The author of the 1971 murder manual “The Anarchist Cookbook” is urging the book’s publisher to halt printing in light of the Colorado high school shooting last week.
Karl Pierson opened fire inside Arapahoe High School on Friday, leaving one girl in a coma before taking his own life. According to students on his debate team, Pierson read “The Anarchist Cookbook” shortly before the attack, NBC News reported.
The book is still widely available on retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, even though its linked to dozens of terrorist acts around the world, including Timothy McVeigh’s attack in Oklahoma City and the Columbine High School massacre. The book is still widely popular, with sales passing the Penguin and Signet editions of “Moby Dick,” NBC reported.
“’The Anarchist Cookbook’ should go quietly and immediately out of print,” said William Powell, who wrote the book in the 1970s as an opponent of the Vietnam War. “It is no longer responsible or defensible to keep it in print.”
Billy Blann, who founded Delta Press, bought the rights to the book in 2002 and refuses to take it out of circulation.
“You know, we don’t ban books in America,” he told NBC, adding that feels “bad” about the Colorado shooting.
“But there’s victims of almost anything and everything, and I just don’t think we need to start banning books in America,” he said.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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