Keeping Kids Safe

Inside the minds of school shooters, with general insight into adolescent mental health.

Peter Langman Ph.D.

My Conversations with Sue Klebold

After studying Dylan Klebold for years, what was it like to speak with his mother?

Adam Lanza's First Psychotic Episode

We cannot understand Adam Lanza without taking into account his apparent schizophrenia.

School Shooters: There Is No Sound Bite

My new book summarizes research on forty-eight school shooters, going beyond sound bites to a more in-depth analysis of the lives and minds of the perpetrators.

Sandy Hook, Two Years Later

An irrational rationale? The motivation for the massacre at Sandy Hook continues to elude us.

Elliot Rodger: A Psychotic Psychopath?

Elliot Rodger appears to have had a blend of the psychopathic features of Eric Harris and the psychotic traits of Dylan Klebold.

Revisiting Adam Lanza: The Official Sandy Hook Report

What sense can we make of Adam Lanza's murderous attack?

Adam Lanza: A Psychotic Shooter?

There are patterns among school shooters, and as surprising as it may be, Adam Lanza fits several of them.

The Massacre At Sandy Hook Elementary School

Other shooters have killed family members, and other shooters have been adults who attacked elementary schools, but no previous shooter has done both. In that way, Lanza’s attack appears to be unique.

Jared Cano: Plans for Rampage

Did Jared Cano really mean to go through with his planned attack? If so, what kind of person would do such a thing?

School Shooting in Brazil: Shock and the Search for Meaning

Why is it so hard to recognize that violence can happen anywhere?

Jared Loughner: What Kind of Psychosis?

Anniversary of Dawson College Shooting

Four years after the Dawson College rampage, what have we learned?

Sex, Love, and School Shooters: Eric Harris

 School shooters typically experience extreme frustration and/or anguish in their pursuit of intimacy, whether their primary focus is on finding love or simply having sex. Though Eric Harris's attack was influenced by multiple factors, did the issues of love or sex play a role in the dynamics that culminated in murder?

Season of Rampages?

Shakespeare and School Shooters, Part 2 (Romeo and Juliet)

Three rampage shooters have cited "Romeo and Juliet"--what aspects of the play have they identified with?

Shakespeare and School Shooters, Part 1

Why did Eric Harris identify with Caliban?

To Kill and To Die: Suicide and School Shooters

I recently read a statement that all rampage school shooters are suicidal. Though many school shooters are suicidal at the time of their attacks, there are exceptions.

Criminals and Crime-Fighters in the Families of School Shooters

The Career Aspirations of Shooters

Murderous Envy

Columbine, Bullying, and the Mind of Eric Harris

To view Eric Harris as the innocent victim of peer harassment is to ignore who he was.