Acting On Impulse

How does a writer help stop violence? He creates a play, then a film, called Bang Bang You're Dead.

By Rich Shea

The story of how playwright William Mastrosimone’s life was changed—and how he, in turn, changed the lives of others—begins on May 21, 1998. Early that morning, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel, having murdered his parents the day before, entered Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, carrying weapons under his trench coat. As hundreds of teenagers mingled in the cafeteria, Kinkel pulled out a .22-caliber rifle and opened fire on his fellow students, killing two and injuring more than 20 others. He had discarded the rifle and was pulling out a handgun when several students wrestled him to the ground.

Days later, as shock waves continued to ripple across the Northwest, Mastrosimone and his family—his wife, Sharon, his two adolescent stepsons, and the couple’s two young daughters—gathered in their Washington state home and performed a nightly ritual, each answering the question, “How was your day?” “It sucked,” Jason, then age 11, said succinctly. But 14-year-old Jonathan had some news. After he and a few others had arrived at English class and flicked on the light, they saw the following written on the blackboard: “I’m going to kill everyone in this class. And the teacher, too.”

“My wife and I just about fell over,” recalls Mastrosimone, who was soon on the phone with the Enumclaw Junior High School principal. The administrator told the parents not to worry; he’d identified theculprit and was handling the situation. And, indeed, the boy would later be expelled, even though his message was never labeled a “real...