Give a Boy a Gun (18 page)

— Dustin Williams

It was so scary when they started shooting at the floor. You just felt like they were completely psycho. They stopped because they heard my cell phone ring. My mom made me take it to the dance, and I gave it to Dustin to hold. Brendan went over and took it out of Dustin's pocket.

They told you what he said, didn't they? She asked if I was there, and Brendan said yes, but I couldn't come to the phone just then. So my mom asked if I would call her back, and he said he doubted it because I'd probably be dead.

—Chelsea Baker

It was sick. I mean, the way they played with everyone's heads. And that thing with the phone and Chelsea Baker's mom . . . I don't know, it was just completely sick.

—Paul Burns

“ ‘I know some of the guns going out of [my company] end up killing people. . . . But I'm not responsible for that.'”

—Carlos Garcia, whose semiautomatic TEC-9 is “a gun of choice among drug dealers and drive-by shooters,”
People
, 1/10/94

Sam [Flach] was sobbing and making these horrible, bloodcurdling moans. Someone yelled out that if they didn't get him help, he might bleed to death. And one of those boys smirked and said, “You think?” That's exactly what they wanted. They wanted him to die a slow, wretched death.

—Deirdre Bunson

I heard a metallic clacking and clicking sound. At first I didn't know what it was. I couldn't bend around enough to see. Then I realized it was Brendan and Gary reloading.

—Beth Bender

I heard them reloading and looked over at Beth [Bender]. She gave me a miserable look. We'd both realized the same thing: These boys were well armed. They weren't going to run out of bullets anytime soon.

— Dick Flanagan

Just because someone owns a gun, or likes to hunt or compete in shooting events, does not
make him a so-called gun nut. Many people I know own hunting rifles and shotguns, and handguns for self-protection. I can tell you, however, that privately many of us are opposed to semiautomatics. The problem is that once the gun control people get semiautomatics banned, they will go after handguns. And once those are banned, do you know what will happen? Some nut will get ahold of a hunting rifle and kill a bunch of people. The gun control people will use that incident as an excuse to go after hunting rifles.

—Allen Curry

Police estimated that Klebold and Harris fired close to nine hundred rounds during the siege at Columbine.

The police got the idea of using the loudspeaker system. We heard a voice come out of nowhere. It really took everyone by surprise, and they handled it very badly. Instead of trying to reason with the boys, they came on very threatening. Laying out what laws they'd broken and what the consequences
would be, and how the longer they waited to lay down their weapons, the worse it would be for them.

I remember trying very hard to imagine what those boys were thinking now. And I thought,
Oh, my God, it's too late. They're armed. They're shooting. They've already wounded people. They've taken hostages. They've broken all these laws already. Real laws. Not baby don't-smoke-in-school laws. If they walk out of here alive, they are going to go to jail for a long time. And we all know about that, don't we? What they do to you in there. These poor, crazy boys. Maybe the jocks have tormented them here, but it will be a thousand times worse in jail

And that's when I had an epiphany. Can't you see why they were doing it? They had no
protection. They couldn't get away from the bullies and tormentors. Not here, not in jail, not anywhere. So why not kill them? Why not kill themselves? What difference would it make either way?

—Beth Bender

In 1992 the District of Columbia adopted a law making gun manufacturers liable for gun deaths. A number of semiautomatic weapons were specifically named in the measure. Several companies simply changed the names of the weapons and continued selling them.

They started shooting at the ceiling. I assume they were trying to shoot out the speakers. The police shut down the electricity. You can understand why they did it, but when the gym went dark, it just made everything that much worse.

—Dick Flanagan

It went dark, and everyone on the floor just started crying and whimpering even more. It was really pathetic. Brendan and Gary turned on their flashlights. I was scared too. I didn't think they'd shoot me, but I was afraid I might get killed if they blew up the gym or if the police tried to storm in. And as much as I hated Sam Flach, you just can't
let people suffer like that. So when it went dark, I yelled out to Gary that I was there.

—Allison Findley

Nationwide in 1996 more than six thousand students were expelled for bringing guns to school.

As soon as it went dark, kids started inching away from the center of the gym. Those guys would sweep the flashlights over us, and it was like a bunch of giant inchworms crawling around. They yelled at us not to move and went around making sure [the ones who'd moved] went back. That's when I really got to work trying to get my hands free.

—Paul Burns

It was dark. I don't know why, but it reminded me of that scene at the end of
Titanic
where they're all floating in the icy water, just trying to hold on for dear life. They kept sweeping their flashlights around, keeping an eye on everyone. So you'd see those silhouettes of people lying there. Just like in the movie, people were crying out for their loved ones and sobbing. It was really eerie.

—Chelsea Baker

[Later] I told the detectives that the boys appeared to be caught off guard when Allison called out in the dark. Those flashlight beams started swinging around wildly and then focused on the refreshment table. Allison was standing there. She held her hands up and squinted in the lights. When the boys saw her, Brendan seemed amused. He may have even said something like, “Whoa, this is one strange twist.” But Gary kept asking her what she was doing there. He was quite upset.

—Beth Bender

Look, who's kidding who? I was scared to death, but when I heard Gary asking Allison why she was there, it scared me even more. You could tell that he expected something really bad to happen, and he didn't want her to be part of it.