Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

6HOTHEADSOn March 13, 1996, Thomas Hamilton walked into an elementaryschool in Dunblane, Scotland, carrying two revolvers andtwo semiautomatic pistols. After wounding staff members whotried to tackle him, he ran to the gymnasium, where a kindergarten classwas playing. There he shot twenty-eight children, sixteen fatally, andkilled their teacher before turning the gun on himself. "Evil visited usyesterday, and we don't know why," said the school's headmaster the nextday. "We don't understand it and I don't think we ever will."We probably never will understand what made Hamilton commit hisvile final acts. But the report of pointless revenge by an embittered loneris disturbingly familiar. Hamilton was a suspected pedophile who hadbeen forced to resign as a Scout leader and then formed his own youthgroups so he could continue working with boys. One group held its meetingsin the Dunblane school's gymnasium until school officials, respondingto parents' complaints about his odd behavior, forced him out.Hamilton was the target of ridicule and gossip, and was known in thearea, undoubtedly for good reasons, as "Mr. Creepy." Days before his rampagehe had sent letters to the media and to Queen Elizabeth defendinghis reputation and pleading for reinstatement in the scouting movement.The Dunblane tragedy was particularly shocking because no onethought it could happen there. Dunblane is an idyllic, close-knit villagewhere serious crime was unknown. It is far from America, land of thewackos, where there are as many guns as people and where murderousrampages by disgruntled postal workers are so common (a dozen inci-363