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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN RISK, CRIME AND SOCIETY

Mass Shootings
in Central and
Eastern Europe
Alexei Anisin
 Palgrave Studies in Risk, Crime and Society

Series Editors
Kieran McCartan, Department of Criminology, University
of the West of England, Bristol, UK
Beth Weaver, School of Social Work and Social Policy,
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, UK
Risk is a major contemporary issue which has widespread implications
for theory, policy, governance, public protection, professional practice
and societal understandings of crime and criminal justice. The poten-
tial harm associated with risk can lead to uncertainty, fear and conflict
as well as disproportionate, ineffective and ill-judged state responses to
perceived risk and risky groups. Risk, Crime and Society is a series
featuring monographs and edited collections which examine the notion
of risk, the risky behaviour of individuals and groups, as well as state
responses to risk and its consequences in contemporary society. The series
will include critical examinations of the notion of risk and the prob-
lematic nature of state responses to perceived risk. While Risk, Crime
and Society will consider the problems associated with ’mainstream’
risky groups including sex offenders, terrorists and white collar crimi-
nals, it welcomes scholarly analysis which broadens our understanding of
how risk is defined, interpreted and managed. Risk, Crime and Society
examines risk in contemporary society through the multi-disciplinary
perspectives of law, criminology and socio-legal studies and will feature
work that is theoretical as well as empirical in nature.

More information about this series at

https://link.springer.com/bookseries/14593
 Alexei Anisin

Mass Shootings
in Central
and Eastern Europe
Alexei Anisin
School of International Relations &
Diplomacy
Anglo-American University
Prague, Czech Republic

Palgrave Studies in Risk, Crime and Society

ISBN 978-3-030-89372-9 ISBN 978-3-030-89373-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89373-6

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2022
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,
whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation,
reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other
physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer
software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt
from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
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Cover illustration: Fanatic Studio/Gary Waters/Getty Images

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland
AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
I dedicate this book to the families of victims and to community members
that have been impacted by mass shootings.
 Contents

1 Introduction 1
2 Mass Shootings, Why CEE Regions Need Attention 15
3 Contextualizing CEE 41
4 Theorizing Mass Shootings 65
5 Case Study Analysis of CEE Mass Shootings 85
6 Quantitative Analysis of Mass Shootings in Central
and Eastern Europe 107
7 Comparing Mass Shootings in the CEE Regions
with the United States 129
8 Conclusion 149

Index 167

vii
 List of Figures

Fig. 6.1 Plots of odds ratios 121

Fig. 6.2 C-statistic 122
Fig. 7.1 Histogram of United States and CEE mass shooting
fatalities 135
Fig. 7.2 Pie chart US mass shootings 138
Fig. 7.3 Pie chart CEE mass shootings 140

ix
 List of Tables

Table 2.1 Characteristics of CEE countries and gun regulations 28

Table 2.2 Gun estimates and homicide rates 33
Table 3.1 Social institutions and voluntary work 1990–1994 48
Table 3.2 Social institutions 2017–2020 49
Table 3.3 Questions on interpersonal and social dynamics
1990–1994 51
Table 3.4 Questions on interpersonal and social dynamics 55
Table 5.1 Attempted and completed mass shootings 89
Table 6.1 Descriptive statistics on case characteristics 111
Table 6.2 Logistic regression nested models 118
Table 6.3 Logistic regression nested models 120
Table 6.4 Logistic regression 124
Table 7.1 Descriptive statistical overview of US mass shootings 132
Table 7.2 Descriptive statistical overview of CEE mass shootings 133
Table 7.3 Prevalence of Cumulative Strain Theory, N = 90 141

xi
 1
Introduction

Wearing a face mask with the word “God” written on it in big bold red
letters and armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and a home-made bomb,
a 19 year old man walked into the premises of a school on May 11,
2021 and started opening fire. School security guards managed to press
an alarm panic button that sent signals to classrooms to lock their doors.
The 19 year old then proceeded to different classrooms and made his
way into those that were unlocked. After shooting several people, he
set off an improvised explosive device (IED), then went to a bath-
room to reload his weapon. He then found another unlocked classroom
and indiscriminately shot both students and teachers until he ran out
of ammunition. Meanwhile, students were jumping out of third story
windows in attempt to save their lives and first responders were already
on the scene evacuating civilians out of the building using ladders. The
shooter tried to escape and leave the building, but was captured by law
enforcement. He then attempted to bite an artery on his arm while in
custody, but was restrained from doing so. In total, this mass shooting
resulted in 23 injuries, nine fatalities—seven of which were students and
two teachers. The offender, Ilnaz Galyaviev, was a former student of the
high school and proclaimed through posts on social networks that his
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1
Switzerland AG 2022
A. Anisin, Mass Shootings in Central and Eastern Europe, Palgrave Studies in Risk,
Crime and Society,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89373-6_1
2 A. Anisin

actions were brought about by forces that were Holy, that he was God,
and that he sought to kill civilian “slaves,” and then take his own life
(Kommersant, 2021).
This heinous act of violence features all the tell-tale signs that are
inherent to many high-profile school shootings that arose over the last
several decades in the United States. The offender prepared and planned
for the attack; researched internet sources to build an improvised bomb
similar to how the Columbine school shooters made their bombs; held
deranged thoughts about his role in society; experienced acute strains and
failures in his personal life. Yet this shooting also differs in several key
ways. The shooting took place in Kazan (Tatarstan) which is a city that
is located in a western part of Russia (around 700 km east of Moscow).
Kazan is home to a multi-ethnic and religious population comprised
of Tatars, Russians, and other groups. There is no constitutional right
to bear arms in Russia, and civilians are not allowed to even own or
operate semi-automatic weapons. The school was situated in a highly
urban area which sets this incident apart from American school shootings
which tend to take place in suburban areas. The offender also had legally
obtained the gun he used in the month prior to the attack. The caveat
here is that rather than going through a relatively straight forward back-
ground check process (as carried out in the United States via the FBI’s
NICS), the offender had to undergo a psychiatric evaluation which deter-
mined him to be fit and able to possess a gun. In contrast to an offender
like the Sandy Hook school shooter Adam Lanza, Galyaviev did not
appear to be deranged from the outside looking in. Galyaviev’s former
teachers and classmates were stunned by his actions. They described him
as being a quiet, and even shy boy that appeared to be harmless.
Mass shootings are a rare form of homicide. These events are highly
graphic, startling, and feature violence that gets specifically targeted at
civilians in public areas. Even if one is to take the rarity of mass shoot-
ings into consideration and weigh incident frequencies of this form of
homicide in comparison to domestic violence-based murders or those
that arise from drug or gang activities, mass shootings are arguably the
most culturally startling because they often are random and can under-
mine the public good of public safety (Anisin, 2022). With that being
said, although frequently discussed in public discourse, the concept of
 1 Introduction 3

a mass shooting has historically been difficult to define in both legal

contexts and throughout academia (Huff-Corzine & Corzine, 2020).
Often, scholars refer to “mass shootings” as “mass public shootings,”
while media organizations across English speaking countries tend to use
these terms interchangeably. This book will refer to occurrences of homi-
cide and attempted homicide that arise in public areas and are aimed at
members of the public as mass shootings. Across criminological inquiry,
most commonly, a mass shooting is assumed to be an event that is carried
out by a sole perpetrator in a public area (Capellan, 2015; Capellan &
Jiao, 2019; Duwe, 2004). Generally, scholars agree that the shooting
event must contain the death of three to four or more people (not
including the offender) and has to take place in the span of 24 hours
or less. Mass shootings are events that feature episodic bouts of killing.
Most importantly, mass shootings are acts of violence that are not related
to gang activity, drug-based violence, or robbery.
An overwhelming amount of scholarship has been carried out on mass
shootings in the US context. Here, on average, a mass shooting tends
to arise every two weeks in the United States (Towers et al., 2015), yet
there have also dozens of mass shootings that have arisen in other parts
of the globe. Over the last two decades, interdisciplinary scholarship
on mass shootings has increased. Attention has been given to shootings
that occurred in the United States, Canada, in Brazil, Germany, France,
United Kingdom, Finland, New Zealand, Australia, and in varying coun-
tries in East Asia. Interestingly enough, as of 2021, no scholarship exists
on mass shootings in the central and eastern European (CEE) context—
also known as post-communist countries. This lack of knowledge of
the CEE context constitutes a significant gap that impedes our under-
standing about the dynamics of mass shootings as empirical phenomena.
How many mass shootings have arisen in CEE states? How lethal have
such cases been? Are the motivations and experiences of offenders of
these shootings similar or different to US offenders?
There have been dozens and dozens of cases that have arisen in
CEE states and surprisingly, there not only has been a lack of system-
atic inquiry on these cases, but mass shootings that arose across these
contexts represent a major unexplored set of empirical phenomena. Prior
to writing this book, no single collection of data or academic study
4 A. Anisin

featured an investigation of a representative sample of CEE cases. This

book puts forward the first systematic inquiry on mass shootings in
CEE states. It fills a substantial gap in knowledge by presenting the
first comprehensive assessment of attempted and completed mass shoot-
ings that have arisen in CEE contexts. I put forward an assessment
based on the first original data collection of attempted and completed
mass shootings that occurred in post-communist states. In total 76
different cases are identified and investigated. The time period under
attention begins at the specific historical juncture in which a number
of former communist states experienced transitions into liberal demo-
cratic politics, hence the “post-communist” label. Many CEE countries
that are no democratic were once communist. Regimes collapsed mostly
from 1989 to 1991 throughout what later became the countries of
the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania,
Latvia, Estonia, Poland, the Russian Federation and the former Yugosla-
vian context (which saw a number of new states emerge in the late
1990s): Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,
Serbia, and Slovenia.
These countries are located in regions of the world that have been
described by social scientists as possessing specific social, cultural, and
political characteristics (Klingemann et al., 2006). Heaps of research has
been carried out on comparing values that are held by populations in
these regions of the world to those of other regions. When compared
to the US, Canada, and western European liberal democratic states (and
their respective populaces) post-communist societies tend to feature more
political and economic corruption, individuals exhibit lower levels of
self-expression, engage in less civic organization, experience lower social
trust, and hold values that are closer to what sociologists have referred to
as “materialist” values which contrast to “post-materialist” western popu-
lations. Populations across CEE states are also markedly less economically
prosperous, and although income levels have consistently been on the
rise (over the last two decades) throughout most of the countries under
attention in this book, average monthly wages are marginal in compar-
ison to those in the west. There also exist significant cultural and religious
differences within CEE countries, between CEE countries, and above all,
 1 Introduction 5

a number of institutional differences set these states apart from western

liberal democratic states.
In many post-communist European states, there is greater institu-
tional capacity when it comes to mental health care facilities, and on
average, populaces enjoy access to public health care to greater extent
than in the US. Likewise, these countries have far stricter gun regula-
tions, including firearm license requirement and mandatory psychiatric
evaluations for gun owners. In conjunction, in one form or another, these
different factors may entail that mass shootings that have occurred in
this part of the world are driven by distinct causal factors in compar-
ison to those in the United States. There are many unanswered questions
about why mass shootings have arisen in this unexplored context, the
determinants behind these cases, and the backgrounds of perpetrators.
This book puts forward an empirical assessment based on a new data
set on mass shootings and attempted mass shootings that occurred in
previously understudied regions—making this the most comprehensive
source of information on shootings in the regional contexts under atten-
tion written to date. The aim of this book is to provide the scholarly
community and public an access point through which they can study,
observe, and learn about mass shootings that arose in a context that has
not only been overlooked, but has arguably been forgotten.
This book speaks to criminologists, sociologists, cultural theorists,
political scientists, and area specialists. It provides the scientific commu-
nity with the first statistical inquiry on attempted and completed mass
shootings that arose in the CEE regions. Considering the complete lack
of research on mass shootings in central and eastern European contexts,
this book addresses this major research gap and likewise contributes to
the above noted research strands. It answers the following questions: (1)
what patterns and trends are inherent to mass shootings in CEE states?
(e.g. perpetrator age, sex, and weapon usage); (2) can the framework of
Cumulative Strain Theory (CST) account for mass shootings in these
contexts? (3) How do mass shootings in the CEE region differ from
those in North America, specifically, the United States? What types of
mass shootings are most common in CEE states? School, workplace,
ideologically motivated, or others? Have mass shootings in CEE regions
6 A. Anisin

been more lethal than those in the US? The application of the frame-
work of CST in this book is carried out through recognition that the
phenomenon being studied (mass shootings) constitutes among the rarer
forms of homicide (Harding et al., 2002), and hence, methodological
issues pertaining to the study of rare events are taken into consideration.
To date, scholars have discovered many different trends associated
with mass shootings—most of which have been observed in the US
context. The following assumptions have been widely evaluated in schol-
arly inquiry on mass shootings (Langman, 2009; Lankford, 2013, 2015,
2016; Lankford & Silver, 2020; Schildkraut et al., 2018; Skeem &
Mulvey, 2020): (1) social strain such as loss of job, failure in school, and
general social marginalization increase the likelihood that an individual
will carry out this type of violent act; (2) mental illness either contributes
to or causes this type of gun violence; (3) mass shootings have caused
much of the public to fear mentally ill loners; (4) federal gun regulations
either do or do not influence the frequency and prevalence of mass shoot-
ings; (5) media coverage of mass shootings is sensationalist in nature;
(6) media coverage is disproportionately aimed at certain types of mass
shootings and certain types of perpetrators; (7) due to expected media
coverage some perpetrators carry out these acts of violence in attempt to
gain fame, i.e. “fame-seekers”; (8) mass shootings sometimes lead to more
mass shootings, spurring a “contagion” effect; (9) ideologically driven
mass shootings either are or are not similar to non-ideological shootings;
(10) suicidal offenders that take their own lives after a shooting differ in
their motivations from those that live.
The aforementioned findings are largely attributable to cases that
arose in the US; whether these trends are also salient in the CEE
contexts is unclear. Along similar lines, it does appear that shooter types
or categories of offenders that have been attributed to offenders who
carried out mass shootings that arose in the United States can also be
observed in other parts of the world. For example, different types of
shootings and offenders have been categorized which include school
shooters, rampage/workplace shooters, ideologically motivated shooters,
lone wolf terrorists, deranged shooters, fame seeking shooters, and auto-
genic shooters. Prior scholarship has engaged in comparative analyses
between offender types, motivations, and between shooting location
 1 Introduction 7

types. Comparisons are not only valuable for theory and hypotheses
testing, but they are also highly relevant for crime prevention strategies.
For example, an ongoing debate is whether lone wolf terrorist offenders
differ in their planning, preparation, and lethality from non-ideologically
motivated offenders. Capellan (2015) and Horgan et al. (2016) did not
find any statistically significant differences between the two offender
profiles, whereas a study by Capellan and Anisin (2018) did find that
mass shootings carried out by ideologically motivated perpetrators were
indeed different from non-ideological shootings. On the other hand,
Lankford (2015) compared a large number of suicidal offenders to those
that were non-suicidal and discovered that perpetrators which took their
own lives after the attack had experienced previous personal hardships,
social marginalization, and work problems. Other scholars have investi-
gated the social contingency of mass shootings. Papachristos et al. (2012)
discovered that 85% of shootings occur within social networks which is a
very logical finding considering perpetrators of these crimes are unlikely
to travel far from their area of residence to carry out an act of violence.
There are many other points of investigation that scholars have
pursued in the study of mass shootings which require too many details
to list at length in this introductory chapter. We must consider that
although mass shootings are rare forms of violence, their rarity has not
discouraged scholars from attempting to theorize about their nature and
why they occur. Theory building and testing theoretical frameworks
through empirical analyses is an integral part of social science. For these
reasons, this book does not simply present readers with a descriptive
account of mass shootings in the CEE regions, but rather, it seeks to
theorize why cases in this region have occurred and in doing so, it
features a theoretically driven statistical analysis based on hypothesis
testing of Cumulative Strain Theory (CST)—a framework that was orig-
inally articulated by Levin and Madfis (2009). To date, scholars have
adopted a range of different frameworks in attempt to explain mass
shootings as a general phenomenon as well as specific types of mass
shootings, such as school shootings or ideologically motivated shoot-
ings. No framework however, can fully account for the underlying nature
of this phenomenon which appears to be a commonality inherent to
the study of all rare events that occur in the social world. Up until
8 A. Anisin

the recent decade, most inquiry on mass shooters was limited to single
case studies or a small number of cases studies (Silver et al., 2019,
p. 65). Likewise, scholars tended to focus on individual level factors
and while doing so, they created numerous typologies that disregarded
the potential impact that societal structures may have on mass shoot-
ings (Capellan, 2019; Capellan et al., 2018). Osborne and Capellan
(2017) put forward a typology of shooters premised on script anal-
ysis and rational choice theory featuring three scripts: the autogenic
active shooter, the victim-specific active shooter, and the ideological
active shooter. The victim-specific active shooter was found to be the
most common motivation for mass shootings. Numerous other typolo-
gies have been articulated, all of which have conceptual relevance with
reference to the cases that scholars drew upon to create them.
Typologies of offenders, however, tell us very little about the deter-
minants of mass shootings because they are prone to place too great
of focus on individual-level factors; tend to be limited to case-specific
samples of observations, i.e. each typological factor or motivation is not
comprehensive of many cases; cannot tell us about differences between
offenders that belong to the same typology. Arguably the biggest of
these drawbacks has to do with the lack of ability of typologies provide
us to consider the potential influences that societal factors (which are
exogenous to the direct characteristics of the shooting itself ) have on
the offender. This book adopts CST because it is a framework that
captures both individual and societal level factors. The theory was built
upon ideas drawn from different theoretical frameworks, originally intro-
duced in Agnew’s (1992) General Strain Theory (GST) as well as in
Social Control Theory (SCT) and Routine Activities Theory (RAT).
GST captured how social-economic stressors lead a given individual to
experience anger, frustration, disappointment, and depression. If not
dealt with in a healthy way, these negative forces may ultimately lead
to violence (Agnew, 1992). Later on, scholars (Levin & Madfis, 2009)
developed the CST framework which features a five stage model that
accounts for the processes and mechanisms that lead a person to carry
out mass violence. The model assumes that the impact of strains is likely
to become cumulative after a given threshold is reached, that chronic and
 1 Introduction 9

acute strains have additive impacts over time, and that negative social
relationships can constitute an individual strain.
CST was recently deployed by Silver et al. (2019) who found support
for its claims in their assessment of mass shootings. CST’s five stages
begin with (1) chronic strain (persisting strain that results in depres-
sion and anger); (2) uncontrolled strain (such as being socially isolated,
divorced, etc.) which pertains to a disruption to influential and bonds
and social institutions that are described by social control theory; (3)
acute strain (occurrences of short-term stressful events including being
fired, unemployed, severely disrespected); (4) the planning stage which
rises when chronic, acute, and uncontrolled strains are not dealt with
and an individual conceptualizes and prepares for an attack; (5) the event
stage in which routine activities theory is drawn on to account for the
presence of individual motivation as well as suitable targets combined
with the absence of effective guardians. These stages capture both indi-
vidual and societal level factors and are tested throughout the empirical
analyses in this book. Likewise, these stages of CST mean that it is a
framework which comprises components belonging to both structure
and agency. As accurately described by Silver et al. (2019), CST is a
framework that can enable us to understand causal trajectories that bring
about mass public murder. It may be the case that the CST framework,
as applied to the CEE region, is not as salient as theorized and only some
of its segments are present across mass shootings (rather than all five). It
also may be the case that CST is more salient in explaining American
mass shootings, but not mass shootings that arose throughout the CEE
regions.
Methodologically, this book’s empirical assessment is based on a statis-
tical (regression) inquiry on attempted and completed mass shootings
that arose in CEE countries. Prior to implementing this approach, a
number of different characteristics of mass shootings and the contexts
in which they occurred are assessed through reliance on different data
reference points and observations. I employ a variant set of tools in order
to present an analysis that is balanced, transparent, and comprehensive
of cases that arose across the contexts under attention. Given that the
regions cases occurred in are largely ignored in research on mass shoot-
ings, early portions of this book present readers with descriptive statistical
10 A. Anisin

overviews of historical, cultural, economic, and political characteristics

belonging to populations and institutions found in countries in CEE. I
draw on survey data that were gathered at different time periods (World
Values Survey) to compare and contrast the values that civilians hold
in CEE countries in relation to one another and in relation to those
held by civilians in the US. Data capture values held by citizens of
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, and the Russian Federa-
tion and are drawn from surveys that were carried out in 1991, 2014,
and 2018. After presenting descriptive statistics on average values held
by citizens of these societies, different societal characteristics are related
to the theoretical framework adopted in this book.
Alongside this contextual assessment, I present descriptive statistics on
gun ownership estimates for all countries under attention. Here I cate-
gorize and overview different forms of gun regulations for each single
country that the sample of cases of mass shootings analyzed in this book
arose in. Once again, these observations are related to the commonly
studied context of the US. Afterwards, I engage in case study anal-
ysis to investigate specific incidents that occurred in CEE states which
include the 18 year old Vladislav Roslyakov’s rampage in the Kerch Poly-
technic College (Crimea, 2018) that killed 21 people and injured over
70; 76 year old Zdenek Kovar’s shooting in a restaurant (2015) in the
Czech town of Uhersky Brod that killed 7 people (plus the offender); a
Lithuanian village shooting that arose in 1998 when 58 year old Leonard
Zavistonovičius killed 10 people. The case study analyses shed light on
the processes that surround how offenders acquired weapons, planned
their attacks, and the different strains and adversities that led them
toward violence. The analyses also help to elucidate how the presence
and absence of different variables belonging to CST can be observed
through the life experiences and planning behaviors of offenders. After
the case study analysis, I present descriptive statistics on the 76 cases that
are analyzed in this book. These cases constitute the first comprehensive
sample of mass shootings that arose in CEE countries.
In order to test theoretically driven hypotheses stemming to CST, I
carry out nested modeling via logistic regression. This empirical assess-
ment seeks to account for why three or more fatalities (not including the
offender) arose in comparison to cases featuring less fatalities. Here, seven
 1 Introduction 11

different hypotheses pertaining to CST as well as other factors that have

been identified in research on mass shootings are tested. Post-analysis
diagnostics and robustness checks accompany the regression analysis.
This is followed by the final empirical set of tests of the book—a statis-
tical comparison of 45 of the deadliest mass shootings that have arisen
in CEE countries versus 45 of the deadliest US mass shootings that
have arisen since 1999. In total, this book identifies patterns and trends
inherent to mass shootings that arose in CEE countries and offers timely
implications as well as directions for future research on mass shootings in
the CEE context and elsewhere, and I hope that it will serve as a reference
point for years to come on this topic.
This book’s contents are ordered as follows: the next chapter is titled,
“Mass Shootings, Why CEE Regions Need Attention,” and presents
readers with an overview of the current state of research on mass shoot-
ings and the principal findings produced throughout interdisciplinary
scholarship on this topic. It puts forward an estimate of gun owner-
ship rates across the countries under attention and likewise reveals the
extent of gun regulations that each country has. The third chapter of
this book is titled, “Contextualizing CEE: Cumulative Strain Theory,”
which identifies the heterogeneity inherent to CEE regions through anal-
ysis of societal norms, values, and opinions on a range of topics via data
drawn from the World Values Survey. The next chapter, chapter four, is
titled, “Theorizing Mass Shootings” and features and accounts for the
difficulty scholars have had in studying rare events. This explanation is
then followed by revealing of the book’s chosen theoretical approach in
Cumulative Strain Theory. The fifth chapter titled, “Case Study Anal-
ysis of CEE Mass Shootings” presents readers with an overview of three
case studies of mass shootings that occurred in three different contexts.
The cases help familiarize readers with the different contextual dynamics,
cultural characteristics, and social systems in which these shootings took
place in. The case studies also include identification of both the presence
and absence of different stages of Cumulative Strain Theory. The results
from chapter five are then carried over into chapter six titled, “Quanti-
tative Analysis of Mass Shootings in Central and Eastern Europe” which
utilizes regression modeling to investigate why some cases resulted in
mass shootings (as defined by three or more fatalities, not including the
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 Can you not see that these would have been too frail to work their
way uninjured through the earth?
But by crooking its stout stem the plant opened quite easily a path
for itself and for its leaves, and no harm was done anywhere (Figs.
106, 107). Was not this a clever thought? But really every step in the
life of the plant is full of interest, if we watch it with sharp eyes and a
brain in good order.
 Part III—Roots and Stems

ROOT HAIRS

C AREFULLY pull up one of your bean plants and look at its root
(Fig. 108).
You see that the root grows downward from the lower part of the
stem.

Fig. 108

This bean root looks not unlike a bunch of dirty threads, some
quite thick, others very thin. If you look at these thread-like roots in a
good light, perhaps you may be able to see growing from them a
quantity of tiny hairs.
Now, what is the use of such a root as this?
 Surely some of you are able to guess at the object of this root, and
I will help the others to the answer.
Give a firm though gentle tug to one of the larger plants,—one of
those that are growing in the pot of earth.
Does it come out easily in your fingers?
Not at all. Unless you have been really rough, and used quite a
good deal of strength, the little plant has kept its hold.
What holds it down, do you suppose?
Ah! Now you know what I am trying to get at. Its root is what holds
it in place; and this holding of the plant in place is one of its uses.
Its thread-like branches are so many fingers that are laying hold of
the earth. Each little thread makes it just so much the more difficult
to uproot the plant.
I think you know already that another use of the root is to obtain
nourishment for the plant.
These thread-like roots, you notice, creep out on every side in
their search for food and drink. The water they are able to suck in
easily by means of tiny mouths, which we cannot see. But the plant
needs a certain amount of earth food, which in its solid state could
not slip down these root throats any more easily than a young baby
could swallow a lump of sugar.
Now, how is the plant to get this food, which it needs if it is to grow
big and hearty?
Suppose the doctor should tell your mother that a lump of sugar
was necessary to the health of your tiny baby brother, what would
she do about it?
Would she put the great lump into the baby’s mouth?
You laugh at the very idea. Such a performance might choke the
baby to death, you know quite well.
Perhaps you think she would break the lump into small pieces,
and try to make the baby swallow these; but even these small pieces
might prove very dangerous to the little throat that had never held a
solid morsel.
“She would melt the sugar in water, then the baby could swallow
it,” one of you exclaims.
That is exactly what she would do. She would melt, or dissolve as
we say, this sugar in water. Then there would be no difficulty in its
slipping down the little throat; for you know when anything is
thoroughly melted or dissolved, it breaks up into such tiny pieces that
the eye cannot see them. When you melt a lump of sugar in a glass
of water, the sugar is all there as much as it ever was, although its
little grains no longer cling together in one big lump.
And so when the plant needs some food that the little root hairs
are not able to swallow, it does just what the mother does. It melts or
dissolves the solid food so that this is able to slip quite easily down
the root throats.
But how does it manage this?
No wonder you ask. A root cannot fill a glass with water, as your
mother did. Even if it could, much of this solid food which is needed
by the plant would not melt in water, or in anything but certain acids;
for you know that not everything will dissolve, like sugar, in water.
If I place a copper cent in a glass of water, it will remain a copper
cent, will it not? But if I go into a drug shop and buy a certain acid,
and place in this the copper cent, it will dissolve almost immediately;
that is, it will break up into so many tiny pieces that you will no longer
see anything that looks at all like a cent.
And as much of this earth food, like the copper cent, can only be
dissolved in certain acids, how is the plant to obtain them? Certainly
it is not able to go to the drug shop for the purpose, any more than it
was able to fill a glass with water.
Fortunately it does not need to do either of these things.
If you will look closely at the root of a plant that has been raised in
water, you will see that it is rough with a quantity of tiny hairs. These
little hairs hold the acid which can dissolve the solid earth food.
When they touch this food, they send out some of the acid, and in
this it is soon dissolved. Then the little mouths suck it in, and it is
carried up through the root into the rest of the plant.
Would you have guessed that plants were able to prepare their
food in any such wonderful way as this? It surprised me very much, I
remember, to learn that a root could give out acids, and so dissolve
the earth food it needed.
 ROOTS AND UNDERGROUND STEMS

I N the last chapter you learned that the root of the bean plant has
two uses.
It holds the plant in place, and it provides it with food and drink.
Such a root as this of the bean plant—one that is made up of what
looks like a bunch of threads—is called a “fibrous” root.
The next picture shows you the root of a beet plant (Fig. 109).
Such a thick, fat root as this of the beet is called a “fleshy” root.
The carrot, turnip, radish, and sweet potato, all have fleshy roots.
This beet root, like that of the bean, is useful both in holding the
plant in place and in providing it with food and drink.
But the fleshy root of the beet does something else,—something
that is not attempted by the fibrous root of the bean.
Here we must stop for a moment and look into the life of the beet
plant.
During its first year, the beet puts out leaves; it neither flowers nor
fruits, but it eats and drinks a great deal. And as it does not use up
any of this food in flowering or fruiting, it is able to lay by much of it in
its root, which grows large and heavy in consequence. When the
next spring comes on, the beet plant is not obliged, like so many of
its brothers and sisters, to set out to earn its living. This is provided
already. And so it bursts into flower without delay, its food lying close
at hand in its great root.
 Fig. 109

So you see that a fleshy root, like that of the beet, does three
things:—
1. It holds the plant in place.
2. It provides it with food and drink.
3. It acts as a storehouse.
These plants that lay by food for another year are useful as food
for man. Their well-stocked roots are taken out of the ground and
eaten by us before the plant has had the chance to use up its food in
fulfilling its object in life, that of fruiting. Of course, when it is not
allowed to live long enough to flower and fruit, it brings forth no
young plants. So a habit which at first was of use to the plant
becomes the cause of its destruction.
Perhaps you think that the white potato (Fig. 110) is a plant with a
fleshy root.
 Fig. 110

If so, you will be surprised to learn that this potato is not a root at
all, but a stem.
You think it looks quite unlike any other stem that you have ever
seen. Probably you do not know that many stems grow underneath
the ground, instead of straight up in the air.

Fig. 111

Fig. 112

If you find something in the earth that you take to be a root, you
can feel pretty sure that it really is a stem, if it bears anything like
either buds or leaves. A true root bears only root branches and root
hairs. But in this white potato we find what we call “eyes.” These
eyes are buds from which new potato plants will grow. Close to these
are little scales which really are leaves. So we know that the potato
is a stem, not a root. But this you could not have found out for
yourselves, even with the sharpest of eyes.
 Fig. 111 shows you the thick, fat, underground stem of the
cyclamen. From its lower part grow the true roots.
Next you have that of the crocus (Fig. 112), while here to the right
is that of the wood lily (Fig. 113). This is covered with underground
leaves.

Fig. 113

All these stems are usually called roots. In the botanies such an
underground stem as that of the Jack-in-the-pulpit (Fig. 114) is
named a “corm,” while one like that of the crocus is called a “bulb”
(Fig. 112). All have a somewhat rounded shape.

Fig. 114

Fig. 115

During our walks in the woods last fall, often we found the
Solomon’s seal, and stopped to admire its curved stem, hung with
blue berries. I hope one of you boys whipped out your pocketknife
and dug into the earth till you found its underground stem (Fig. 115).
This was laid lengthwise, its roots growing from its lower side. From
its upper side, close to one end, sprang the growing plant. But what
causes those round, curious-looking scars?
These scars are what give the plant its name of “Solomon’s seal.”
They are supposed to look like the mark left by a seal upon wax.
They show where the underground stem has budded in past
years, sending up plants which in turn withered away. Each plant has
left a scar which shows one year in the life of the underground stem.
Next spring when you find in the woods the little yellow bells of the
Solomon’s seal, I think you will have the curiosity to dig down and
find out the age of some of these plants.
Another plant with an underground stem is the beautiful bloodroot.
As its name tells you, this so-called root contains a juice that looks
something like blood. Such underground stems as those of the
Solomon’s seal and bloodroot are called “rootstocks.” Rootstocks,
corms, and bulbs are all storehouses of plant food, and make
possible an early flowering the following spring.
 ABOVE-GROUND ROOTS

B UT before we finished talking about roots we were led away by

underground stems. This does not matter much, however, for
these underground stems are still called roots by many people.
Just as stems sometimes grow under ground, roots sometimes
grow above ground.
Many of you know the English ivy. This is one of the few plants
which city children know quite as well as, if not better than, country
children; for in our cities it nearly covers the walls of the churches. In
England it grows so luxuriantly that some of the old buildings are
hidden beneath masses of its dark leaves.
This ivy plant springs from a root in the earth; but as it makes its
way upward, it clings to the stone wall by means of the many air
roots which it puts forth (Fig. 116).
Our own poison ivy is another plant with air roots used for climbing
purposes. Often these roots make its stem look as though it were
covered with a heavy growth of coarse hair.

Fig. 116

There are some plants which take root in the branches of trees.
Many members of the Orchid family perch themselves aloft in this
fashion. But the roots which provide these plants with the greater
part of their nourishment are those which hang loosely in the air. One
of these orchids you see in the picture (Fig. 117). It is found in warm
countries. The orchids of our part of the world grow in the ground in
everyday fashion, and look much like other plants.

Fig. 117

These hanging roots which you see in the picture are covered with
a sponge-like material, by means of which they suck in from the air
water and gases.
In summer, while hunting berries or wild flowers by the stream that
runs through the pasture, you have noticed that certain plants
seemed to be caught in a tangle of golden threads. If you stopped to
look at this tangle, you found little clusters of white flowers scattered
along the thread-like stems (Fig. 118); then, to your surprise, you
discovered that nowhere was this odd-looking stem fastened to the
ground.
It began and ended high above the earth, among the plants which
crowded along the brook’s edge.
 Fig. 118

Perhaps you broke off one of these plants about which the golden
threads were twining. If so, you found that these threads were
fastened firmly to the plant by means of little roots which grew into its
stem, just as ordinary roots grow into the earth.
This strange plant is called the “dodder.” When it was still a baby
plant, it lay within its seed upon the ground, just like other baby
plants; and when it burst its seed shell, like other plants it sent its
roots down into the earth.
But unlike any other plant I know of, it did not send up into the air
any seed leaves. The dodder never bears a leaf.
It sent upward a slender golden stem. Soon the stem began to
sweep slowly through the air in circles, as if searching for something.
Its movements were like those of a blind man who is feeling with his
hands for support. And this is just what the plant was doing: it was
feeling for support. And it kept up its slow motion till it found the plant
which was fitted to give it what it needed.
Having made this discovery, it put out a little root. This root it sent
into the juicy stem of its new-found support. And thereafter, from its
private store, the unfortunate plant which had been chosen as the
dodder’s victim was obliged to give food and drink to its greedy
visitor.
 And now what does this dodder do, do you suppose? Perhaps you
think that at least it has the grace to do a little something for a living,
and that it makes its earth root supply it with part of its food.
Nothing of the sort. Once it finds itself firmly rooted in the stem of
its victim, it begins to grow vigorously. With every few inches of its
growth it sends new roots deep into this stem. And when it feels
quite at home, and perfectly sure of its board, it begins to wither
away below, where it is joined to its earth root. Soon it breaks off
entirely from this, and draws every bit of its nourishment from the
plant or plants in which it is rooted.
Now stop a moment and think of the almost wicked intelligence
this plant has seemed to show,—how it keeps its hold of the earth till
its stem has found the plant which will be compelled to feed it, and
how it gives up all pretense of self-support, once it has captured its
prey.
You have heard of men and women who do this sort of thing,—
who shirk all trouble, and try to live on the work of others; and I fear
you know some boys and girls who are not altogether unlike the
dodder,—boys and girls who never take any pains if they can
possibly help it, who try to have all of the fun and none of the work;
but did you ever suppose you would come across a plant that would
conduct itself in such a fashion?
Of course, when the dodder happens to fasten itself upon some
wild plant, little harm is done. But unfortunately it is very partial to
plants that are useful to men, and then we must look upon it as an
enemy.
Linen is made from the flax plant, and this flax plant is one of the
favorite victims of the dodder. Sometimes it will attack and starve to
death whole fields of flax.
But do not let us forget that we happen to be talking about the
dodder because it is one of the plants which put out roots above
ground.
 Fig. 119

There is one plant which many of you have seen, that never, at
any time of its life, is rooted in the earth, but which feeds always
upon the branches of the trees in which it lives.
This plant (Fig. 119) is one of which perhaps you hear and see a
good deal at Christmas time. It is an old English custom, at this
season, to hang somewhere about the house a mistletoe bough (for
the mistletoe is the plant I mean) with the understanding that one is
free to steal a kiss from any maiden caught beneath it. And as
mistletoe boughs are sold on our street corners and in our shops at
Christmas, there has been no difficulty in bringing one to school to-
day.
The greenish mistletoe berries are eaten by birds. Often their
seeds are dropped by these birds upon the branches of trees. There
they hold fast by means of the sticky material with which they are
covered. Soon they send out roots which pierce the bark, and, like
the roots of the dodder, suck up the juices of the tree, and supply the
plant with nourishment.
Then there are water roots as well as earth roots. Some of these
water roots are put forth by plants which are nowhere attached to the
earth. These are plants which you would not be likely to know about.
One of them, the duckweed, is very common in ponds; but it is so
tiny that when you have seen a quantity of these duckweeds,
perhaps you have never supposed them to be true plants, but rather
a green scum floating on the top of the water.
But the duckweed is truly a plant. It has both flower and fruit,
although without a distinct stem and leaves; and it sends down into
the water its long, hanging roots, which yet do not reach the ground.
There are other plants which have at the same time underground
roots and water roots.
Rooted in the earth on the borders of a stream sometimes you see
a willow tree which has put out above-ground roots. These hang
over the bank and float in the water, apparently with great
enjoyment; for roots not only seem to seek the water, but to like it,
and to flourish in it.
If you break off at the ground one of your bean plants, and place
the slip in a glass of water, you will see for yourselves how readily it
sends out new roots.
I have read of a village tree the roots of which had made their way
into a water pipe. Here they grew so abundantly that soon the pipe
was entirely choked. This rapid, luxuriant growth was supposed to
have been caused by the water within the pipe.
So you see there are underground roots and above-ground roots
and water roots. Usually, as you know, the underground roots get
their food from the earth; but sometimes, as with the Indian pipe,
they feed on dead plants, and sometimes, as with the yellow false
foxglove, on other living roots.
 WHAT FEW CHILDREN KNOW

T O-DAY we must take another look at the plants in the

schoolroom garden.
By this time some of them have grown quite tall. Others are just
appearing above the earth.
Here is a young morning-glory (Fig. 120). We see that its stem,
like that of the bean, was the first thing to come out of the seed. This
stem has turned downward into the earth. From its lower end grows
the root, which buries itself deeper and deeper.
An older plant shows us that the upper part of the stem straightens
itself out and grows upward, bearing with it a pair of leaves (Fig.
121).

Fig. 120

From between these starts a tiny bud, that soon unfolds into a
fresh leaf, which is carried upward by a new piece of stem.
On the tip of this new piece of stem grows another bud, which also
enlarges into a leaf, and in the same way as before is borne upward
(Fig. 122).
 Fig. 121

In this fashion the plant keeps growing bigger and bigger. Soon
branches start from the sides of the stem, and later flowers and
fruits.
So we see that it is the stem which bears all the other parts of the
plant.
Most people think that the plant springs from the root; but you
children know better. With your own eyes, here in the schoolroom,
you have seen that instead of the stem growing from the root, the
root grows from the stem.

Fig. 122

That more people have not found this out, is because they do not
use their eyes rightly.
Every spring hundreds and thousands of baby plants make their
way out of the seed shell into the world, just as you saw the baby
bean plant do, sending out first its little stem, which pointed
downward into the earth and started a root. And every spring there
are hundreds of thousands of men and women, and boys and girls,
who go through the woods and fields, and across the parks and
along the streets, as though they were blind, taking no notice of the
wonders all about them.
 PLANTS THAT CANNOT STAND ALONE

A LREADY we have learned that some stems grow under ground,

and that by most people these are called roots.
And among those which grow above the ground we see many
different kinds.
The stem of Indian corn grows straight up in the air, and needs no
help in standing erect.
Fig. 123 shows you the morning-glory plant, the stem of which is
unable to hold itself upright without assistance. A great many plants
seem to need this same sort of help; and it is very interesting to
watch their behavior.