Ceremonial Violence (PDF)

From Columbine to Virginia Tech and beyond, a ground-breaking look into the mindset of 'SR' (School Rampage) killers and the gun culture that surrounds them. What drives a child to take the lives of his classmates and teachers? Ceremonial Violence analyses thirteen school 'rampage' shootings - including the Columbine High School massacre – and explains, for the first time, why teenagers commit these tragic atrocities. These cases include: Brenda Spencer, 16, who, in 1979, after shooting at elementary school children in Cleveland for no apparent reason explained to a reporter, 'I hate Mondays'; Wayne Lo, 18, a brilliant Taiwanese student and violin prodigy who embraced white supremacist rhetoric and, one night, stalked the campus of Simon's Rock College with a semi-automatic rifle picking victims at random; Evan Ramsey, 16, who went on a shooting rampage in Anchorage, alerting some twenty-five friends beforehand so they could observe the mayhem; Luke Woodham, 17, who claimed to have been controlled by demons when he killed his classmates. With his grasp of the elements of abnormal psychology, developmental psychology, sociology and neurology that contribute to the homicidal mindset, Fast offers us a means of understanding and coming to terms with these shootings, and provides examples of what we should look out for as early signs to prevent further tragedies.