Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser

and my friends. Look at those creeps. Look at their clothes and the music they listen to. Why can’t they go out for sports or at least root for our team?
    Know what? Not everybody has to do what you A-holes want them to do. Maybe your kidsdid, but me and my friends chose not to. And you and your kids couldn’t deal with that. And so you had to do what stupid, ignorant people always do when they don’t understand—you had to attack and torment us.
    And you teachers. I thought you taught us that America is supposed to be about freedom. Kids are supposed to be able to be different without the status quo police smashing us over the head and ridiculing us. But that’s all you teachers did to me and my friends. Just like everyone else, you tried to make us conform to your narrow-minded expectations of how we were supposed to dress and act.
    Well, screw you. Screw all of you. I hope this letter is like a knife in your hearts. You ruined my life. All I’ve done is pay you back in kind.
    Respectfully yours,
Brendan Lawlor

The End
    Brendan started to shoot again. From the muzzle flashes I knew he was firing at the ceiling. But in the dark like that a lot of kids couldn’t see and didn’t know. They just assumed everyone around them was being slaughtered. You don’t know what terror really is until you experience it yourself.
    â€” Dustin Williams
    Robin [Lewis] screamed because she felt warm liquid seeping into her clothes from the floor and thought it was blood. Everyone knows now it was something else. It’s just completely gross.
    â€”Deirdre Bunson
    You lose track of how many times you think this is it, you’re really going to die now, but that was certainly one of those moments. Brendan was screaming at everyone to shutup. He probably fired that semiautomatic until he’d emptied the whole clip. There were bullets ricocheting all over the place. A couple of kids were grazed. We’re incredibly lucky no one was actually hit. It was utter mayhem.
    â€”Allen Curry
    It got quiet, and I heard those clicking sounds and realized Brendan was reloading. Then I heard Gary say, “Brendan, we gotta talk.” Brendan cursed him out something awful. So now these two guys were arguing. I guess it was something in Gary’s voice. Everyone who heard it started begging Brendan to listen to him. Of course, that just totally set Brendan off again.
    â€”Chelsea Baker
    In a situation like that, you search madly for anything to hope for. When I heard Gary say they had to talk, I thought we had a chance. It wasn’t much, but it was all we had. But with all the crying and pleading, Brendan wasn’t listening. So I raised my voice and toldeveryone to quiet down and let the boys talk.
    â€”Beth Bender
    First Brendan was screaming at everyone to shut up. Then Ms. Bender said we should be quiet. Then Mr. Flanagan said it too. It was so weird. They were all agreeing with Brendan. For a second I thought they’d gone over to the other side or something.
    â€”Deirdre Bunson
    Everyone [on the floor] started whispering to each other to be quiet and let [the boys] talk. In the dark I heard Brendan say he couldn’t effing believe it. He just couldn’t effing believe it.
    â€”Allison Findley
    Gary wanted to talk. Brendan said there was nothing to talk about. They’d chosen theirpath. So Gary goes, “Things have changed.” Brendan started cursing at him and saying nothing had changed. The rest of us just lay there listening to it. Here were these two crazy boys discussing whether we’d live or not. Our lives were totally in their hands.
    â€” Chelsea Baker

    Like any other business, the gun industry must constantly introduce new products to keep buyers interested and enhance profits. People who buy computers look for more memory and faster chip speed. People who buy guns look for increased killing power.

    I worked my hands free. If there’d just been one