Mass Shootings

Since 2013 there have been 268 school shootings in the United States alone (Everytown for Gun Safety, 2017). School gun violence is becoming increasingly probable. It is imperative that our government and our citizens come together to create a solution and implement a plan to prevent and stop the occurrence of school gun violence. The solution, for some, is to bring more guns into the picture by arming teachers, principals, and other school officials, or place armed police officers at school sites (LaPierre, 2015). For others, the solution is to make even stricter laws regarding gun use or to get rid of these weapons altogether. These certainly are drastic options; I must say that I do believe the true solution is to increase the focus on mental health services and by extension, mental health awareness. There is simply not enough focus on the mental health of our youth and of our students. Mental health services are the most important step to making schools safer, because this solution touches the entire problem of violence at its root level.

“Looking at mass shooting in America, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stands out in their background and motives. Unlike Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, or James Holmes at a movie theater in Colorado, or Jared Loughner outside an Arizona shopping center, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold did not have discernable psychiatric diagnoses” (Sancier,2014).

The article Shootings by Adam Gopnik depicts the correlation between mass murders and media to be a social gathering in which citizens from all around the world bandwagon onto debates to form “crusades”. Adam emphasises that media sources only shine light upon topics of gun violence and mass shootings in a overly exaggerated tone, rather than finding an appropriate solution. Adam attepmted to propose that media only brodcrasts pinpointed topics that grabs public attention to make headlines by focusing the characteristics of the Virgina Tech’s shooter’s mental illness. According to Adam (2007) “... much of the conversation was devoted to musing on the treatment of mental

According to Agnich (2010); Böckler, Seeger, Sitzer, & Heitmeyer (2013, p. 2) there has been an unprecedented trend in shootings, especially within the last decade. But, one of the most feared shooting tends to happen at schools where are children attended. These types of shootings put fears in teachers, education administrators, parents’ and students. Even though these incidents can happen

Since mass and school shootings are on the rise it is crucial to find a way to categorize these school shooters in an effort to minimize the amount of people who actually carry out the horrific act and to help pinpoint the most effective treatment intervention. Some of the factors that the media coverage focuses on are social factors such as peer harassment and the influence of media violence (Langman, 2009). In order to categorize Christopher Harper-Mercer, the examples provided in Peter Langman’s article on Rampage School Shooters: A Typology will be compared and assessed. Through this article Langman assesses the acts and history of 10 school shooters and separates the shooters into three distinct categories: Traumatized, psychotic, and

Horror filled events capture the eyes of television viewers across America each day. Many of these tragic incidents broadcasted involve the use of guns. Something seen on the news instantly after occurring are the massacres of students and faculty in school shootings. A student walked on to the campus of Virginia Tech where he created the worst shooting done by a single gun-man. In California, a student entered Santana High school where he continued his day by shooting multiple people.The infamous Columbine High School shooting exemplifies the terror that can erupt when students get their hands on a gun. The easy availability of guns in the United States cause these malicious people to be able to accomplish their sickest fantasies. Mental illness

There were over 200 school shootings in America from 2013 to 2015 — an average of nearly one a week. In all, these incidents resulted in 59 deaths and 124 non-fatal gunshot injuries. A staggering statistic considering that protecting children at schools has been and will be one of the top priorities for all Americans. Americans disagree on many topics and have diverse social and economic beliefs , but we all agree on providing safe and secure learning environments for our students. Government officials and school administrators face substantial altercations balancing parents’ expectations on keeping the students safe, and understanding the best available solutions with limited funding. These

In this article, the authors provide information on past mass school shootings and introduce new theories that relate to those school shootings. The authors also discuss and analyze characteristics between the different shootings with regard to the shooters’ lives and personality, the time periods of the shootings and also the schools and people who fell victim to the shootings. By doing this, the article gives greater insight to shooter profiles and it helps the reader find reoccurring themes and personalities between different shooters. After doing so, one is able to recognize someone who may be exhibiting strange behaviors and they are then able to possibly prevent any violence by getting someone help. This article is also helpful by giving information on why shooters do what they do and the stages in which they go through to make their final decisions. This article also helps navigate the different varieties of mass shootings and is helpful when researching the various theories people have about mass shootings especially in school systems.

Adam Lanza (Sandy Hook shooter), Eric Harris (Columbine shooter), Dylan Klebold (Columbine shooter), Jeff Weise (Red Lake shooter) and Luke Woodham (Red Lake Shooter). All of the people listed had 2 major things in common. Each had been suffering from a mental disorder and had easy access to firearms. The rise of mass shootings in the past 20 years has caused a huge uproar and imbalance in the media. With the mass hysteria and president Obama’s proposal of stricter gun laws, no one has taken the time to actually consider what the main problem is. The main problem is not the guns, but the amount of mentally ill members of society who have easy access to their parents/families firearms and the criminals who buy them off the black market. Punishing

School shootings are becoming more and more prevalent. Without having safety measures in place, more and more incidences of people being killed or maimed will occur. According to David Jannetty there are several steps to help prevent school shootings. The first step would be to advert children’s attention away from violent video games. According to Mr. Jannetty, “there needs to be a greater public awareness effort, paid for by the video companies, to educate parents on the possible dangers associated with violent video games.” Another step from David Jannetty would be the community recognizing students who have mental issues and then those who suffer

Many criminals who get access to these lethal weapons can commit mass murders or directly target the government. Terrorist attacks can be carried, killing hundreds or sometimes even thousands. Thirdly, armed citizens can accidently kill another citizen when a dangerous situation unfolds. When danger strikes, the person with a firearm is most likely to panic the most, and so they will pull the trigger on anyone to save their own life. Similarly, the police sometimes accidently kill innocent citizens who otherwise were being calm and were abiding by the law.

A method of preventing school shootings would be to acknowledge risk factors that the student is facing. For example, bullying is a risk factor for school shootings. In a research study done in 2001 of 37 school shootings, it was reported that 75% of the school shooters felt bullied, threatened, or injured by others in which most of the shooters in the report had experienced long-term bullying and harassment from their peers (Duplechain & Morris, 2014). In addition, the authors do state: “School personnel too often accept that children get teased and bullied every day, because teachers, parents, students, and other adults have grown up thinking that bullying is a normal part of school life. It has easily become an accepted part of today’s school culture” (Ibid, 2014). The authors believe that schools view bullying as something that students should get used to. This does show how bullying is an issue in schools. It is not solely to blame in regards to school shootings, but is a risk factor for them.

their motives for the shooting are different from the protagonist in the middle and high school cases, who broadcast threats in advance to try to reverse their negative reputations and become notorious for the purpose of attracting friends, we found that many high school shooters were ambivalent about following through on their threats, hoping the threat alone might help improve their image in the eyes of their peers. The college shooters are bent on notoriety, but they appear less ambivalent about the attack. This is critical because it impacts the lead up to the shooting. Because high school shooters are looking to attract attention, they let off warning signals that could at least potentially enable those who are within earshot to notify

The safety of the complex is the most crucial part as is the foundation of school shootings. The foundation for the problem could start by from adding security guards, improve student to counselor relationships, and adding metal detectors to the entrances. 5 tips to Improving School Safety and Security by Discovery Software stated that “Improved school safety and security doesn’t have to cost huge amounts of capital improvements that make our schools feel more like jail.” This belief is one that seems to retrogress because though everyone needs the security the whole doesn’t need the feeling of being stuck forever. But the feeling of being stuck in school doesn’t have to happen

In Exploring School Rampage Shootings: Research, Theory, and Policy, Micahel Rocque examines the history of school rampage shootings in the United States, as well as the theories and policy developments that have followed. The article is sectioned into four main parts: 1. Historical context and notable changes of school violence/shootings from the 20th century to present; 2. Recent empirical research based on school shootings; 3. Popular theories that help illuminate the possible causes of school shootings; 4. Policy changes as a result of school rampage shootings and the effect of such policies. Rocque argues that more research is required before stable conclusions in policy can be constructed.