The crisis of American violence is framed through political and cultural lenses: the availability of weapons, the prevalence of bullying, or the breakdown of the family unit. Yet, as one man’s harrowing journey from a school shooting to spiritual awakening reveals, the core of the issue lies in a spiritual and emotional void that culture and policy often fail to address.1

TJ Stevens was a school shooter but, in a near-miraculous turn of events, never took a life in that moment of despair. His story is a raw look at the ignored internal emotional devastation that leads to violence, offering a vital need for compassionate care and intervention.2

Thirty-six years after he walked into Lake Braddock Secondary School in Virginia with a Mossberg hunting rifle, given to him by his mother as a Christmas gift, Stevens sat down with me to recount the events of November 10, 1982. The act, which led to a 21-hour hostage siege, was not, as initial headlines suggested, simply about a “lovelorn teen.” It was a culmination of unaddressed childhood trauma and spiritual isolation.

“He was a severe alcoholic, and he beat me and my mother. A lot,” TJ........

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