Reddit reviews Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters

There's nothing you could do to convince these people it wasn't Islamist terror. Doesn't matter that police found this book in his room. Doesn't matter that all of the victims identified so far are Albanian. Doesn't matter that he shouted "I'm German". Doesn't matter that police have not found any ties to Islamists.

They will claim police cover-up and media conspiracy just so they can continue to promote their us-vs-them narrative.

Since the Parkland shooting, I’ve read quite a bit about school shootings in general. I’m more of a book reader than an article reader; notes below.

Article Library

If you want a good general overview, I’d recommend reading Why Kids Kill linked below first. I’m far from an academic—never even attended a traditional college—but it’s really readable. Even if you don’t want to read the whole thing, you can pick up the ebook and just check out the references/footnotes. They link to tons of articles.

Once I finish School Shooters (also linked below) I plan to start working on this library of resources for more detailed info. That’s Langman’s site.

General Books

• [Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0309084121/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_RlbZAbAK8DRRY) - Not exactly a book; you can find the pdf online. This is the report from a study commissioned by Congress to investigate school shootings of the 90s & 00s. Rampage & Why Kids Kill cite it often. It covers 10 incidents in-depth. Each incident was investigated by a different team of academics.
  
  
• Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings The authors of this book wrote two of the breakdowns in the Deadly Violence report. This is sort of the expanded version of those reports. Dispels a lot of stereotypes & myths.
  
  
• [Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0230101488/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_5kbZAbFHKSRSB) by Dr. Peter Langman - This guy is a leading expert on school shootings. He lays out his three categories and gives examples of each type. This book covers only school-aged rampage shooters who targeted their own schools, so guys like Adam Lanza and Seung Hui Cho aren’t included. Lanza was an adult who targeted his former elementary school; Cho targeted his college.
  
  
• [School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and Adult Perpetrators] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1538106930/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_LPM0AbJF3Z2R7) by Dr. Peter Langman - This one is similar to Why Kids Kill, with a broader scope to include people like Lanza and Cho.
  
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  I’ve also read these books which cover specific incidents. (I read a lot of true crime in general, so this list goes back years, not just since Parkland.)
  
  Specific Incidents
  
  
• Columbine by Dave Cullen - He did a ton of reporting on the original shooting and later released this book. It’s well researched and incredibly readable. More suspenseful than many thrillers, IMO. His conclusions are debated but it’s sort of seen as the definitive story.
  
• [No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine High School] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1590560310/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_mCbZAbTR94H0K) by Brooks Brown - He knew the shooters and he disagrees with a lot of what Cullen says. If you’re going to read one, read the other too, for a more rounded view.
  
• A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold, Dylan’s Mom
  
  
• Newtown: An American Tragedy
  
• The Reckoning: Searching for Meaning with the Father of the Sandy Hook Killer
  
  
• One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway -- and Its Aftermath - Not a school shooting but an excellent read.
  
  
• No Right to Remain Silent: What We've Learned from the Tragedy at Virginia Tech - Written by one of Seung Hui Cho’s professors who tried to get him help.
  
  
• Murder of Innocence: The Tragic Life and Final Rampage of Laurie Dann - A supringly little-known but dramatic story about a woman rampage shooter.
  
  
• Think No Evil: Inside the Story of the Amish Schoolhouse Shooting... and Beyond

I really liked Why Kids Kill by Peter Langman. It was refreshing to read about school shootings without all the hype and scare mongering you get from the media.