The Social Impact Of A Protest At Kent State Shootings

The Sandy Hook massacre also, described as one of the deadliest shooting in all U.S history. 20 children and 6 adults were killed on December of 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. (Connecticut) This massacre was the earliest memory I could recall on gun violence, not just learning about it but also watching it unfold and be told on news outlets all over television and social media. The Sandy Hook massacre shaped my generation by creating a more debatable topic on gun control in the United States. Through the Sociological point of view, gun violence can be understood by the functionalism, conflict, and symbolic theoretical approach. While trying to understand such event with such theories, we begin to unfold how society has shifted and changed over time, how we as a society view gun violence today and what we have done to prevent such act to happen again.

There are many differences and similarities between the Boston Massacre and the Kent State shooting.

On May 4, 1970, Kent State went into history as one of the most powerful single events and images that America would ever witness during the Vietnam era. It would be reminisant of a battle field engagement, as gunfire would fill the Midwest college campus and bring the front lines of America's war over Vietnam. In 13 chaotic seconds, the Ohio National Guard fired their weapons at antiwar demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine. The shootings solidified the antiwar movement not only in America, but worldwide as well. By the next day photographs of the slain students, and the horror that was depicted over every possilbe news media, immortilized the name Kent State and cut through the nation's conscience.

It is often said to remember important mistakes, crimes, declines, anything negative so that, "History does not repeat itself." Some of the notable mistakes include strategic errors in wars; such as the French, in World War I, stacking the Maginot Line while the Germans marched around it, and in World War II doing the exact same thing. Other mistakes include incidents on domestic soil in which protests turn violent such as the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the Kent State Shootings in 1970. Other than each happening on Mondays and occurring almost two hundred years apart, the two draw deeper comparisons to one another which caused widespread protest leaving marks in American history. Upon reviewing these two cases it triggers the

Since people are mostly only able to participate in catastrophes such as this mass shooting at a distance, news media is the primary source of information, which therefore creates the audiences’ reality of the events that occur.(Wheeler 80) With this, the mass media has the control of what people are exposed to, and the choice to amplify awareness to what they choose as important. In an interview conducted with Sarah, an undergraduate student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she recalled her exposure to the news of the shooting: “The only reports I had access to, was what I saw in the news”. When asked how she thinks the media had an effect on her perception of the shooting, she stated: ”Well I believe that since the only information I was able to get was from news sources, what I saw in the news is what I believed. So I really do think the media had a strong effect since I was exposed to mainly what they chose to present to me.” With this, media messages, such as the reporting on the Las Vegas shooting, exert a strong influence on audiences and the cultivation of people’s perception. The frequent exposure to these stories of mass shootings and the use of descriptors based on race are fed to the audience and become a common knowledge. Ultimately, the promotion of racial stereotypes through the disproportionate representation of perpetrators of mass shootings influences public opinion and perception.(Lankford) With the strong effect that media has on the people, it is

In response to the tragedy and the Cambodia invasion, mass rallies were held in almost every major city in that month. The elite demographic, which includes doctors, lawyers and other professionals also flooded into Washington to display their opposition not only to the war but the increasing domestic violence. The incident dramatically affected Americans and it was further indicated through public opinion polls, which pointed blame towards the National Guard. To many Americans, the domestic upheaval following Cambodia and Kent State suggested that the country was becoming unhinged according to Melvin Small. Newspapers such as the New York Times suggested that the United States was as divided as it had been since the Civil War. Individuals that would identify themselves as pro-war now felt that the war’s cost in terms of domestic consequence outweighed the benefits of continuing the war. The White House was now in full damage control following the Kent State shootings. Public opinion polls showed a 31 percent approval for the war following the Kent State massacre. In response, White House officials anxiously discussed how to contain the uproar. According to David Anderson and John Ernst in their book titled, “The War That Never Ends: Student Opposition to the Vietnam War,” White House officials agreed that it was important to avoid steps that would further

The Kent State shooting played a major role in Nixon’s resignation from presidency and the public’s opinion of the Vietnam War. The students that were protesting started when Nixon announced intervention into Cambodia. Outraged students met on campus the very next day to show that they didn’t agree with the presidents decision. During the shooting students threw containers of tear gas back at the guardsmen. Some students threw rocks as the soldiers left. Protestors would shout “Pigs Off Campus!” (Axelrod et al. 256) Many of the soldiers sent to settle the frustrated protestors were weekend warriors who chose the guard to avoid ending up in Vietnam. Mandy soldiers lacked training for combat and crowds. Most soldiers were confused by the actions of the students and weren’t sure how to react. The student protestors refused the guards orders to disperse which resulted in the guardsmen throwing tear gas toward the rioting protestors. The protestors consisted of upper class and middle class residents.

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.

Well-acclaimed author Tim O’Brien once wrote, “Certain blood is being spilled for uncertain reasons,” (O’Brien 40) in response to the American occupation of Vietnam. This concise, yet poignant, quote epitomizes the unsettlement that many Americans felt in regards to the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. After President Nixon announced that the invasion of Cambodia by the United States necessitated the draft of 150,000 more soldiers, the sentiments eventually accumulated into protests on college campuses across America. One of the most famous protests took a violent turn as members of the National Guard shot into the crowd of students at Kent State University. The Kent State Massacre is a tragic and influential moment in the 1960’s that initially caused destruction and chaos in its surrounding communities, but it ultimately helped to perpetuate the anti-war movement in America.

got rid of Norodom Sihanouk who was the king of Cambodia at the time. He was all for neutrality. U.S. put General Lon Nol to power in Cambodia in March of 1970. In the spring of 1970, Nixon authorized bombings in Cambodia and sent both U.S. and SVA (South Vietnamese Army) troops across the border, entirely without the consent or informed of Congress. Nixon secretly bombed Cambodia, a neutral country that the North Vietnam used for sanctuary. During the war, young people were being drafted tremendously in the United States. This angered the youth and protests were being made. During the Kent State protest, four students were shot dead by the Ohio National

Incoherent domestic movements, can be exemplified by the counterculture versus anti-counterculture movement. A keystone event in this ordeal was the National Guardsmen who shot and killed four protesting students, while injuring nine others at Kent State on May 4, 1970. The students were protesting the non-virtuous Vietnam war, which had just expanded to Cambodia, in the past few days protests had riot features of burning down an ROTC building and breaking windows, but at the time of the shooting the students were largely peaceful with National Guardsmen present. The anti-couture culture movement was formed when average Americans were proclaiming that the shootings committed by the National Guardsmen were the best way to handle the protestors and prevent further protests: In sociology this phenomena is called victimology, which is when the victim is blamed for their own demise or suffering (cite). Subsequently, pro-American protests and Anti-Counterculture protests ensued amongst the tumultuous

The events at Kent State were a catalyst that helped strengthened the American Citizens’ hatred of the Vietnam War and distrust in the Government that promised to end the war.

I feel that the Black Lives Matter protests are one sided and are racist themselves,the slogan needs changed.I disagree with their reasons and thoughts.All lives matter.

The article clarifies contents of 10 protest songs that are seen as the best anti-songs during the Vietnam War. First, Imagine (1971) was an emphasis for world peace to “imagine all people living life in peace” in a world without religion, countries, possessions, greed or hunger. Blowing in the Wind (1963) was as the United States escalated their involvement in the Vietnam War, and became famous protest songs. Born in the USA is about the troubles of a working class man forced into the Vietnam War. Give Peace a Chance was sung across the country during the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, which was one of many anti-war protests that swept the country during the 60s and 70s. War (What is It Good For?) says it loud and clear “war, yea,

I personally think that arresting and the use of force on people who are protesting in Standing Rock, is a necessary procedure if it is a reaction to unlawful situations. Reason being, just because individuals are protesting does not mean that they are above the law. It was stated in the New York Times article, that protesters have “set fire to wooden boards and signs and held off the line of officers over many hours; officers have also said that protesters had attacked them with firebombs, logs, feces and debris. The police force has acknowledged using pepper spray and beanbag rounds against the protesters, as well as a high-pitched sound device meant to disperse crowds (Tension Between Police and Standing Rock Protesters Boiling Point),”