What is it that prompts people at universities to deliberately kill colleagues and students? It is the identity-threatening, unintended side-effect of the academic reforms - according to the findings of the first in-depth analysis of campus shootings. With the sociological perspective of an entwinement of structure and action influenced by differentiation theory, a deep insight is gained into the consequences of the social and culturally anchored economization of universities, and into the dynamically applied way of looking at campus shootings as the ultimate form of identity assertion.