Line #8 Literature/GiveABoyAGun


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/give_a_boy_a_gun_7333.jpg]]
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3	'''''Give a Boy a Gun''''' is a YoungAdult novel by Todd Strasser published in 2002. It is about a pair of HighSchool outcasts, Brendan Lawlor and Gary Searle, who decide to shoot up their HighSchoolDance as a way of getting {{revenge}} on the jocks who had picked on them and the faculty members who had ignored their plight or even encouraged the school's culture of bullying. The book is told in [[ScrapbookStory interviews]] with the killers' family, friends, classmates, teachers and neighbors, and explores the myriad causes of school violence.
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5	Comes down ''very'' firmly on the "anti-gun" side of UsefulNotes/AmericanGunPolitics. The very first page declares that a portion of all proceeds from each book sold is being donated to the Million Mom March Foundation.
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7	!!Tropes:
8	* AssholeVictim: Sam Flach. He regularly harasses other kids and his inflated sense of self-importance is just sickening. [[spoiler:And later, he gets [[KneeCapping kneecapped]] for being such a giant dick.]]
9	* BreakTheHaughty: The boys' main intent was to scare the people at the dance -- [[spoiler:it's debatable whether they were actually trying to kill anyone]]. They also [[spoiler:blow off a JerkJock's kneecaps so that he can never play football again]].
10	* FiringInTheAirALot: Brendan and Gary do this during their rampage.
11	* GoshDarnItToHeck: Let's face it. There's no way that an angry high-schooler would contain himself to "friggin'" in his emails while talking about the bullies that tormented him.
12	* HighSchoolDance: The scene of the shooting.
13	* HollywoodAtheist: Brendan.
14	* JerkJock: Sam Flach and the rest of the football team are portrayed as this. The book is fair enough to let them and the other popular kids present their side of the story... and when they do so, they only come off as {{jerkass}}es with a sense of entitlement.
15	* LonersAreFreaks: The book views the prevalence of this trope as a [[SelfFulfillingProphecy self-fulfilling prophecy]] -- outcasts are treated as freaks by their classmates, which causes them to lash out violently, which causes people to view them as killers-in-waiting who should be kept separate from "normal" people, which only increases their isolation and causes them to lash out again. [[ViciousCycle Lather, rinse, repeat.]]
16	* MalevolentMaskedMen: Brendan and Gary go into the shooting wearing ski masks in order to scare their victims.
17	* NeverMyFault: The few popular kids and jocks who are interviewed refuse to take responsibility for their bullying ways. One of them even suggests that [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming Brendan was at fault for making himself a target for bullying]].
18	* NoodleIncident: The opening chapter mentions "what they did to that football player." Subverted later, when we find out [[BreakTheHaughty exactly what]] [[FateWorseThanDeath they did to him]].
19	* PromWrecker: Brendan and Gary shoot up the HighSchoolDance. [[spoiler:They don't actually kill anybody, and likely never intended to in the first place, but they do [[{{Kneecapping}} cripple]] Sam and scare the rest of their classmates by FiringInTheAirALot.]]
20	* ScrapbookStory

Context Literature / GiveABoyAGun