School Shootings

One of the many misuses of firearms are the mass shootings that seems to becoming a normal tragedy in the United States schools. Mass shootings that occur usually have a motive or some kind of emotional tie to why these types of murderous actions took place. Phillip Cook and Kristin Goss explains emotional ties of the killers and what drives them to murder:

As the world recovers from recent school shootings, people wondered why these events have occurred. They are focused on drug use, violent society, video games, bullying, and mental issues to try and explain an unexplainable event. The idea that a person would shoot others for little or no reason gave little relief to the survivors.

School shootings and those who instigate them have changed over time by the perspectives of these people that are influenced by violence. Couples of years ago, school shooters were kids that got traumatized, raped, bullied, etc. A perfect example of this would be Evan Ramsey. Evan walked into his high school with a 12- gauge shotgun and killed two people. He had a chaotic home life. His mother was an alcoholic who lived with a series of violent men. He lived in 10 different foster homes where he got both sexually and physically abused. I feel that Evan did this because of the tragic life or even for attention. His life wasn't a good life and it's sad that the events that occurred to him had to happen. Now things have changed and anyone can

Mass shootings have been a growing epidemic in the past years in the United States. According to CNN between the years 1966 and 2017 there have been 90 Mass Shootings in the United States; with the shootings more likely to occur at the workplace or at schools(1). But why is this happening? Why are unlikely citizens rising up and performing such vulgar actions? What truly has people baffled is what is causing people to commit such a horrific act of violence? We are baffled because we don’t understand what is the cause that the some of the people committing these shootings are thought to be normal, well raised, and stable-mind people. There are many theories as to why people commit these mass shootings. One is that it is that a people's thresholds for the act and they are joining in. Another is that is is testosterone and natural dominance causing those viewed as outcasts to commit the shooting. But I believe it is both of those but that there is a stronger one that explains the reason why good people are committing horrific shootings. My theory is the psychological act of splitting.

When thinking about school shootings names like Columbine and Sandy Hook pop up. Those are the most tragic by far, however everyone always ask why such a horrible crime happens, but no one has never stopped and researched why such hate crimes like those happen. Instead people resort to Channel 2 or Fox 5 for answers, not realizing that their story isn’t the full truth. I am truly against school shootings; looking for answers myself. If there’s one thing I’ve picked up from the media is how they portray school shootings with mental illness, but according to Alfred.edu/teen violence says, “They want to get back at those who hurt them or revenge.” Many adults always struggled to realize why things as vigorous as shootings happens; also fail to realize they are the start of something so tragic. There are several reasons that lead to a school shooting but only five are common.

On December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, twenty-year-old Adam Lanza (just barely out of his teens) shot and killed six adults and twenty children at Sandy Hook Elementary School after murdering his own mother at home. He then turned the gun on himself bringing the morning’s fatalities to twenty-eight. As horrible as this crime was, it is only one in a growing number of similar shootings in other schools across our country. Two of the worst examples occurred in the late 90’s. In Springfield, Oregon, fifteen-year-old Kipland Kinkel killed two students and wounded twenty-two others when he opened fire in a crowded cafeteria in his high school on May 21, 1998. This was after he killed both his parents the night before (Grapes 6). In

There are many factors that come into play as far as the shooter goes. For example, their self esteem, depression, or suicidal thoughts may have a negative impact on their mental health. However, there is no set expectations of how a shooter should act. This is what makes it difficult to spot a potential shooter. While this is true, there is a correlation between social media and school shooters. Children who said they were going to shoot people online where often prepared to follow through. For the children that said it in person, it was often an impulsive threat. The article suggests that claiming "mental illness" is a distraction to the public. It says that the best way for schools to stay safe is to keep close communication. The article says that if anyone suspects a potential school shooter, they should report them to the National Alliance for Mental Illness immediately. Overall, this article will help with our research by providing data of how communication is an important factor in detecting a school

Within 10 years, massive shooting seems to become more and more common and hot topic across the news, especially school massive shooting. According to CNN.com, “Columbine Shootings leave 39 dead or injured” (April, 1999), “Massacre at Virginia Tech leaves 32 dead” (April, 2007), “Twenty children among twenty-eight killed in an elementary massive shooting in Connecticut” (December, 2012), etc., similar tragedies repeated over the headlines across different newspaper and websites. School massive shooting is a severe social catastrophe, if we don’t solve this problem as soon as possible, it will threat the whole nation. The cause of these tragedies is controversial and various, but mainly caused by bullying, rejection from school, and mental

We never thought that a day would come where parents would be weeping over their child’s death, and such little hands could hold such a weapon that determines if a person lives or not. School shootings are on the rise more than ever in today’s society. We imagine school to be a place where we make new friends, learn about our society and gain an education. We all picture a safe place where our future all begins. Lately we often ask ourselves why do high school shootings occur and what goes on behind the minds of these individuals. As an average American we often overlook things and say “that could never happen at my school, school shootings rarely happen”. Communities all over the county live in fear of school shootings. Instead, we should feel secure in sending our children to school and not be afraid of what happens at school five days a week, seven hours each day. American schools have now become a dangerous place and high school shootings have been occurring all over the county leading to more and more deaths each year. Due to the number of school shootings each year we often have to ask ourselves who are these shooters and why do these events occur?

School shootings have been happening all over the country for the past four decades, but it wasn’t until the 1990’s what the impact from experiencing a trauma of this magnitude can do both psychological and psychically started coming to light as well as creating more national attention for the arising problem in our nation. In 1998 in small town in Oregon, Kip Kinkel walked into Thurston High School killing four and wounded twenty-three students and in 1999 in Colorado at Columbine High School Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into school killing fifteen and wounded twenty-one, making it the worst school shooting of the decade. Fast forward to 2007 and we’re in Virginia at the small college campus of Virginia Tech, were Seung-Hui Cho opened fire killing thirty two and wounding many more while then in 2008 at Northern Illinois University Steven Kazmierczak walked into Cole Hall killing five and injuring twenty one.

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

School is supposed to be a safe environment that parents can count on to send their children to learn, socialize with peers, build a good academic foundation for their future, but the epidemic of school shootings in the United States is preventing this from happening. The gruesome truth is that teenagers and young children are being murdered by fellow students on a regular basis. The media portrays a stereotype that all school shooters have a form of mental illness, frequently labelling them as psychotic and psychopathic. Adolescent school shooters are not necessarily psychotic or psychopathic. Often, they have been negatively affected by societal expectations, influence of media, masculine ideologies, bullying and their broken families.

One key factor in almost all of these school shootings are these students home and school lives. At home they normally don’t have a strong parent figure in their lives. They then go to school, and stand out as different, leading to being alone or bullied. Not having people there for you in your life is extremely hard, and sadly some people take it

While several shooters had several traits in common, none of these traits were shared by all of the shooters who have been studied. The most common trait among active shooters is the perception that they were wronged in some way by someone or some entity. The majority of active shooters were not seen as loners and many had friends. Also, the majority of these shooters experienced some type of major loss (death of family member, etc.) prior to the incident. What the study found did not have any noticeable effect was violent video games, movies or other type of media. Very few active shooters showed any interest in this type of media prior to the active shooter event. However, over a third of active shooters did themselves write violent stories or poems (Ferguson, Coulson and Barnett, 2011). This study did focus more on school shootings, rather than active shooters as a whole. However, it appears these same traits can be found in some of active shooters who commit their crimes outside of a school setting. It should also be noted, active shooters who commit their crime because of an ideological purpose (i.e. Fort Hood attacks or the recent South Carolina church shooting) also may not necessarily display any of the above

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.