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We investigated interpretations of the Montreal massacre by giving 348 students at three universities a questionnaire about causes of the massacre, their affective reactions to the event, and their attitudes on a variety of social issues. Factor analysis revealed relationships between the respondents' attributions, feelings, and general attitudes. In particular, there was evidence that attitudes about gender issues were central in organizing responses on many other issues. Understanding ol the murders was complex: The majority agreed with several attributional statements, including a causal role for television violence and laxity of gun control laws. The two focal attributions in this study were that the murders were a product of societal sexism and that they were random and unpredictable; support for these was negatively related and the majority agreed with both positions. Extreme support for the sexism interpretation as opposed to extreme support for the randomness interpretation was predicted by being female, not being an engineering major, and having strongly profeminist views. We discuss this in the context of attitudes towards women and gender issues, and the differing personal experiences and reactions of women and men. ResumeNous avons mene des recherches sur les interpretations donnees a la «tuerie de Montreal», en administrant a 348 etudiants et etudiantes de trois universites un questionnaire sur les causes de la tuerie, sur les reactions affectives des sujets et sur leurs attitudes a l'egard de differentes questions sociales. Une analyse factoriellc a permis de faire ressortir les rapports entre les causes de la tuerie attribuees par les etudiants et les etudiantes, les sentiments de ceux-ci et leurs attitudes generates. II est demontre, en particulier, que les attitudes a l'egard des questions se rapportant au sexe des individus jouent un role preponderant dans l'organisation des rtiponses donnees a de nombreuses autres questions. En ce qui concerne les meurtres, les explications sont complexes. La majorite des eludiants est d'accord avec plusieurs eYionces exprimant une relation causale, comme la violence a la television et Ie laxisme des lois sur le controle des armes a feu. Deux principales caracteristiques sont attribuees aux meurtres dans cette etude : 1) les meurtres sont le produit du sexisme social, 2) ils sont perpe'tres au hasard et sont imprevisibles. L'appui

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