Essay on The Media's Influence on Teen Violence

School should be a place of peace and opportunity, but gaps in the system of gun control threatens the safety of faculty and students. School shootings have killed a total of 297 lives, young and old (Slate Magazine). Gun control has been a continuous nationwide debate for many years. It seems that no one wants to take a stance against guns unless they are personally affected. In order to take control of the matter and prevent more incidents from continuing schools need to change. To achieve a safe environment in schools need to educate faculty, safe and students, heighten security, and assess mental health issues.

Imagine the notion of being defenseless against an individual holding the purpose of wreaking mass devastation on the students and faculty inside of a school. In 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut endured a tragedy that carries historical significance to the notion of shielding those inside of a classroom in a worst-case situation. When twenty-six students had their life taken away during a school massacre, the thought of permitting teachers to carry handguns during class drew more consideration than ever. The safety of the students inside of a school facility may be in jeopardy as manifested in school shootings such as the ones which transpired at Sandy Hook Elementary School and Virginia Tech, where thirty-two students and teachers lost their lives (History.com). While many feel that presenting teachers with handguns may prove harmful to safety efforts, inflicting such standards would provide instructors and students equally with enhanced protection and overall security.

Thirteen people were killed at Columbine High School in 1999, thirty-three died during the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, and twenty-seven people, twenty of whom were children no older than seven, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 (Kirk). These name only a few of the larger and most well-known school shooting incidences. In total, 297 people have lost their lives due to school-based shootings since 1980 (Kirk). Although this number may be small in comparison to death by guns overall, these instances are completely unwarranted and it is likely that they could have been avoided or at the very least reduced. These people, college and high school students, teachers, and even children, might still be alive today if our

Although no one can explain the "why" of these tragedies, recent statistics give insight into the "how": A 1990 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) survey found that one in twenty high school students had carried a gun in the past month, while a 1994 Harris poll found that only one in five students would tell a teacher if he or she knew that another student was bringing weapons to school. Where do these kids get their guns? The Harris poll found that only 43% of parents of minors keep their guns safely locked, which means that an estimated 1.2 million latchkey elementary school students can access the guns kept in their houses. The consequences of the latter statistic were brutally obvious in Jonesboro, when sixth grader Andrew Golden and eighth grader Mitchell Johnson opened fire on a crowd of students with guns taken from a glass

What does Columbine, Sandy Hook, and the Edlington murders all have in common? These were all violent crimes, committed within the last decade, by people under the age of 21. Every time you turn on the television, there is news of children engaging in disruptive, dangerous behaviors. Juvenile detention camps are filled with children under the age 18 who have maimed and murdered others. Looking at data from the National Criminal Data base, it is a clear fact that children’s behavior is significantly deteriorated from 20 years ago. Some critics would argue that the rate of children’s misbehavior has been the same through the decades, but this paper will present evidence that children’s behavior is indeed on the incline. Factors to support this view include: data of school violence, the severity of crimes committed, and the increase of diagnosing children with mental and behavior disorders.

In fairy tales, children are pushed into ovens, have their hands chopped off, are forced to sleep in coal bins, and must contend with wolves who've eaten their grandmother. In myths, rape, incest, all manner of gruesome bloodshed, child abandonment, and total debauchery are standard fare. We see more of the same in Bible stories, accentuated with dire predictions of terrors and abominations in an end of the world apocalypse that is more horrifying than the human imagination can even grasp.

Soon after the 1999 massacre, school lockdowns became widespread and ushered new security measures in school across the U.S. The effort of installing Lockdowns were strengthened after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Instructors and staff members applied these safety procedures to protect students at the school. Students were swept into the storage closets and behind bookcases where they would hide until the situation is fully resolved. Today, instructors are advised to snap off the lights, lock the doors and usher students into closets and corners while the school officials contact the police. In this locked room, students' text one another, play cards or board games or just wait until they are told everything is back to normal. Indeed, since the Columbine shooting, 32 states have enacted laws demanding schools to perform lockdown drills to keep students safe from intruders (Muschert 11). However, over the years, in the past decade, shooting has increased. The introduction of lockdown drills has not materialized in today’s setting as gun control laws have failed. The massive ownership of guns allowed in the Second Amendment of the U.S Constitution has promoted school shootings. Today, students have access to guns from parents and there is no minimum age for owning a long gun. It means even a child can own a rifle. The weakness of legal ownership of guns in the U.S is clear. So, even with

I chose this topic because I want to be a videogame designer and I wanted to defend my right to create what I want. Unfortunately, after researching this topic it is clear that it is no longer possible to say violent media is completely harmless. Videogames and television do have harmful effects on children and young adults. Research has been done since the 1950’s and almost all studies show clear evidence that media violence does cause increased violent tendencies, desensitization, and antisocial behavior – which is the same as sociopathic and psychopathic behavior, it does not mean introverted.

     The number of American citizens concerned with children gun violence is rapidly increasing. Nearly a million U.S. students took guns to school during 1998. It is important to note that many school shootings are committed by children who have stolen their parents’ legally owned guns. Columbine is just one example of what can happen. Over the two years ending June 30, 1999, violence in and around schools happened in 25 states resulting in 105 deaths. Nearly two thirds of the victims were primary and secondary schools students, another 11 percent were teachers or staff, and the remainders were community members slain on school property. Firearms were used in 75 percent of these deaths. For example, take the case of a nine-year-old girl who took a Glock semiautomatic pistol to school. The girl, who told officials she found the gun in an unlocked drawer in her mother’s bedroom, said she wanted it for protection against gang

     Another school shooting goes down and is preyed upon by the media for a gripping new story. Jonesboro, Arkansas, West Paducah, Kentucky, and Littleton, Colorado all have one thing in common. All these places are sites where school shootings have occurred. Why do school shootings happen and who is to blame when they do happen?. These are two questions that are still trying to be answered. Some people say that school shootings are due to the excess marketing of violence in movies, television, video games, and music. "'There is a difference between what one has the right to do and what is socially responsible', he says. It appears that they have targeted a mass audience for this material, and then they're

It has been estimated that nine percent of eighth grade students carry a gun, knife, or club to school at least once a month. In fact, approximately 270,000 guns go to school every day (Toch 45). The problem of violence in school has increased to the extent that many schools have drive by shooting drills. Other precautions that have been taken are: Fencing in campuses, installing metal detectors, and locker searches (Toch 78).

School shootings have altered American history greatly over the past two decades. From 1997 to 2007, there have been more than 40 school shootings, resulting in over 70 deaths and many more injuries. School shoot-outs have been increasing in number dramatically in the past 20 years. There are no boundaries as to how old the child would be, or how many people they may kill or injure. At Mount Morris Township, Michigan, on February 29th, 2000, there was a 6 year old boy who shot and killed another 6 year old girl at the Buell Elementary School with a .32 caliber pistol. And although many shootings have occurred at High Schools or Middle Schools, having more guns on those campuses would not be a good environment for children to grow up in.

The children of today are surrounded by technology and entertainment that is full of violence. It is estimated that the average child watches from three to five hours of television a day! Listening to music is also a time consuming pastime among children. With all of that exposure, one might pose the question, "How can seeing so much violence on television and video games and hearing about violence in in music affect a child's behavior?" Obviously these media have a big influence on childrens' behavior: we can see it in the way they attempt to emulate their favorite rock stars by dressing in a similar style and the way children play games, imitating their favorite cartoon personalities or super

It's is a well known fact that kids bring weapons into school. They might just want to show off their dad's new hunting knife or their mom's gun they keep in her purse. Everyone remembers the story of the kindergartener that brought a gun to school. A five-year-old boy from Albuquerque New Mexico was suspended from kindergarten after bringing a pellet gun to school. A teacher at Alameda Elementary School found the gun in the boy's bag after students mentioned he was showing it off. The pellet gun was not loaded. The boy was suspended for three days and school officials spoke with his parents about the incident. These kids might not want to hurt anyone; they most

In today’s world, there is an endless amount of information available to people everywhere around the globe. Mass media is definitely shaping our world, whether it is in a positive way or a negative way. Television and the radio waves provide us with hours of entertainment. The emergence of the Internet allows us to access thousands of pages of information within the reach our very own fingertips. But with the convenience of all this information comes along a certain level of responsibility. As a society, we Americans must decide what is appropriate information and entertainment for the masses to access and enjoy. But does today’s society give too much leeway in what it thinks as “appropriate?” Does increased