Springfield, Oregon

May 21, 1998

At Springfield's Thurston High School. Kipland "Kip" Kinkel, a 15-year-old student, shot two students to death and wounded 22 others. After he was subdued by students in the cafeteria, police found the bodies of his parents at their home in a wooded subdivision 10 miles away.

"There are too many guns, and they're too accessible," said Bill Morrisette, mayor of this town of 50,000 "I don't know how to deal with that - it's like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. It's not going to happen."

Why is this a new phenomina? Why hasn't gun violence in schools been a common problem over the last 200 years?

Amazingly enough, the number of guns as a percentage of the population is not increasing- it is actually at an all-time low, much as the number of farms in out country. So why hasn't this happened before?

"What kind of despair drives children to this kind of violence?" Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber asked.

Realize that it is because of lack of morals and lack of teaching in our homes and schools of self-control. This includes easrly training in sex education, where abstence is not taught, but use of condoms is encouraged instead. Rather than teaching responsibility for actions, the opposite is taught. And in a world with no room for God, every individual today becomes his own god, accountable to noone else, doing good only in their own eyes. Everything is relative, there are no absolute truths, rights or wrongs. Gov. Kitzhaber, that is what drives people to this kind of voilence.

June 15, 1998

EUGENE, Ore. (Reuters) - Kipland "Kip" Kinkel was formally charged with murder and attempted murder Tuesday .

If convicted on the four charges of murder and 25 charges of attempted murder, Kinkel could be sentenced to life in prison without any possibility of parole.

Kinkel is charged with murdering his parents and then two of his fellow students in a subsequent shooting rampage at Springfield's Thurston High School.

The packed courtroom, included many of his fellow students and victims of the shooting spree.

A grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday charged him with four counts of aggravated murder, 25 counts of attempted aggravated murder, 24 counts of assault and three weapons and explosives charges.

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (Reuters) - A Mississippi boy on trial for killing two schoolmates and wounding seven others testified Thursday that worshiping Satan gave him power to control other people.

Woodham is on trial for killing his former girlfriend, Christina Menefee, 16, and classmate Lydia Dew, 17. Seven other students who were shot survived the attack.

The defense, which told the jury in opening arguments that Woodham was innocent by reason of insanity, called psychiatrist Mick Jepson of Santa Fe, N.M., who said in his opinion Woodham was mentally ill.

The boy said he had met an older teenager, Grant Boyette, 19, "just after I lost Christina. Grant told me, 'I worship Satan, and Satan has chosen you to be part of my group."

"He said I had potential to do something great," the boy testified.

He said worshiping Satan gave him strong powers that allowed him to control people, and Boyette gave him a pentagon to put on his forehead when casting spells.

"Magic and being part of Grant's group made me feel like I had complete control and power over a lot of things," Woodham said.

In the videotape shown to the jury earlier in the day, Woodham denied being insane. Woodham said on the videotape. "I'm not insane, I just did it. I went up to Christina and I shot her, then I shot Lydia, then I just shot into the crowd. I don't know why I killed Lydia." Woodham said, "I don't deny my actions."

The murder trial is the second...[he was] convicted last week of killing his mother with a butcher knife about three hours before the school killings.

Woodham was sentenced to life in prison for killing his mother. He faces two additional life sentences. The Mississippi Legislature did not make school shootings a capital offense until early this year, after the fact.