Kent State Shootings Essay

The Chief of Police, William Parker, went to the Mayor, Sam Yorty, and asked him to call in the National Guard. Yorty refused the request and the riots went on. On the third the Governor of California, Pat Brown,

On Tuesday, April 20 1999, Columbine High School located in Columbine Colorado an unfortunate massacre happened and many teens lost their lives. The two students responsible for this incident were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. These two senior students were responsible for killing twelve students and one teacher; they were also responsible for injuring an additional twenty one students on their rampage. A few other students were injured while trying to escape the school. Columbine is considered the fourth deadliest school massacre in history. It was said to be that there was not one target but everyone was a target on Eric and Dylan’s rampage through the high school

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.

In order to fully understand the circumstances surrounding the Kent State Massacre, it is important to back track several days and establish a timeline of events leading up to the massacre. On April 30, 1970,

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

Columbine and Virginia Tech were definitely two of the biggest, but not one of the first mass shootings on school grounds. On August 1, 1966, a mass shooting took place at the University of Texas. A 25 ex-marine named Charles Whitman, who majored in architectural engineering, murdered his mother and wife that morning. Whitman climbed on top of the UT Tower and started firing. “The crime scene spanned the length of five city blocks… and covered the nerve of what was then a relatively small, quiet college town.”

During the riot, community leaders and the police met at Athens Park. Many community leaders encouraged people to deal with the issue peacefully. Mrs. Frye, the mother of Marquette, also said that people should calm down. One teenager stepped to the microphone and told people that the rioting would not stop and that the rioters were going to invade the white parts of the city that night. Doing what the news do best, the media and news stations reported the hateful and inflammatory comments, but did not report on all of the peaceful speakers. As would be expected, the rioting continued. The National Guard was called in to help support the police (www.southcentralhistory.com). Finally, with the assistance of thousands of National Guardsmen, order was restored on August 16.

On September 23, 1957, the group entered the building with police protection. There was an angry mob

The Boston Massacre and the killings that took place at Kent State University occured 200 year apart from each other, but there is a striking resemblance between the two events. It is evident that history repeats itself. Both of the events were brought on by tensions between the powers that be and the people, became so violent that officials were forced to take charge, and after tragedy occurred, no one suffered any consequences.

Kifner John, “4 Kent State Students Killed by Troops,” The New York Times. Web. 04. Nov. 2015

At Kent State University in Ohio, there was several memorable events. Like the destruction of protestors launching a demonstration that included setting fire to the ROTC building causing the governor of Ohio to dispatch 900 National Guardsmen to the campus. On May 4th, 1970 was a tragic event for Kent State University. During that day an altercation occurred with twenty eight guardsmen opening fire on a crowd causing the killings of 4 students and wounding nine others. Almost 500 colleges were shut down due to this fatal shooting around the United States of America. “The Justice Department initially declined to conduct a Grand jury investigation. The actions of the guardsmen had been “unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable.” A Grand jury indicted eight of the guardsmen, but the charges were dismissed due to the lack of evidence. The Kent State shootings became the focal point of a nation deeply divided by the Vietnam War. Since the tragic event, the Kent State shootings were the subject of the 1970 song "Ohio" by the group Crosby, Stills, Nash, and young.

More mass shooting in America are more common now than they have ever been before. The columbine shooting is the biggest school shooting in history. It was on April 20, 1999 when this devastating event happened. One of the things that made the shooting memorable is that the shooters shot Christians. The columbine shooting was an awful event. Twelve students and one teacher were killed.

One of the nation’s most fatal shootings. The Columbine Massacre “ranked as one of the worst mass shootings in U.S history as well as one of the deadliest episodes of school violence (Library, par. 6).” Twelve students and one teacher were killed, and twenty-three others were incapacitated. It still remains a mystery as to why Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris went on a murderous rampage on that despicable day but the truth remains. The Columbine Massacre was and still is a day many will never forget.

The first misconception is that the social cliques that occur in high schools across the nation has a role in this tragedy. Columbine is not simply a school shooting but is rather a shooting that the gunmen chose the school as their tool. School shooters tend to act impulsively and attack the targets of their rage mainly the students and faculty. Harris and Klebold planned for a year and dreamed much bigger. The school served as a means to a grander end, to terrorize the entire nation by attacking a symbol of American life. The shooters talk in numerous video tapes about their act being bigger than the Oklahoma city bombings. They boasted about making sure there bloody performance was bigger and more memorable. Klebold is particular was quoted as bragging about inflicting “the most deaths in U.S. history. Columbine was

Prior to the massacre, in July 1968, students began to start a movement after a conflict had occurred between two schools and the government sent in the riot police to “stop” the conflict. (Miller, 5) At the end of the month, students gathered together to protest against police brutality, which ended by the students