Preventing Mass School Shootings Essay

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.

     Ever since the terrible tragedy at Columbine High School, there has been a numerous list of recent school shootings in America. Youth violence is a major issue in today’s society. Many people dread what causes adolescents to be so violent, committing horrible crimes.     

In the United States mass shootings has been a problem for the last few years especially school shootings which occurs often in the country. Why in this country? Well statistics shows that the United States has 31% of all public mass shootings from 1966 to 2012. Although, the percentage has gone up for the last five years. There is a higher risk of dying at school than at any public places. The government and the president of the United States are not treating this problem right and it has become a phenomenon in the country. According to the blog “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother: A Mom’s Perspective On the Mental Illness Conversation In America” by Liza Long, she discusses her struggles with her mentally ill son and states the lack of help she was getting. She addresses the Sandy Hook incident in Newtown, Connecticut to relate it to her situation and how she fears her son might lead to murderous attack like the Sandy Hook shooting. Many of the causes that lead to school shootings are; lack of gun control, mental health & bullying, and definitely lack of protection at schools.

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.

Some of the most infamous acts of terror on American soil took place on numerous campuses across the nation. School shootings, like Sandy Hook and Columbine, have started to become an ordinary event seen on the news, which causes a numb reaction in the hearts of countless Americans. According to an article written by AJ Willingham and Saeed Ahmed, from CNN, “...30 deadliest shootings in the United States dating back to 1949, 18 have occurred in the last 10 years.” In all of these cases, the news will give the attacker the attention they so dearly crave and always giving the same justification “they were mentally ill”. This one phrase reflects on all of those who also are affected by mental illness, does this make them corrupt like these terrorists?

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

Imagine your child was nearing high school graduation with their whole life ahead of them. Next year, they will be going to college and you will see them bloom into the wonderful person you know they are. Now imagine the horror of hearing that your child had been shot and killed while they were at school. It is difficult to fathom the enormous amount of grief and anger that would flood the body of a person in a situation like this. No one should have to endure such pain. Now imagine how much this pain would be intensified if there was a possibility that the whole incident could have been prevented.

Kip Kinkel, who murdered his parents, two classmates, and injured twenty-five others, wrote in his journal, “Killers start sad and crazy.” The expression “school shooting,” refers to firearm violence in any educational institution (Preti). School shootings have become a pandemic in America, but what is causing these people to shoot schools? The top three reasons students say school shootings occur are revenge, bullying, and they do not value life (Gaughan et al.). Psychologist Brad Bushman stated that “violent acts are rare,” and that “you cannot predict a shooting rampage just based on exposure to violent media or any other factor” ("Violent Video Games Spur Child Aggression”). In his article “What a Killer Thinks,” Dave Cullen writes “Do

It’s clear that there are different views on how to prevent school shootings. It’s also certain that the NRA will not agree to stricter gun regulations, but they will agree on other procedures that can be taken such as stronger security in schools. Where the school’s security is armed officers. Schools can invest in security programs for their schools such as the ALICE program. School can also offer classes where they would discuss gun safety and the dangers of guns when used on others. NSBA is also researching for other ways to prepare schools for active shooters and ways to prevent this from happening such as drills that will prepare the faculty and students when a situation of a threat enters the school. Police departments can also help by having a

The school shootings at Westside Middle School were orchestrated by two juveniles. On Monday, March 30, 1998 two boys ambushed students and teachers outside Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Andrew Golden a youth of 11 years and Mitchell Johnson who was 13 years old were responsible for this hideous tragedy. Apparently, Mitchell Johnson hid in the woods while Andrew set off the fire alarm causing the students and teachers to run out of the building. Armed with three stolen rifles and four handguns, the documentary explained that the two youth flushed kids and teachers out of the school by means of a false fire alarm then opened up on them. When they stopped shooting, four students and a teacher lay dead and 10 students were

In the past decades there has been an increase of violence in the schools. This increase causes fear among students, teachers, parents, and all Americans. The deadliest act of school violence was the massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, when a student opened fire and killed Thirty-two students and teachers while wounding seventeen. On April 16, 2007, Seung Hui Cho, opened fire on two students killing both of them. He then fled the building. Police responded to the first incident and determined it was an isolated homicide and that the gunman fled the state. Two hours later, Cho returned with two handguns and entered Norris hall which was filled with classrooms. He chained

The same external situations, such as poverty levels, housing situations; growing up in undesirable neighborhoods that had generational problems such as inherited drug and alcohol abuse and high crime rates. The study, showed that the following factors: ethnicity, housing, family structure, income, unemployment, violent crime, suicide, and school dropout rates was an acting dynamic in creating aggressive behaviors, and other conduct disorders.

Tragic events like the shootings at Columbine High School capture public attention and concern, but are not typical of youth violence. Most adolescent homicides are committed in inner cities and outside of school. They most frequently involve an interpersonal dispute and a single victim. On average, six or seven youths are murdered in this country each day. Most of these are inner-city minority youths. Such acts of violence are tragic and contribute to a climate of fear in schools and communities.

On April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School, 13 people were killed and another 23 were wounded in one of the worst school killing incidents ever (Skeesis). Since the 1980's, overall homicide rates in the U.S. have declined. However, homicide rates for ages 14-17 have increased quite dramatically during this time period (Fox). Among other numerous potential causes, violence in the media may play a role in this increase in youth violence. Today, there is much controversy over the potential harmful effects of media violence on childrenís lives. I believe that exposure of children to media violence is harmful.

Violence has been incorporated into the media over the past decades. Television, movies, and video games all depict violence in many different ways. The scary truth is that shootings, especially in schools, are occurring more often than they should. Individuals are wondering what influenced young men like Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris to go into a school and shoot innocent people; these two young men were the Columbine High School shooters. People are also wanting to know why young men like these two are going into schools and other public places with the mindset of killing as many people as possible. Although, there are many factors that influenced these people, media violence is a key component of them. Violence in the media negatively affects an individual’s behavior.