The Columbine High School Massacre occurred on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. It is one of the most notorious school shootings that occurred in the United States to this day. This was due to it being the first high school shooting with a significantly high death toll (List of school massacres by death toll, n.d.). The two perpetrators of this shooting were Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold. The boys, aged 18 and 17 respectively, were both senior students in the aforementioned high school. (Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, n.d.)…
On April 20, 1999, two teens, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. They killed thirteen and wounded more than twenty before turning the guns on themselves. It was the worst school shooting in U.S. history. It caused a huge investigation to determine what motivated the boys. It was a pretty tragic event that changed the safe feeling that any high school student felt across the country.…
The motivation that backs a person to commit a mass shooting has peaked the minds of many over the years. Maybe none quite as much as the shooting that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School, December 14th 2012. Adam Lanza decided to end the lives of twenty six innocent women and children, and then turned the gun on himself. There is no excuse for something so disturbing as this crime, but there are explanations for why something like this may happen. In Lanza’s case there were so many big changes that were happening in his life. There was also numerous warning signs that were overlooked that could have potentially ceased this tragedy from occurring. Lanza also suffered from Asperger’s syndrome, anorexia, and depression that all…
According to WWW.NATIONOFCHANGE.ORG, a mass shooting is defined as an incident involving multiple victims of gun violence. In most mass shooting cases, the gunmen often have similar personality traits that go unnoticed before the actual incodent occurs. In other cases, these traits were detected by others but no effort was made to get the murderer the help that they needed before they took the lives…
According to the article “Do Video Games Kill?” author, Karen Sternheimer, brings up an interesting and controversial subject about video games. “If we want to understand why young people, particularly middle class or other stable environments, become homicidal, we need to look beyond the games they play.” Sternheimer starts her article by giving an example of the video game “Doom” that became a target for critics. Shooting at the schools in Kentucky, Oregon, and Colorado were most probably caused by video games. The author sticks to this explanation because of many influential opinions from politicians, news, and different groups of people. Media is providing information to the public about shooters being the ones who are playing video games.…
In the eyes of news media, whenever a travesty such as a school shooting occurs all other forms of news cease to exist. News stations spend days reporting on the same exact story regardless of any updates. Every time a school shooting occurs the media attempts to establish that the shooter is psychologically ill. Media outlets bend the truth, exaggerate quantitative data, and appeal to unqualified “experts” for information. The utilization of these tools is meant to convince the viewer that the shooter is an outcast of society. The media typically portrays school shooters and other terrorists as socially incompetent, autistic individuals that are psychologically incapable of emotions. This is meant to differentiate a school shooter from what society deems to be normal person; this differentiation is to reassure the public that any normal member of society would not even…
20 year old Male Adam Peter Lanza fatally shot twenty children and six adult staff members in a mass murder at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in the village of Sandy Hook in Newton, Connecticut. On my quest to look up information on this perpetrator Adam Peter Lanza - (April 22, 1992- December 14,2012) it is stated on wikipedia .com that Adam and his mother Nancy Lanza age 52, lived in sandy Hook, 5miles (8km) from the Elementary school. Adam did not have any criminal background with the police and he also attended sandy hook for a brief time back in his day, but he mostly attended St. Rose Catholic school in Newtown, and then attended Newtown High…
Why would a student decide to shoot their own classmates? Often when a topic like this is talked about usually a stereotypical reason is valid, at the time, to explain why a student would perform an act like a school shooting. Often people jump to a stereotypical conclusion because violence is frequently found in games and further media. Stereotyping is a subconscious act when a person places someone into their custom arrangement of how they act, speak, and look. (Ann) Can there be a another reason other than a stereotypical one? Can it be possible that violent media and a different style of music are not the true reason for a school shooting? Well yes, a school shooter can be much more complex mentally than you would think. School shooters can be categorized into three physiological profiles; however, school shootings can not be classified through stereotypical reasonings.…
Thousands of teens play violent video games. It is a very large industry in the United States. In 2008, over $11.7 billion was spent on video games and 10 of the top 20 bestselling video games in America involved violence. These violent video games are being blamed for bullying, violence towards women, and school shootings. The games teach children that it is acceptable to solve problems with violence. Violent video games are a large contributor to youth violence.…
Public service announcements are maybe a solution to the mass shootings that occur in our society, an example of a PSA would be anti-smoking smoking ads. Anti-smoking ads are aimed towards “rebellious” teens; teens who hate being told what to do and how to do it. The ads usually depict a teen having to always give up free time or spend their hard earned money which explains the consumption that smoking has over their lives. PSA’s should also focus on the kinds of individuals who commit these mass shootings, talking about and illustrating the consequences that comes with the horrible acts will most likely make a person think twice about carrying out a mass shooting. They could also explain the toll it takes on the victims families and/or anyone else who might be affected in a negative way.…
Violent shootings are becoming more and more popular in the United States. Last year there were 58,543 shooting incidents. There were 1,956 incidents where it was a self-defense case. There were also 2,552 home invasion cases and 2,201 of the shooting incidents were unintentional, which does make a whole lot of sense to me because I don’t know how you accidentally shoot somebody. However, 384 of these shooting incidents were classified as mass shooting incidents. That means there was a mass shooting everyday last year, which is a pretty scary thing to think about (Past Summary Ledgers).…
If you live in the United States, you are probably used to hearing about shootings happening somewhere in the country pretty frequently because of the poor gun control. The US is accountable for the most mass shootings in the world, but the government still decides to do nothing to help the situation at all. How many more children do parents need to bury, parents children have to say goodbye to, and role models do we have to lose before the government finally does something about it? The only answer to that question is, no one knows. The answer that so many around the country have been praying to have, and the answer that no one can give to them. The answer that, families of those that we have lost over the years and civilians that are scared…
Lately in the United States, there have been many concerns that mass killings may be linked to mental health. According to Harold Pollack, high-profile mass shootings are relatively rare, resulting on average in a dozen deaths a year. Pollack also states that mass shootings are quite difficult to prevent. “Yet, as we show, notions of mental illness that emerge in relation to mass shootings frequently reflect larger cultural stereotypes and anxieties about matters such as race/ethnicity, social class, and politics. These issues become obscured when mass shootings come to stand in for all gun crime, and when “mentally ill” ceases to be a medical designation and becomes a sign of violent threat.” (Am J Public Health. 2015;105:240–249. doi:10.2105/ AJPH.2014.302242). In both an Internet article and a journal, the information states that mental illnesses cause gun violence.…
For years people have blamed violent video games for violent behavior problems with white youth. In fact, many journalist compared young school mass shooters to how often they play a certain video game. In Karen Sternheimer's "Do Video Games Kill?” She discusses one game in particular, which is the video game “Doom”. “Doom” was a shooting video game “...released in 1993...”(214) and many politicians brought up “Doom” while discussing mass school shooters at the time. However these…
In 1990’s, video games evolve into virtual reality experience for young video game players. Most video games let the player become as a “first person shooter” who have the ability to shoot and kill their opponents in the game (Porter & Starcevic, 2007). According to the Harvard Mental Health (2010), adolescents who play video games for routinely have the potential to develop aggressive personalities. In 2008, Pew Research proves that 97% of young individuals play video games that contain violence that brings a concern to the public (Harvard Mental Health Letter, 2010). Various types of studies prove that adolescents who play video games routinely develop hostile behaviors and generate more crime.…