Mass Shootings

“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).

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.

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

Mental Health is the root to numerous problems in America, how your brain deals with certain situations determines how sick or healthy our minds are. Based on a Washington Post-ABC News Poll of 808 adults, 57% agreed that the mass shootings were due to mental health issues whereas 28% said that it was due to inadequate gun control laws (SHEN). Almost 30% additional people thought that it was a mental health issue instead of a gun control issue. Since a larger portion of adults believe that mental health is the root to mass shootings a mental health test need to be complete on anyone who wants to carry or purchase a weapon.

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.

Almost half of the population in the US are affected by mental health conditions every year. A diagnosable mental illness affects about 43 percent of the U.S. population at some point in their lives. 75 percent of youth are left with no or insufficient treatment. If mental illness is recognized early on, it can help citizens avoid large medical bills down the road and could help lessen the amount of homelessness, unemployment, suicides, shootings, bad decision making, etc.

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.

So much damage can be done by one person and a gun. At some point in a shooters life, something went downhill, and it led to them feeling negatively about themselves and their classmates. There is an array of reasons for this, but the main three discussed in this case study are bullying, isolation, and a strong need to “strike back.” As a society, and even more importantly, as students, there is a lot that can be done to prevent school shootings from happening. Prevention ranges from

Unfortunately, the notion of schools being a safe place is no longer a trend across American schools. Disturbing mass shootings in the U.S continue to shock the media. A school shooting is when someone attacks a school using a gun. The Secret Service says these shootings are "deliberately selected as the location for the attack". The reasons massacres occur in schools is because of poor security, violence in video games/media, and bullying. Shockingly the U.S. has the most school shootings than any other country in the world. According to the FBI, mass shootings occur, on average, every 2 weeks in the U.S. While the cause of school shootings are sometimes unpredictable, it is a growing issue and they need to be prevented. Most shooters don’t have mental issues, they have a plan to kill, so there is no singular cause that creates violent people. On April 16th, 2007, the most deadly school massacre occurred. Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two students at Virginia-Tech. As Americans, we no longer should turn on the news and witness these gruesome murders. We try to make sense of these murders, but it’s ineffectual. There are measures we can take as a society to help. The number one question in a school massacre is, "why would a person that has a capable sense of mind even do that?” It is our moral responsibility to fix these issues. In order to stop this problem, we need to find its roots.

Over the past couple of decades, school shooting have seemed to occur often-- continuously shocking the nation and reminding everyone that no community is exempt from such horror. One main contributor of this hysteria is found within the media. At the catalyst of this hysteria, lies the horrific Columbine shooting in 1999. Since then, school shootings have received ample coverage-- some argue that this has romanticized school shootings, others argue that is has provided condemning coverage of the often insane perpetrators. In the first year after the Columbine shooting, over 10,000 articles were written about the event, likely setting the stage for the nationwide desire for constant coverage of such events (Elsass et al, p. 445-446).

There have been a number of school shootings over the past few decades. When school shootings are analyzed there is not one school shooter that is the same. There are plenty of ideas that the common person has conjured about school shooters that are wrong. This is why it is important to be critical and understand the distinct characteristics that trouble many school shooters. After looking at the research, “there are two main characteristics that are consistently found in school shooters, peer and social rejection. Not only are school shooters rejected, they lack social support and prosocial relationships” (Bartol & Bartol, 2014). Having no other way to cope they become angry and begin to seek out other forms of comfort. “A school shooter can find comfort in being cruel to animals. They can even pick up an interest in guns and other weaponry. Often times they have easy access to weapons, whether it comes from home or a peer” (Bartol & Bartol, 2014). There can be a correlation found between rejection and support and seeking out alternative ways to cope. School shooters have psychological characteristics that can be attributed to the events prior to the school shooting. Usually, there is a romantic rejection plus other psychological problems. “Some problems can include depression, lack of impulse control and antisocial behavior. A vast majority of shooters have a fascination with death, also known as macabre” (Bartol & Bartol, 2014).

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.

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.

Schools are no longer a safer environment for teenagers and children in today’s society. Every year, many young lives are taken away due to school shootings. School shootings are widespread issue that seek attention because of their dramatic and frighten nature. These shootings results teenagers who have been harassed or bullied into depression come back with the guns to get revenge. However, School shootings are becoming more and more of an everyday incident around the world.

“Since 2013, there have been at least 173 school shootings in America — an average of nearly one a week.” (Everytown for Gun Safety, paragraph 1). Everytown for Gun Safety has been tracking this information since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting that occurred in 2012. This information is an alarming wake up call for parents of teenagers, who fear the possibility of their children being victims of school shootings caused by teen violence. The leading causes of teen violence are controversial topics, however, it is greatly believed by some that the main causes are bullying, begin misunderstood, and having parents that have given up on them.