School Shootings
Enormous public concern has been concentrated on recent school shootings. Some schools now resemble concentration camps. They use security personnel and metal detectors to detect armed students. But this unease may not be attacking the real problem. There appears to be at least two serious social phenomenons which are responsible for many more deaths of young people than school shootings:
The average death toll per day is about 20 youths, more than that of the Columbine disaster, and more than the average number of youth shooting deaths per year in schools. Considering how many hours each year that teenagers spend in an educational institution, it would appear that they are much safer in school than out. This is not to minimize the importance of the Littleton and other similar tragedies; we are simply trying to put the problem of youth homicide in perspective. As serious as school shootings are, the body count is very small when compared to the total death toll.
On the 20th of April 1999 in the town of Littleton in Colorado two students commited a serious crime. Eric Harris (18) and Dylan Klebold (17), two “normal” boys killed 12 fellow students and one teacher at Columbine High School in one of USA´s deadliest school shootings. 23 people were wounded by the two boys before they turned their guns at themselves. The attack had been planned for over a year, but did not go quite as planned. The boys plotted to kill at least 500 and as a grand finale, blow up the school.
The incident at Columbine HighhHigh School was clearly an act of expression. The two boys had been picked on and teased so they probably just wanted to get even... It was later revealed that the two boys enjoyed playing the violent vide o game called “Doom”. Harris created a customized version of the game that altered a few of the games settings, such as infinite life, ammunition, extra weapons, two-player and victims who could not fight back. This is similar to the actual shooting incident.
These shootings makes one wonder; what can mess up a persons mind so much that it drives them into killing fellow humans? The first thought that leaps to mind is: VIOLENT MOVIES. Over the years of televisions many movies have been a little on the edge and perhaps a bit to grotesque. We have seen examples of this in movies like “Full Metal Jacket”, “Alien” and “The Matrix”. These movies all encourage the use of weapons on people and/or creatures. There has been insidents due to watching these movies. “The Matrix” caused two people to jump off a building in attempt to make it across the 30ft gap. This seems stupid, but to the two persons it seemed real because the movie had said so... This is a good example of what might happen if you get to carried away watching these types of movies.
It might not be the movies that has the most affect on people, another aspect is: VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES. Violent video games have existed for nearly 20 years now, and are becoming more and more violent angrotesque for each new release. The latest addition in the ranks of violent games is “Doom 3”. This games whole meaning is to scare the bejesus out of everyone who plays it. It is not strange that kids with several social problems turn to the games. Here they get to play god, and go on a killing spree in whatever scenario they choose. The worst part is that everyone can get their hands on these games.
This combined with the fact that you can get hold of a gun almost anywhere in the states makes a lethal combo. Several schools have metal detectors at the entrance, this only shows us how serious the situation has gotten. I personally think that the metal detectors aren´t enough. There should be security guards in every class room and cameras to monitor the students during school hours. There should also be a more appealing offer for therapy or group discussions for the students and teachers. People need to feel safe when they go to school, and not be afraid of someone shooting you in the head while you try to give a presentation of a topic in your English class.
A Time Line of Recent Worldwide School Shootings
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Two students and one teacher killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra class. | |
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March 13, 1996 |
16 children and one teacher killed at Dunblane Primary School by Thomas Hamilton, who then killed himself. 10 others wounded in attack. |
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Feb. 19, 1997 |
Principal and one student killed, two others wounded by Evan Ramsey, 16. |
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March 1997 |
Eight people (six students and two others) at two schools killed by Mohammad Ahman al-Naziri. |
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Oct. 1, 1997 |
Two students killed and seven wounded by Luke Woodham, 16, who was also accused of killing his mother. He and his friends were said to be outcasts who worshiped Satan. |
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Dec. 1, 1997 |
Three students killed, five wounded by Michael Carneal, 14, as they participated in a prayer circle at Heath High School. |
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Dec. 15, 1997 |
Two students wounded. Colt Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot. |
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March 24, 1998 |
Four students and one teacher killed, ten others wounded outside as Westside Middle School emptied during a false fire alarm. Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, shot at their classmates and teachers from the woods. |
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April 24, 1998 |
One teacher, John Gillette, killed, two students wounded at a dance at James W. Parker Middle School. Andrew Wurst, 14, was charged. |
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May 19, 1998 |
One student killed in the parking lot at Lincoln County High School three days before he was to graduate. The victim was dating the ex-girlfriend of his killer, 18-year-old honor student Jacob Davis. |
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May 21, 1998 |
Two students killed, 22 others wounded in the cafeteria at Thurston High School by 15-year-old Kip Kinkel. Kinkel had been arrested and released a day earlier for bringing a gun to school. His parents were later found dead at home. |
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June 15, 1998 |
One teacher and one guidance counselor wounded by a 14-year-old boy in the school hallway. |
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April 20, 1999 |
14 students (including killers) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at Columbine High School in the nation's deadliest school shooting. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. At the end of their hour-long rampage, they turned their guns on themselves. |
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April 28, 1999 |
One student killed, one wounded at W. R. Myers High School in first fatal high school shooting in Canada in 20 years. The suspect, a 14-year-old boy, had dropped out of school after he was severely ostracized by his classmates. |
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May 20, 1999 |
Six students injured at Heritage High School by Thomas Solomon, 15, who was reportedly depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend. |
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Nov. 19, 1999 |
Victor Cordova Jr., 12, shot and killed Araceli Tena, 13, in the lobby of Deming Middle School. |
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Dec. 6, 1999 |
Four students wounded as Seth Trickey, 13, opened fire with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at Fort Gibson Middle School. |
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Dec. 7, 1999 |
One teacher and three students wounded by a 17-year-old student. |
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Feb. 29, 2000 |
Six-year-old Kayla Rolland shot dead at Buell Elementary School near Flint, Mich. The assailant was identified as a six-year-old boy with a .32-caliber handgun. |
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March 2000 |
One teacher killed by a 15-year-old student, who then shot himself. The shooter has been in a coma ever since. |
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March 10, 2000 |
Two students killed by Darrell Ingram, 19, while leaving a dance sponsored by Beach High School. |
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May 26, 2000 |
One teacher, Barry Grunow, shot and killed at Lake Worth Middle School by Nate Brazill, 13, with .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol on the last day of classes. |
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Sept. 26, 2000 |
Two students wounded with the same gun during a fight at Woodson Middle School. |
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Jan. 17, 2001 |
One student shot and killed in front of Lake Clifton Eastern High School. |
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Jan. 18, 2001 |
One student killed by two boys, ages 17 and 19. |
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March 5, 2001 |
Two killed and 13 wounded by Charles Andrew Williams, 15, firing from a bathroom at Santana High School. |
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March 7, 2001 |
Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14, wounded student Kimberly Marchese in the cafeteria of Bishop Neumann High School; she was depressed and frequently teased. |
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March 22, 2001 |
One teacher and three students wounded by Jason Hoffman, 18, at Granite Hills High School. A policeman shot and wounded Hoffman. |
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March 30, 2001 |
One student killed by Donald R. Burt, Jr., a 17-year-old student who had been expelled from Lew Wallace High School. |
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Nov. 12, 2001 |
Chris Buschbacher, 17, took two hostages at the Caro Learning Center before killing himself. |
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Jan. 15, 2002 |
A teenager wounded two students at Martin Luther King Jr. High School. |
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Feb. 19, 2002 |
Two killed in Eching by a man at the factory from which he had been fired; he then traveled to Freising and killed the headmaster of the technical school from which he had been expelled. He also wounded another teacher before killing himself. |
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April 26, 2002 |
13 teachers, two students, and one policeman killed, ten wounded by Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, at the Johann Gutenberg secondary school. Steinhaeuser then killed himself. |
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April 29, 2002 |
One teacher killed, one wounded by Dragoslav Petkovic, 17, who then killed himself. |
In this timeline you can see what has happened over the years regarding school shootings. What is important to notice is that the Columbine incident is the severest school shooting in all of USA´s history. My only question to this is; where did the two boys get a hold on those weapons? This brings us in on the weapon policy in the U.S. In almost every household there is atleast one handweapon. Most of these are only hidden in closets or in basements. This makes it really easy for kids to get a hold of them, because we all know that things cannot be hidden from kids unless the things are locked in large gun cabinets or stowed away amongst things that are of no interest to kids what so ever.
In loving memory...
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