Give a Boy a Gun (21 page)

Brendan went ballistic on Gary. He yanked off his mask and threw it on the floor. And Gary, I don't know, he just shut down. He walked over to the wall, sat down, and buried his head in his arms. Now Brendan's storming around, yelling great, just effing great! Neither of them was paying attention to anything. Dustin nudged me with his foot, and I rolled around and clipped the tie holding his hands.

—Paul Burns

It sounded like a firecracker. Everyone was looking around like,
What was that?
Allison screamed out Gary's name. He was lying on his side. It was horrible.

—Chelsea Baker

I wanted more guys, but when Gary shot himself, I didn't know what was going to happen next. Allison went running to Gary. Brendan
followed her, but he was walking. He had his back to us. We do up-downs in football. That's where we drop to our stomach, then jump back up. The coaches are always on me because I'm not the fastest to get up, but I was then.

I knew Brendan was going to hear me coming. I was just hoping he wouldn't have time to turn around, aim, and fire.

— Dustin Williams

It didn't seem real. That little popping noise, and then Gary slumped over and the blood started to run out of his head. His arms and legs started jerking. It was just so gross. I kept thinking,
No way. This is a dream. It's a movie
.

—Deirdre Bunson

[Brendan] heard my footsteps and started to turn with the gun, but I tackled him as hard as I could and slammed him down against the gym floor. That #$*%ing gun slid away, and I
held Brendan down. He struggled and cursed a lot, but that was it.

—Dustin Williams

More American children are killed by firearms than by all natural causes combined.

Dustin Williams is a hero. There's no doubt about that.

—Allen Curry

They say Dustin's a hero, but I don't believe he was trying to be one. I think he was only doing what he knew had to be done. Something bad was going on, and he had to stop it. It's what a moral human being is supposed to do.

—Chelsea Baker

We all saw what happened. Suddenly every kid was screaming for Paul to free them. Can you blame them? We all wanted to get out of there. That's when I remembered the doors were booby-trapped.

—Beth Bender

It was complete hysteria. Paul was going around with those clippers, cutting the ties as fast as he could. Someone else found a pair of nail clippers, and one of the boys had a penknife. The kids were crying and shrieking
to be freed next. That little eye-in-the-sky camera must have been watching the whole time, because the loudspeaker started blaring. But it was lost in the din. Someone started shouting to stay away from the doors, but not everyone was paying attention.

— Dick Flanagan

I was holding Brendan down. He was cursing and crying and squirming. I'm not going to name names, but someone grabbed me from behind and yanked me off. At least six other guys were on him in no time.

—Dustin Williams

I tried to get up, but I couldn't. The slightest movement and the pain was overwhelming. It's not like the movies. At least it wasn't for me. You don't get hit and keep going. You get shot and you go down and stay there.

—Allen Curry

At that point I wasn't thinking about Brendan. I was thinking about the kids who were heading
for the doors. They were chained shut, but we knew they were booby-trapped. We had to make sure those kids stayed away from the doors. We had no idea how much or how little it might take to make one blow.

—Dick Flanagan

Dustin was holding Brendan. I don't think Brendan was going to escape. Those boys got free, and the first thing on their minds was to get Brendan. I still don't understand what they were thinking.

—Chelsea Baker

You had four exits. You ran to one, and if there was already someone there trying to keep the kids from pulling on the doors, you ran to the next [set of doors] and tried to stop those kids. Some of them understood, but some of them were panicked and irrational. To be honest, I wasn't really aware of what else was going on.

—Dick Flanagan

In 1997, after a man armed with handguns killed sixteen children and a teacher at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, Britain banned all handguns.

They wanted to kill him. The way they were stomping on his head, it was sickening. He wasn't even conscious. Just limp like a doll.

— Dustin Williams

I tried to stop them. I was the only one. One of them cursed me out and pushed me away. Then I went to get Ms. Bender. She was telling kids to stay away from the doors. I told her they were killing Brendan. She told me to keep everyone away from the doors and ran over there.

—Allison Findley

What Brendan and Gary did was terribly, horribly, inexcusably wrong. I have no interest in defending them. But deep in my heart there's a little piece of me that at least understands what might have driven them to such a horrendous, evil undertaking. But
what those boys did was equally inexcusable and evil.

—Beth Bender

“After thirty-five people were killed by a gunman with an array of assault weapons . . . in 1996, Australia banned all automatic and semiautomatic weapons and pump-action shotguns, paid their owners a fair price, and destroyed the lot.”

—Making a Killing

I didn't try to stop [the boys beating Brendan]. I guess at that point I was just so wiped out and stressed that I didn't care. I know those guys have to be punished. The police have already told my parents I'll have to testify about what I saw. This may sound terrible, but I still wonder, if I had to do it again, would I try to stop them next time? And I don't know what the answer is.

—Dustin Williams

Everyone is convinced that Brendan and Gary would have let Sam die, and would have killed many more. Maybe they're right. Maybe not. The fact is the only person Gary killed was himself. And Brendan didn't kill anyone. I know he shot Sam and Mr. Curry, but maybe [Brendan and Gary] would have changed their minds and let everyone live. Maybe they would have let Sam bleed a little longer and then gotten him help. No one will ever know. But this much I do know: The
only people I saw really try to kill anyone that night were those boys. They tried to kill Brendan with their bare hands. And I am absolutely convinced that if it hadn't been for Ms. Bender, they would have.

—Allison Findley

I speak to Mrs. Lawlor about once a week. Brendan is still in a coma. The doctors say his brain damage is irreversible. The courts will have to decide whether to disconnect his life support. Apparently there's a group of people somewhere who are against it. Whoever they are, they certainly don't know the Lawlors or anyone else around here. Sometimes I wonder what has happened to the world. How we got to a place where mercy seems so hard to come by.

—Beth Bender

You want to know what it was? Pure evil, plain and simple. How else do you explain a boy being as nice and polite as Brendan Lawlor and then doing what he did?

—Jack Phillips

I've been awarded a partial scholarship to an Ivy League college back east. Back where all the “liberal gun control” people live. I bet half the newspaper editors who wrote editorials attacking our school went to that kind of college. I had good grades and boards, but I know kids, even African American kids like me, who had better grades and boards and didn't get into one of those schools. Know why I got in? Because I made second-team all-state linebacker. One of those Ivy League teams back east needed a linebacker. Kind of ironic, huh?

—Dustin Williams

My pastor says I have to try and forgive them for what they did to me. Meanwhile I'm still on crutches with two knees that'll never be any good again. Why? Did I do anything that a thousand other guys at a thousand other
schools haven't done? Sorry, folks, I'm not forgiving them. Ever.

—Sam Flach