I wrote about Rage five years ago, just a few months before the Sandy Hook school shooting. Shortly after the shooting took place, King released a Kindle single titled Guns that spelled out his thoughts on gun control (he is a gun owner, but supports restrictions) and was very accurate in describing the way the media, politicians, and the public perceive mass shootings (He also mentioned handgun violence in urban areas, although it wasn’t the focus of his essay), and the blame that settles on the culture of violence. The aftermath of the Parkland shooting has followed a much different pattern, but in 2012 there weren’t as many teenagers on social media, news didn’t travel as fast, and parents were the ones who took initiative. Many things are different now, but much of what he wrote is still relevant.

Much of his essay connects to his feelings about his novel Rage,  which he wrote a first draft of when he was still a teenager himself, and which was published under a pseudonym in 1977.  Rage is about a student who shoots and kills his teacher and then holds the class hostage, and in the 1980s and 1990s, four incidents involving four different boys led to them acting out scenarios from Rage. Two of them fatally shot and killed multiple people. King asked that it be pulled from publication– it is the only novel of his to have gone out of print. Of course we have the Internet now so you probably can track down a copy if you really want it.

My son brought it up last night.

I thought maybe I had spoken about it around him in the past, since I’ve written about it, but I was wrong. Some kid on the bus told him about it. He said it was easy to get a copy of it and asked if my son would like to read it. Can I tell you how disheartening it is that King withdrew the book from publication and now this book is not only easy to get ahold of, but middle school kids are recommending it to each other? The Monster Kid knows where to draw the line as far as what he knows he can handle, and he said no, but even as a freedom-loving First Amendment supporter, I don’t know what I would do if he brought it home now.

At any rate, here is a link to the original post, written shortly before the Sandy Hook school shooting. And I do recommend checking out the Kindle single, Guns, that he wrote shortly afterwards. Any profits go to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.