The outlines of Ben Walker’s short life sharpened Monday as his family and community mourned the 16-year-old, the first to be buried after Thursday’s shooting rampage at Thurston High School.

A pastor recalled Ben as the kid with the mischievous smile who chased lizards and played a mean guitar.

“Ben was in a hurry to get started in his life,” Pastor Ray Trowbridge said during Ben’s Memorial Day funeral. “He left us early to get to his next destination.”

Ben’s funeral, attended by 400 mourners in Springfield Faith Center and watched by a national television audience, also gave the city’s mayor a chance to call for dramatic change in the way society deals with violent young people.

“If you mention the word ‘gun’ in an airport, you’re history,” Mayor Bill Morrisette told the congregation. “If you mention the word ‘gun’ in a school, it doesn’t matter. It should matter.

“We don’t mess around with people who joke about bombs and guns in an airport. Why do we mess around with kids who joke about that?”

Walker’s was the first of services expected this week as authorities prepare a case against Kipland P. Kinkel, 15.

Kinkel is accused of killing his parents before allegedly entering Thurston High School’s cafeteria with a rifle and two handguns and firing more than 50 rounds at fellow students.

Twenty-four students were shot. Ben and Mikael Nickolauson, 17, died. Teresa Miltonberger, 16, remains in critical condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene.

Kinkel has been charged with four counts of aggravated murder.

Ben’s funeral gave the community and the state a chance to see him as more than a grainy school photograph.

The first time the congregation chuckled was when Trowbridge told a story about Ben’s birthday party, the time he ripped open his cards searching for money. The envelopes that didn’t contain cash were tossed aside, the pastor said. Trowbridge said that Ben’s grandmother recalled “the mischievous sparkle in his eye.”

Ben’s death will be in vain if the community and the nation do not take action to help prevent similar shootings, Morrisette said. “The only thing that could make this tragedy worse is if we do nothing,” he said.

He suggested that legislators pass a law mandating that police hold any youth caught with a gun in school for at least 72 hours and that the youth receive psychological counseling if it’s deemed necessary.

“This is not just a Springfield problem,” Morrisette said. “This occurs everywhere in the country. It’s kind of like an epidemic that spreads. . . . We are not the first, and we probably won’t be the last.

“In some ways it’s like a curtain has been opened to us. We can now see some things that maybe we should be thinking about that we haven’t before.”

The service, also attended by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., began with Springfield fire and police officials, Lane County sheriff’s employees and local paramedics laying wreaths on the altar.

Mourners arrived under clear skies wearing ribbons: red and black, Thurston High’s school colors, and blue, to honor the victims. One white Oldsmobile arrived with the words “Let it end Here” painted in red across its back window.

Inside the church, members of Springfield’s Fire and Life Safety Department stood against the right wall, badges wrapped with black bands. Ben’s family and friends filled six rows.

About 20 people watched the funeral on a big-screen television outdoors, as CNN broadcast it nationally. Across the parking lot, police kept a picket of TV cameras and other media behind blue tape.

Recorded music that played during the service ranged from a recording of “My Heart Will Go On,” the theme to the movie “Titanic,” to “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes. But the service closed with a haunting tribute to Ben from his brother, Adam: “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica.

After the service, family members and friends filed past Ben’s open, caramel-colored casket. He wore a denim shirt and a black baseball cap.

As mourners left, they were given yellow, pink and red carnations -- a “thank you” from the Walker family for the community’s support. They were encouraged to add the flowers to the impromptu memorial to the victims spreading along the fence outside Thurston High.

A cold rain fell as the service ended. A lone mourner who had watched the service on television pedaled her bicycle from the church.

Carolyn Hoshaw said she never knew Ben and did not know his family. But as a member of Springfield Faith Center, she felt compelled to attend the funeral.

Hoshaw, a teacher at Creswell Christian School, said she was still trying to make sense of the violence for herself and her students.

“It’s a scary world,” she said. “I just felt the need to be here and join in the prayers.”

Benjamin A Walker