­­the shootings in the United States,’ Mr. Groven said. ‘But it doesn’t happen here.’

“He said the process of obtaining a handgun license for sports shooting was strict, requiring a safety certification and a police background check.”

This is not meant to be a pro or anti gun control posting. But what may be strict gun control in Norway will support those who say gun control is not the answer.

Gun control did flare as an issue after Columbine. Tom Mauser, the father of slain Columbine student Daniel Mauser, took it up after the April 20, 1999 shootings that left 15 dead, including the two killers.­­

The Columbine killers showed great determination in carrying out their act. The $64,000 question is whether they would have given up at some point if it had been harder to obtain guns, or kept going until they found a way to obtain the weapons. I have blogged about mass killings in China that have shades of Columbine, despite strict gun control in that country.

The other question I would raise is whether the Norway shootings would have occurred without Columbine. The perpetrators may have different motivations. But incidents like Columbine and Oklahoma City build upon themselves and give people the idea that a mass killing is the art of the possible.

In examining school shootings for my book Columbine: A True Crime Story, I found that they often occurred in the South and the West of the United States. In these two regions there is a character trait, confirmed in psychological studies, of a “culture of honor.” It means that when someone in these regions feels their honor has been violated, they feel it is appropriate to retaliate with violence. The other point here is that the perpetrator takes it upon him or herself to level the revenge. There is a name for that too: Being your own sheriff.

News on the Arizona suspect so far seems to include little more than a name: Jared Loughner. The snap judgements are that the shooting may have been politically motivated.

The New York Times noted that Giffords “has been an outspoken critic of Arizona’s tough immigration law.” And reports indicate there are five to six dead, including, “John M. Roll, the chief judge for the United States District Court for the District of Arizona,” according to The Times. “He had been involved in immigration cases and had previously received death threats.”

School shooters are prompted to take revenge against those they feel have made them outcasts or slighted them. The idea in Arizona would be that the shooter was motivated to seek his own sort of political justice for policies he opposed.

A further read of The New York Times article adds more to the “culture of honor” thesis in this case emanating from the South and West, although that term is not actually mentioned or alluded to in the story. “Last March, after the final approval of the Democrats’ health care law, which Ms. Giffords supported, the windows of her office in Tucson were broken or shot out in an act of vandalism,” The Times notes. The paper adds that other Congress members had also been threatened, and names Washington Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat, from yet another Western state.

Another idea being pushed early on in this story is that such violence may be prompted by Republicans and/or right-wingers. Here The Times notes:” During the fall campaign, Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, posted a controversial map on her Facebook page depicting spots where Democrats were running for re-election; those Democrats were noted by crosshairs symbols like those seen through the scope of a gun. Ms. Giffords was among those on Ms. Palin’s map.” I would add that Palin comes from another Western state: Alaska.

There is one other thing I found hard to ignore in The Times article about the shooting: “Television coverage showed a chaotic scene outside a normally tranquil suburban shopping spot.”

The other common denominator among school shootings is that they occur in suburbs and small towns, but that may be a topic for future discussion as more information emerges.

Committing suicide at the end of such rampages is commonplace, and even school shooters who do not kill themselves often express a desire to die in the midst of the shooting. It’s hard to find a clear cut answer for these suicides. Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold often expressed a desire to die in his diaries; life on Earth was so terrible for him, and he dreamed it would be better in an afterlife. But there are other reasons that may contribute to a suicide. Shooters see it as empowering to script their own ending, and/or killing others does not quench their thirst for revenge or violence. They can only put out that fire by killing themselves. And while the ultimate goal may be suicide, shooters feel they need to make a point first (such as revenge or a show of power).

One of the things that struck me about today’s early news reports is that the Connecticut suspect was scheduled to attend a disciplinary hearing. Experts say rampage shooters do not snap; there is often a simmering (and clues left behind) before the actual event. At the same time, there do seem to be final, precipitating events. In the case of school shooters, it may be a breakup with a girlfriend, or a discipline.

I discuss in my book how the juvenile diversion program meant to set the Columbine killers straight after they broke into a van may have actually fed their anger; they may have chafed at having to attend seminars, do volunteer work, meet with a counselor, etc. in the approximately one-year program. Psychologist Aubrey Immelman, who I quote in my book, asks whether the Columbine shootings would have occurred if the killers had not been in diversion. (Which is not to say that they should have gone undisciplined.)

Today, we might ask the same question as to whether the disciplinary hearing set off the Connecticut shooter. Again, this is not to say that people shouldn’t be disciplined. And something else may end up setting them off. The key point is trying to recognize the warnings before the shootings.

Memorials such as the one for Columbine also have economic stories. They need time and money to be built, and the path to the Columbine Memorial has been well-documented in The Denver Post and now defunct Rocky Mountain News (where I worked for 10 years). And even when the finishing touches are completed, the work is not done. Memorials, like any other structure, need to be maintained.

So it should be no surprise that I got an e-mail the other week from Kirsten Kreiling, president
Columbine Memorial Foundation. She is soliciting volunteers (for as little as an hour) to help maintain the memorial.

One of my first thoughts, however, was “Can I just show up and start doing stuff?” I figured that is the kind of situation that makes a government official like a park worker or police officer cringe.

Kreiling assured me that the park staff is aware a call has been put out for volunteers to show up. I tried it out myself the other week; the only problem I had was dealing with the afternoon heat (bring a bottle of water). And if the idea of volunteering for a cause isn’t enough to motivate you, you might appreciate eavesdropping on the comments of visitors.

This is the list of work Kreiling sent out:

Deadheading perennials in all the flower beds; including the columbines
Cut back the spring bulb growth (ie cut off the wilted green stalks from the tulips, hyacinth, etc.)
Weeding under the pine trees on the hill
Weed whacking around the rose bushes up above the fountain (and weeding as needed)
Weeding of the flower beds
Sweeping of the entire Memorial
Trash pick up along the hillsides
Clipping / pruning of dead growth on trees
Spraying of weeds with Round Up in any of the sidewalk areas

You can contact Kreiling at:

Foundation@ColumbineMemorial.org

In America, school shootings tend to occur in suburbs and small towns where school is the only game in town and outcast shooters or those who feel they have been wronged have few, if any, places outside school to finds friends and self-esteem. So the fact that the Whitehaven shootings occurred in a rural area at first glance made sense.

The Whitehaven perpetrator, apparently a 52-year-old father of two and recent grandfather, is far different from teen shooters, such as those at Columbine. But a sense of rural isolation may have allowed his anger to fester. And social services in such locales may be fewer than in big cities. Although the night before the shootings, according to the Sun, “[Suspect Derrick] Bird is then believed to have sought medical help at a local hospital for his fragile mental state, only to be turned away.”

These shooters don’t just snap, although a recent catalyst in Whitehaven may have been a fight over a family will.

Another takeaway from this shooting is the New York Times’ stress on gun control: “Britain claims to have the strongest gun control laws of any country in Europe, adopted after two other mass killings in the past 25 years.

“But the Home Office, which maintains a registry of licensed weapons, said Wednesday that there were about 1.8 million legal weapons in private hands, including about 1.4 million shotguns and about 400,000 rifles and air guns. Most of the shotguns are owned by farmers and other rural people, and used for hunting.”

The NYT seems to leave an open question as to whether gun control is strong enough, and whether stricter gun control may have helped. That’s an interesting contrast with a recent NYT story on school killings in China, where gun control seems quite restrictive (and knives become the weapon of choice).

A sense of rural isolation and generalized blame against society might, as more information emerges, still play into this. And wanting to quell your own anger or pain with suicide (another similarity with U.S. teens) may also be a factor.

Showing us that mirror is what the New York Times did today with its story on school attacks in China.

The Times reports, “At least 17 people have been killed — mostly children — and dozens injured in the series of attacks, which began in March. In each case, a middle-aged man acting alone set upon children with knives or tools.”

Which brings up the issue of gun control and the perennial question (at least in the United States) of whether stricter controls could prevent school shootings. Now, I do not mean to take sides on the issue, but here would seem to be an interesting case study. “Shooting rampages are rare in China,” the Times says. “It is difficult to buy guns of any kind here. Sharp objects and tools are the weapons of choice for homicides.”

And so it would seem that if someone is interested in rampage, they will get the weapon at hand. I would also point out that while it would seem guns would generally cause more deaths, the number killed in the latest attack seems staggering: “A man with a kitchen cleaver rampaged through a kindergarten in rural northern China on Wednesday, and state media said he hacked to death seven children and two adults before returning home and killing himself,” according to The Times.

The suicide issue is also important. As I point out in my book Columbine: A True Crime Story suicide is an undercurrent in school shootings. The Columbine killers were unusually successful in that they killed themselves, yet other shooters who have been captured express a desire to have died in the course their rampage.

The Times reports that the Chinese attacks have been covered in the media, although after the first stories, “the government has been carefully censoring subsequent stories, perhaps to prevent other copycat murders, or perhaps to play down any suggestion of dysfunction within Chinese society.”

One Chinese newspaper fought back and editorialized, “It is undeniable that the media’s coverage on these incidents of bloodshed may ‘inspire’ potential killers, but it will educate more people by raising awareness of self-protection and spur the authorities, and this is the role that media should play in the society.”

Given the debate over bullying at Columbine, there is another interesting reference in The Times China piece. It comes from the same newspaper editorial that questioned the censorship:

“On Wednesday, Dahe Bao, a newspaper in Henan Province, quickly posted on the Internet a fiery editorial that pointed to misbehavior by government officials as the root cause of the problem.

“‘After being treated unfairly or being bullied by the authorities, and unable to take revenge on those government departments that are safeguarded by state security forces, killers have to let out their hatred and anger on weaker people, and campuses have become the first choice,’ said the editorial, signed by a writer named Shi Chuan.”

The talk, as I now have it written, begins:

The Columbine High School shootings began at 11:20 in the morning on April 20, 1999. It was a Tuesday.
I soon got a call from my editor at the Boston Globe. He had heard the news on CNN, but the report was early and vague: Maybe a student had been shot in the leg, the editor said. He wasn’t even sure he wanted me to go to the scene, but told me to standby. I checked the local television coverage. It was wall to wall, as they say. I called the editor back and said a major school shooting had come to Denver. I headed out to Columbine, which neither I nor most of the world, had ever heard of.

I will also be discussing Cassie Bernall:

I was appalled at how many stories on the ten-year anniversary were wrong and misleading. Now, the media is not one giant entity. It is a lot of different reporters and news organizations. But the truth remains. Most reporters got it wrong. A few got it right.
The story of Cassie Bernall is still instructive. Cassie was a seventeen-year-old junior at Columbine with blond hair who traded her fascination with witchcraft for religion. She was killed in the library at Columbine. One of the biggest myths to emerge from the shootings was whether Cassie was shot after saying she believed in God. She was not.

This is the full press release for the talk:

Helen Verba Lecture Series to Feature Jeff Kass May 6

Columbine: A True Crime Story gives an in-depth look at the shooting and its aftermath

Nearly 11 years after Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 classmates and a teacher, Columbine remains the world’s most iconic school shooting. Columbine: A True Crime Story, a victim, the killers and the nation’s search for answers is the first book of investigative journalism to tell the complete story of that day, the far-reaching consequences, and the common denominators among school shooters across the country.
Author Jeff Kass will discuss his book, at 6 p.m. May 6 as part of the Helen Verba Lecture Series, at the Denver Press Club, 1330 Glenarm Place.
Kass was one of the first reporters on scene and wrote the Page One, next day story for the Boston Globe. For 10 years he covered Columbine as a staff writer for the Rocky Mountain News. He has broken national stories on the shootings such as leaked crime scene photos, and the sealed diversion files of the killers. He has also reported the story extensively for the Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Newsday, and U.S. News & World Report.
This event is free and open to the public, presented by the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists, The Denver Post and the Denver Press Club.

Helen Verba Lecture Series to Feature Jeff Kass May 6

Columbine: A True Crime Story gives an in-depth look at the shooting and its aftermath

Nearly 11 years after Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 classmates and a teacher, Columbine remains the world’s most iconic school shooting. Columbine: A True Crime Story, a victim, the killers and the nation’s search for answers is the first book of investigative journalism to tell the complete story of that day, the far-reaching consequences, and the common denominators among school shooters across the country.
Author Jeff Kass will discuss his book, at 6 p.m. May 6 as part of the Helen Verba Lecture Series, at the Denver Press Club, 1330 Glenarm Place.
Kass was one of the first reporters on scene and wrote the Page One, next day story for the Boston Globe. For 10 years he covered Columbine as a staff writer for the Rocky Mountain News. He has broken national stories on the shootings such as leaked crime scene photos, and the sealed diversion files of the killers. He has also reported the story extensively for the Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Newsday, and U.S. News & World Report.
This event is free and open to the public, presented by the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists, The Denver Post and the Denver Press Club.