Sex-Related Comparisons: Observations 121and shot them before shooting
himself (“Fifth girl dies,” 2006).
■On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold, two teenagers, killed
12 classmates and wounded 23 oth-
ers within 16 minutes and then
killed themselves at Columbine High
School in Littleton, Colorado. They
had intended to kill 488 people in the
cafeteria with two bombs. Cho Seung-
Hui had referred to Eric and Dylan as
martyrs (“Sheriff Releases,” 2000).
■And, of course, on September 11,
2001, 19 men on suicide missions
hijacked four American planes in
the United States, resulting in the
collapse of the World Trade Center,
an attack on the Pentagon, and the
loss of thousands of lives.
■Finally, in the small town where I
grew up (Bradley, Illinois), Timothy
Buss at age 13 murdered and then
mutilated the body of a 5-year-old
girl in 1981. Fourteen years later,
in 1995, after being released from
prison on parole, Buss returned to
the area and brutally murdered a
10-year-old boy (Cotliar, 1996).What do all of these atrocities have in
common? They were horrendous acts of vio-
lence that received a great deal of media at-
tention, causing us, as a nation, to question
the sources of such behavior. They also all in-
volved male perpetrators. The public has taken
note of such incidents, especially the Virginia
Tech and Columbine massacres, because the
perpetrators were so young. In the past decade,
books that address the subject of troubled boys
who become involved in violence have been
best sellers, such asLost Boys: Why Our Sonsof men’s and women’s roles in situations of
danger have changed over the years.Aggression
■On November 6, 2009, in Fort Hood,
Texas, Major Nidal Malik Hasan,
a U.S. army officer, opened fire on
soldiers who were having medical
check-ups before deployment to
Afghanistan, killing 13 and injuring
30 others (Allen & Bloxham, 2009).
■On August 5, 2009, a man walked
into an LA Fitness Center dance
class and opened fire, killing four
and wounding eight others, before
turning the gun on himself. Police
found a log in which the gunman
had planned the mass killing for
months (“Four Dead,” 2009).
■On April 16, 2007, Cho Seung-Hui
killed a woman and a man at 7:15
a.m. in a dormitory at Virginia Poly-
technic Institute. Two hours later he
proceeded into an academic build-
ing and killed another 30 students
in offices and classrooms, and then
killed himself. Between the first kill-
ing and second massacre, he took
time to stop at a mailbox and send
a news station writings filled with
anger and photographs of himself
engaging in aggressive behavior.
■On October 2, 2006, Charles Carl
Roberts IV, a 32-year-old truck-
driver, carried a shotgun, a semi-
automatic pistol, a rifle, two knives,
and 600 rounds of ammunition
into an Amish schoolhouse in Lan-
caster, Pennsylvania. He told the
15 boys to leave and then lined up
the 6 girls before the blackboardM04_HELG0185_04_SE_C04.indd 121 6/21/11 8:02 AM