School Shooting Quotes

“Life isn't fair. A fair's a place where you eat corn dogs and ride the ferris wheel.”
― Jennifer Brown, Hate List

“Take a little thought experiment. Imagine all the rampage school shooters in Littleton, Colorado; Pearl, Mississippi; Paducah, Kentucky; Springfield, Oregon; and Jonesboro, Arkansas; now imagine they were black girls from poor families who lived instead in Chicago, New Haven, Newark, Philadelphia, or Providence. Can you picture the national debate, the headlines, the hand-wringing? There is no doubt we’d be having a national debate about inner-city poor black girls. The entire focus would be on race, class, and gender. The media would doubtless invent a new term for their behavior, as with wilding two decades ago. We’d hear about the culture of poverty, about how living in the city breeds crime and violence. We’d hear some pundits proclaim some putative natural tendency among blacks toward violence. Someone would likely even blame feminism for causing girls to become violent in a vain imitation of boys.

Yet the obvious fact that virtually all the rampage school shooters were middle-class white boys barely broke a ripple in the torrent of public discussion. This uniformity cut across all other differences among the shooters: some came from intact families, others from single-parent homes; some boys had acted violently in the past, and others were quiet and unassuming; some boys also expressed rage at their parents (two killed their parents the same morning), and others seemed to live in happy families.”
― Michael S. Kimmel, Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era

“Jennifer’s eyes begin to water again. “Don’t let anything bad happen to him, Dr. Sampson. My husband is a famous lawyer. He sues doctors when they screw up.”
“Jennifer!” Zack exclaims, embarrassed.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“. . . I also believe we can respect Second Amendment rights while, at the same time, preventing lawbreakers and people who are a danger to others from committing atrocities . . .”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“Detroit? I never set foot in Detroit. A bit too dark for me if you know what I mean.” He glances at Ellington. Clare is offended by the overtly racist comment, but Billy’s heard it all before.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“I have filed a lawsuit; I am not engaged in a legislative battle. I am very proud my son will help spearhead an effort to put forth a survivor’s legislative agenda with many of his fellow students, teachers, and other survivors of this tragedy. Kenny and his colleagues are now voting age or will be before the next election. Pro-gun politicians need to address the problem, or they may find themselves looking for work.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“Our good friend and fellow sportsman George W. Bush signed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act into law back in 2005. Essentially, unless we make a terribly defective gun, the law creates a complete shield from liability. God bless Citizens United, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the NRA, tort reform, and needy and greedy politicians.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“When did school shootings become routine in America?” ”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“Something still exists as long as there's someone still around to remember it.”
― Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes

“Are you crazy, Kenny Tracey? Do you have a death wish or something? Preventing someone from getting hurt and jumping in front of a bullet are not the same things!”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“It is easy to talk about changing our culture. It is quite different to put forth bold initiatives to effectuate that change. Together, we can make a difference.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“These are not red or blue issues—they are the human rights issues of our generation. We are here begging for our lives. If today’s political officeholders cannot accomplish real change on guns and gun issues, we will vote together on these issues in the next election and elect their successors . . .”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“How did that damn kid’s father get these guns? Did he purchase them on the black market or our black market? I’ve got to find out.
 ”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“Guy tries to buy a gun, but when he returns, he learns he’s failed the background check. ‘Oh well,’ the guy tells himself. ‘It was worth a try.’ The dealer says to the guy, ‘Hold the phone, buddy. Ask a friend, your brother, your sister, anyone you know, to come in, pass the background check, and we’ll sell the guns to them instead of you. What happens to them afterward is none of our business . . .”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“One way to hurt Barrington is to beat the crap out of him in your lawsuit. Hurt him in the pocketbook.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“I guess accidents do happen, know what I mean? A blown tire here, failed brakes around a curve there. Perhaps the vehicle’s computer system goes haywire and results in an explosion. Those types of things send a clear message.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“I think the shooter is Kevin Burns. I know him pretty well. Maybe I can talk him down."
"Are you nuts? He’s crazy. Everyone knows he’s a lunatic. No one can talk him down. Get out of there!"
"I can’t sit around and do nothing. I have to do something. Remember what Mom and Dad told us after Father Gerry? If you have a chance to save or protect innocent people, you have to make that sacrifice. I won’t let another predator get the best of me."
"That’s not what they meant, you idiot! Get the hell out of there and let the police handle it. I’m sure they’re on their way!"
"If anything happens to me, I want you to know you’re the best little brother a guy could hope for, squirt. Take care. I love you."
"I love you too. Please don’t do anything stupid."
"We’re going to get out of this together. Understand? We’re best brothers, forever."
"Forever, bro . . .”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“The threat of lawsuits has increased public awareness of the dangers of smoking and has made tobacco companies market their dangerous nicotine delivery systems more responsibly. The threat of lawsuits has made all kinds of products safer. For example, over the last forty years or so, automobile deaths have been cut nearly in half by safety features in cars, developed and implemented in response to lawsuits.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“No parent should lose a son or daughter, no teacher should lose a student, no sibling should lose a brother or sister, and no student should lose a best friend or a teacher.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“I know who I’m talking to, Mr. Barrington. I’m talking to a man who is willing to kill a teenager if it helps him defend a wrongful death personal injury lawsuit. I’m talking to a scumbag who is willing to betray his country for money. I grant you did what you did for a large sum of money, but treason is still treason, regardless of how much is involved.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“How does a mentally challenged eighteen-year-old obtain an AK 47 and a Lugar? We don’t need to disarm America to prevent school shootings. We need only common sense.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“Zack is amazed by how calmly Kevin describes the events of the day. A walk in the park for him. A chill runs up Zack’s spine. ”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“Her family is together, enjoying each other’s company. What more can any woman ask for? ”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“These elected officials pursued the offices they hold and asked us for our votes. We gave them our votes. That’s a sacred trust, and they have betrayed us.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal High

“One gun has more power to take life than a hundred surgeons have to preserve it.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Centurion Sermon: Mental Por El Mundo

“Active shooter NO drill Student? dk-pr. LUV-u pray4me Louder now.”
― Timothy Sexton, Triggered: The Story of a School Shooting

“Kids over cash,
Women over semen.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“Naskaristan, The Sonnet

Where no one cries of hunger,
For neighbor comes before netflix,
No one needs bulletproof backpacks,
For children come before profits,

Where women can pursue their dreams,
Without being castrated by masculinity,
Where a mother can feed her child,
Without attracting prehistoric insecurity,

Where love isn't chained to archaic texts,
For reform triumphs over rigidity,
Where all colors make the rainbow of life,
For life isn't chained to no ideology,

Where reason outshines all superstition,
Heartland beyond hateland is Naskaristan.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect

“Cody couldn’t bring himself to actually look directly at the main building.
Where it happened.
He’d gone through that front gate every school day for years. Knew every nook and cranny, every single classroom, every broom closet and every air duct intimately. Every crack in the tarmac, every water fountain, each and every bank of lockers and all the boys’ bathrooms. But he couldn’t look directly at the familiar brick building. He observed it the way you do an eclipse, out of the corner of a half-lidded eye.”
― Casey Wells, Dead Boy

“i don't wanna be alone anymore”
― Marieke Nijkamp