"I was impressed with this book.
So much contemporary non-fiction seems like the author’s point could have been just as easily summarized in a single article. 'School Shootings in American Culture' is jam-packed with ideas that it feels like the author could have expanded her book into three.

There are in fact three parts that I took away: (1) a comprehensive, data-driven summary of law enforcement and school administration responses to school shootings and their shortcomings; (2) society’s perception of school shootings as an epidemic of violence, based on representations by policymakers and the news media; and (3) the author’s theory that the shooter’s violent act is a foreseeable reaction to and natural consequence of our empty, consumerist culture.

I liked the second part best, but I think this is a book that has something to offer for everyone."

"Ross provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the motivations behind school shootings, and a critical examination of responses to them. I appreciated her thorough analysis of SROs . . . As she points out, no proposed solution is a panacea, but it would be naive and inefficient to take a purely reactive approach, and it is important to reconsider policies that might cause more harm than good."