Read Give a Boy a Gun for Free Online

there’s just one thing. It wasn’t like I went looking for them. Those guys, especially Brendan, it was like he always wanted to start something. Like he went out of his way to ask for it.
    â€” Sam Flach
    Like all other animals, we are born with instincts and a genetic blueprint of what wemust do to survive. The big difference is that humans possess the potential for becoming civilized, thinking, reasoning creatures. Eventually we are supposed to learn to suppress our animal instincts in order to meld with the society around us.

    In 1995 alone, 35,957 Americans were killed by firearms in homicides, suicides, and accidents. In comparison, during the three years of the Korean War, 33,651 Americans were killed. During nearly eight years of the war in Vietnam, 58,148 Americans were killed.

    But at what point is the process of suppressing our animal instincts complete? Seven years of age? Fourteen? Twenty-one? In other words, do we expect too much of teenagers?
    â€” F. Douglas Ellin, a biology teacher at Middletown High School
    I suppose I’m as much at fault as anyone. But it’s not like football players are monsters. Kids have been getting into fights and picking on one another since forever. I don’t know why Brendan and Gary did what they decided to do, but to say it was all because some football players picked on them has to be a gross oversimplification.
    â€” Dustin Williams
    There is an unwritten law here about thetreatment of athletes, especially those athletes on the teams that have a chance to go to the playoffs and bring the school recognition and enhance its pride. In our case, that’s football and wrestling. The [unwritten] law states that you may discipline a student athlete up to a point. But it must be an absolutely extraordinary situation for you to do anything that would impinge on that athlete’s ability to play for his team. To do so would be to invite the worst kind of scorn, not just from the football coaches, but from the administration, other teachers, and the town at large. Do a few of the athletes know this and take advantage of it? What do you think?
    â€” Beth Bender
    With the trend toward two parents working and spending less time at home, the responsibility for raising children and instilling them with values rests more and more on the shoulders of the schools. We are no longer supposed to teach just academics; we are now supposed to rear, nurture, coddle,protect, encourage, discipline, and teach good hygiene and eating habits. If you’re a teacher with six classes of roughly thirty kids each, how exactly are you supposed to do that?
    â€”Allen Curry, principal of Middletown High School
    My mother says I’m a pack rat. I save everything. I don’t know why, I just do. Gary, Brendan, Allison, and I would get into a chat room and shoot the breeze, and if I thought it was interesting, I’d save it onto a Zip drive. As soon as the cops found out, they got a warrant and came in here and took it all away, but my dad went to court and got some of it back after the cops made copies. After what happened, I went back and started to look at some of the stuff. I thought this one was pretty interesting. Brendan is TerminX. Gary is Dayzd. Allison is Blkchokr, and I’m Rebooto.
    â€”Ryan Clancy
    TerminX: Burns called me a nerd 2day .
    Blkchokr: Feeble
    Rebooto: That’s the best he could come up with!
    Dayzd: Know what he’ll call a nerd 10 years from now?
    TerminX: Boss
    Rebooto: LOL!
    TerminX: It’s BS .
    Blkchokr: Y?
    TerminX: Jocks go 2 college and play on teams .
    They’re heroes .
    Rebooto: They get hot babes .
    Dayzd: They get babes hot .
    TerminX: They study accounting and pre-law .
    Then they screw up their knees and their career is over. But it doesn’t matter .
    Blkchokr: Y not?
    TerminX: Because they’re still winners .
    Dayzd: We’re losers, with good knees .
    Rebooto: Unless U lose Ur knee .
    Dayzd: Or Ur knee