Bang Bang You're Dead is a one-act play written by William Mastrosimone, with the assistance of the Spanish River Drama Department (Boca Raton, Florida) in 1999 to raise awareness of school violence and its causes. According to Mastrosimone, it “is a drama to be performed by kids, for kids” for free. The plot focuses on Josh, a high school student who murders his parents and five classmates. It is strongly based on the events surrounding Kip Kinkel's shootings of his parents on May 20, 1998, and 27 of his classmates at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon on May 21, 1998. As of October 2002, three years after its publication, the play had been performed over 15,000 times.