Columbine by Dave Cullen

 I really wanted to read this after the devastating massacre of children and administrators in Newtown, CT. I thought that maybe something would stand out and help me understand the severity of these attacks by individuals.

Dave Cullen has done such a wonderful job of researching this book. What is so alarming is that we really did see something like this happening with at least one of the individuals, Eric. Dylan seems to be sort of a follower. I don't condone any actions by either of them, it just seems that Eric was the one who was not the stable one. Dave Cullen has designated Eric as a psycopath, and the more that you read into the tragedy, you can really see that is the fact.

I can't help but feel sorry for the parents of these two boys. Understandably, the blame was being put on their shoulders, only because nobody had anyone else to blame, the two boys were gone. The police were certainly not blameless with the way that they handled things, not releasing any information until well past the time when people should have been able to put a close on things and try to start carrying on with their lives.

I sure hope that these tragedies will make people think twice about what they are witnessing, but not start watching too closely. We have to learn to talk to people and help them with their fears, anguish, hormonal imbalances, etc.

I would rate this book a 4 because it helped to answer at least some questions about the actions of Eric and Dylan and made them seem more human than I would have thought plausible. This world is a scary place and we should be able to help stop some of this with the right decisions about getting people some help when we feel that they need it.

http://davecullen.com/