Mass School Shootings in America Essay

day two seniors Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris carried out a full blown assault on the school during school hours with hundreds of kids and teachers present” (Levy, 1999). These two had a plan to kill as many people as they possibly could. They had multiple guns and explosives as they patrolled the halls looking for their victims. By the time the situation was resolved they had murdered 12 students and 1 teacher before they killed themselves.

Like any math equation, to be able to find a solution, we must first understand the problem. We must use this same concept into this public health issue. Research and reports are beginning to provide patterns for understanding the individual’s motive to kill and the characteristics of the different schools where shootings occur (Wike and Fraser 2009). According to Wike and Fraser, making sense of the senseless, holds the key for designing prevention programs. An individual’s drive to commit such crimes can extend from factors such as bullying, their mental health, their environment, and lack of support.

I agree with Botstein’s evaluations; the typical school environment is damaging generations of teenagers. His ideas show an alternative to the school program that is currently producing nothing but generations of unhappy and unmotivated children. Being motivated to take a stand on the American education system after of the outrageous shootings at Columbine High School of Littleton, Colorado in 1999, Botstein connected the causes to the effect of students who were interacting with each other in school environments. Others blame teachers' methods, and the subjects that are being taught ­­– stating that the education systems are creating simple minded children. However, no one is teaching kids the harmful effects they can have on one another. These cliques that form in schools cause the outsider, the loner, to act out in outbreaks, such as in Columbine. “Artificial Intensity,” as Botstein states it, is highly implied on teens. It pressures the students to be perfect; some put too much stress on themselves, triggering them to act on extremes.

Assessing potentially violent students is one thing, but determining what is causing these high-risk teens to act out is another. Numerous reasons have been suggested as to why teenagers kill. One possibility could be the media. This includes music, movies, books and video games. Social science research conducted over the past 40 years supports the conclusion that viewing violent television programming has negative consequences for children, and the research suggests three factors in which watching violent television programs can impact young viewers. (Aidman, 1997) These factors say that media violence can encourage children to learn aggressive behavior and attitudes, media violence can cultivate fearful or pessimistic attitudes in children about the non- television world, and media violence can desensitize children to real-world and fantasy violence. One very controversial music artist made headlines when the Columbine massacre occurred. From day one,

“Shooting massacres” in school settings, a new phenomenon within the past 50 years, are extremely rare events. Over 23 years, 1990-2012, 215 fatal school shooting incidents resulted in 363 deaths, equivalent to 0.12% of national firearm homicides during that time period …… Among these, just three shooting rampages – Columbine High School, Virginia Tech University, and Sandy Hook Elementary School – accounted for 72 (53.3%) of these 135 deaths. The frequency of random/ rampage shooting incidents in schools has remained within the narrow range of 0 to 3 episodes per year.” (Shultz, et al., 2013, p. 84)

Research in school shootings have been administered in many categories, including sociology, psychology, and etc. past studies, and direct later studies in school shootings, offers a sociology stand point for understanding the differences of school shooting incidents, including rampage shootings, mass murders shootings, and examining the mass media dynamic of school shootings; as well as presenting a combination of causes said in the research, including those on the individual, community, and social levels. Suggestions for studies in the future in school shootings are still yet to be explored.

Connecticut, Georgia, Colorado, Virginia, Oregon, Michigan, and Tennessee are the sites in which some of the most viscous school crimes have occurred. In this day and age it seems as if school isn't a safe haven for America's children anymore. School shootings are on the rise more than ever in today's society with kids as young as 9 years old committing these gruesome crimes against their classmates and instructors. To see this type of action among kids is heartbreaking and sad. People wonder what makes a child want to kill another or how did they get their little hands on such a powerful weapon. Most of the young killers today find it very easy to gain access to guns and bomb making material via the Internet. By using the internet

On an unseasonably cold March morning in 1993, high school sophomore Edward Gillom exited his first period classroom and made his way through the crowded hallways of Harlem High School. After engaging in a heated argument, allegedly over a girl, with Ronricas “Pony” Gibson and Ricoh Lee, Gillom pulled out a .38-caliber gun and opened fire. Gillom’s shots fatally wounded Gibson and left Lee with a non-fatal gunshot wound to the neck (Washington Ceasefire, 2011 pg 1). The shooting in Harlem, Georgia sparked national attention as one of the first high school shootings and added to the alarmingly high rates of gun violence by adolescents during the 1990s. According to the Virginia Youth Violence Project, forty-two homicides took place in

Almost twenty years ago, on April 20th, 1999 just seemed like any other regular day of that time. Everyone went about their regular routine; parents going to work, children going to school, young adults going to colleges. But two high school seniors of Columbine High had no intentions of going about their regular days. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered their school with mind made of never leaving that school again alive but not before committing the most heinous and bloody massacre ever committed in the United States history. There has been bombing where the death toll was significantly higher than Columbine shooting. But what made this tragedy so terrifying was this was not any terrorist or radicalized person trying to avenge authorities; these were two teenagers killing their fellow classmates and teachers. Something that none thinks about, it was like a parent’s worst nightmare coming true. Eric and Dylan killed a total of thirteen people, students and teachers combined, and seriously injuring over twenty others . This shooting sent shockwaves across the country, but most evidently sent criminal justice community scrambling looking for answers into why these two boys did what they did? What happened that made them mass murderers? To explore these questions criminologists started applying crime theories to the both their present life and their upbringing.

"I'm angry someone would do this to us. There are lives ruined, families ruined, and our whole school year is ruined" (Brackely 1). Casey Brackely, once a student that attended Columbine High School, remembers the tragedy of the horrific Columbine shooting that killed and injured many students. Mass shootings in the United States have been on the rise since the 1980’s, especially in the last decade. These shooters motives and profiles are almost all terrifyingly alike. Many of these shooters try to imitate and parallel the tragic shooting of the Columbine High School in 1999. These shootings have made peaceful organizations, such as an elementary school; become a place of violence and death. Currently, in the United States, an epidemic of

The psychic of the young person is shaped by social interactions as well as the parental training. Often the young murderers were brought in pathological environments, they did not experience the parental love and acceptance, and they forced themselves to drown particular emotions so as not to appear weak. All these factors results in social dysfunctions that triggers violence and violence becomes the perfect self-defense mechanism, because it brings attention. According to the FBI’s list of traits that describe young murderers the most common syndromes are the feeling of isolation, the narcissist disorder, and depression6. A perfect example to support the above argument will be a background check of Jeff Weise, a young sixteen-year-old boy who killed 9 people and committed suicide in the Red Lake Senior High School in Minnesota in 2005. Weise’s family was the kind of pathological one, his parents were separated, his mother had a habit of drinking too much being an abusive alcoholic, what is more Weise himself was often bullied at school7.

Rampage-style school shootings are rare and tragic events. Although measures of prevention have become more advanced, school shootings have increased in frequency over the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Here in the United States, they have become especially prevalent, with 63 shootings just this year (Acevedo). The aftermath of rampage shootings leaves gaping holes and questions in communities. People try to heal and seek closure at their own pace, but the biggest question most are left with is “why”? In Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings, Katherine S. Newman seeks to answer this question. She lays out her research and methodology for studying rampage shootings and comes to the conclusion that shootings are not spontaneous, but rather the build up of psychological issues and negative sociological situations within a student’s community that causes them to seek to regain power over their own lives through a rampage shooting. The story Rampage builds out of the narratives of shooters and their victims along with national data and trends is important because it highlights the places that our societies fail in providing a safety net for deviant students and their peers.

Unfortunately, school shootings and threats have become more common throughout the past 18 years. One of the first major school shootings that brought attention to gun violence in America was the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. According to the U.S. History website state that two teens, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went on a shooting spree throughout the school. After killing 12 students and one teacher, the boys then killed themselves. During the investigation on the boys motives, investigators came to the conclusion that most likely the shooting was connected to bullying because the boys were members of social outcast groups, and violence in video games. It is unfortunate that bullying may have been the cause of this awful event in history, but it is even more upsetting that school shootings like these, have happened again at an even worse

It is without a doubt that there has been an increase in violent crimes in schools throughout recent years. School shootings continue to become more and more common, especially in North America. Safety concerns for any and all students and staff in schools are at all all time high due to the high number of fatal and non-fatal occurring incidences. Since 2013 to the present, it is estimated that the United States has seen approximately 205 school shootings. Weekly, that is a shocking one shooting on average. Many of these shootings have resulted in the injuries and deaths of multiple of students and staff members. (Everytown Research, 2017) Evidently, school shootings are tragic events that affect so many more people than just the victims. However, these events are also interesting to look at from the psychological and sociological point of views. Through much research, it can be concluded that school shootings are a complex problem that are caused by a mix of improper brain development and societal and media influences which motivate school shooters to emerge. Psychological factors may include struggling with mental illnesses and/or abuse that leads to damaged brain development. Additionally, being bullied and/or the role of the media are examples of sociological factors.

Violence that is witnessed and experienced by students in schools is a social issue that "is frequently overlooked by law enforcement officers, families, and others at the time of a violent incident" ("American Psychological Association"). For example, "after the Columbine shooting [on] April 20, 1999, two teens went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado,"(History.com Staff) where they killed several classmates, then themselves. Not only was this the worst high school shooting in U.S. history, but it promoted a national debate on the negative influence of guns and video games in society. Although Canada is not as immersed in gun culture as the United States, weapons are still evident here and have a negative impact on schools. Unfortunately the reasons these students killed many of their peers was because they were in fact, bullied. The overall impact of violence in schools can lead to minor injuries such as cuts and bruises from physical abuse, to more serious injuries like gunshot wounds. Although these types of injuries are terrible, there are other types of injuries that are not as obvious. For example, exposure to violence can result in drug and alcohol abuse as well as suicidal thoughts. Additionally, “Depression, anxiety, and many other psychological problems, including fear, can result from school violence” ( disease control prevention). This can cause students to not attend school and, "Parents may also echo their feelings by not wanting to send their children to school for fear of the incident reoccurring" (Government of Canada). Therefore, the negative effects of school violence are tremendous on society. The problem not only affects the safety of the schools, but it affects the school environment and the development of