School Shootings

NEWS BRIEFS:

Ten Years After Columbine:

On April 2O, 2009, the 10th anniversary of the Columbine shootings, Here and Now, the coast-to-coast noon-hour news program on Public Radio International hosted by Robin Young, presented a 10-minute interview with the author. It can be heard online at:  http://www.hereandnow.org/2009/04/rundown-420, or click the link on the top right, and then scroll down to: Ten Years After Columbine and click on: Listen.

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On March 22, 2009, the Greek newspaper ‘Eleftherotypia’, (the 2nd biggest selling paper in Greece, www.enet.gr) published a 12-page illustrated interview with the author in their Sunday magazine ‘E’, following a major shooting in Germany (see below). Greece also experienced its first school shooting in April, 2009.

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The March 11, 2009 shootings by 17-year-old former student Tim Kretschmer in Winnenden, Germany had all the common earmarks of previous attacks both in Europe and the US. Typically, the shooter dressed all in black, attacked his former school, fired randomly but aimed mostly at female victims, had been previously treated for mental illness but then stopped attending therapy, and had easy access to weapons from his parents’ own gun collection. The only major diversion from a rash of prior shootings was that this killer was not immediately suicidal at the scene of his crime like the majority of shooters before him. Instead, he fled from the school and later engaged in what has been termed “suicide by cop,” forcing a gun battle with police. In the end, however, police say Kretschmer put a bullet into his own brain. Out of over 200 previous school shooters, less than a half dozen tried to escape after their massacre, rather than killing themselves at the scene.

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On Sept. 23, 2008, the worst school shooting of that year took place. Nine students and a teacher were murdered by 22-year-old Matti Juhani Saari at a vocational school in Kauhajoki, western Finland. All of the warning signs listed in School Shootings were there in abundance, and Saari was simply replicating another Finnish school shooter’s attack last year, detailed in Lieberman’s book, that took eight lives. In mid-October, the Finnish Consul General in Los Angeles, Kirsti Westphalen, agreed with that opinion and had copies of School Shootings forwarded to the Ministry of the Interior for use by the Finnish Police Force.

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Be sure to check out the interview at Freedom States Alliance (link top right of this page).

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Until the book School Shootings appeared, no one had put together a truly comprehensive look at the entire 34-year spectrum of school shootings (whether carried out by adults or teens), or revealed how dozens of these incidents interfaced, both in the US and abroad. School Shootings also explores the synchronous nature and common roots shared among mall and church shootings by young people, workplace rampages, and other suicidal terrorist acts. In addition, the book takes an intimate, in-depth look at the only school shooter in history who was arrested the day before his rampage for having a loaded, stolen gun in his school locker - and then, incredibly, released. Hours later, he murdered both his teacher-parents and proceeded the next morning to shoot 27 students, killing two.

The  publisher is Kensington Books, based in New York City, under their Citadel imprint. Copies can be ordered directly from our links. Your comments are welcome both on the booksellers’ websites and here on our blog.

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WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT * School Shootings - What Every Parent and Educator Needs to Know to Protect Our Children*:

“Thoughtful and refreshingly frank, this book will no doubt save lives.” - Jodee Blanco, anti-bullying activist and author of the New York Times bestseller, “Please Stop Laughing At Me”

“Riveting! Despite a heavy workload, I read it in three days, learning more than I ever imagined about a subject I thought I knew.” - Madalyn Tower, governing board, Oregon School Counselors Association

“Reading this, my heart hurt, but as a mother, I thought of my kids, I thought, ‘Every parent must read this book.’ ” - Heather Buchman, Senior Editor and former president of the Costa Mesa (Calif.)) MOMS Club

“SCHOOL SHOOTINGS is no mere gratuitous rehash. Using old-fashioned reporting… Lieberman reveals important information not made public during the original coverage…. he may have been the perfect person to take a fresh look at how and why (these events) occurred.” - Karen McCowan, The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oreg.

“It’s clear that Joseph Lieberman has performed an invaluable public service in writing his book. He’s spot on in drawing a comparison between school shooters and suicide bombers. His book should be required reading in every institution of learning across the nation.” - Hans Kracauer, award-winning screenwriter

“An excellent examination of this continuing crisis. Lieberman’s writing is thorough and shades the complexity of our world… a balanced, thoughtful examination of what cumulative factors collide into ‘the day it all seems to fall apart.’ ” - Danny Ledonne, filmmaker and creator of the controversial interactive videogame, “Super Columbine Massacre RPG!”

“Lieberman is far less censorious and far more nuanced in his thinking than the Connecticut Senator with whom he shares a name….” - Game Politics (gamepolitics.com)

“The best analysis I’ve seen on what’s been happening in the minds of these young killers. It’s not only important and accurate, it’s also fascinating.” - Dennis Murphy, founder, Ribbon of Promise Campaign to Prevent School Violence

“This work is deep. School Shootings targets isolation, rejection, antisocial behaviors, ready access to guns, and the accepted norm of violence in the media and in society.” - Amy Pincus Merwin, independent radio and video producer, InForm Productions

“So valuable to seeing the big picture of why this happens.” - Cindy Murdoch, parent of Thurston High shooting victim

“A compelling, informative read that delves into the missed signs of the world’s most infamous school shootings.” - Alan Lampe, Webmaster, www.Columbine-Angels.com