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School Shootings: an Analysis

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School Shootings: an Analysis
On August 1st, 1966, Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the observation deck at The University of Texas in Austin. He was armed, and during a rampage which lasted 96 minutes, he killed 16 people and left 31 wounded. (Kingsbury.) Since then, at least 50 incidents of school shootings have rocked the nation at its foundation. ("Timeline.") Not all were so destructive at their ends as that of Charles Whitman. Some were more so. All have one thing in common: they have forever changed the face of the nation as we thought we knew it. Who were these shooters? What caused them to massacre their respective schools? What had happened to them in their lives to cause them to be so distraught – to be perceived as mentally unstable? How is our consistently ignorant response as a nation only hindering attempts to fix what we perceive to be the problem? What can we do to change this frightening national trend towards violence? This essay will dissect these questions, subtly and yet expressly, using the example freshest in the collective mind of America as a basis to elucidate points and calculate solutions. The most recent of these tragedies occurred on April 16 of this year, 2007. At approximately 7:15 AM on that date, police received a 911 call regarding shots fired in West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory on the campus of Virginia Tech University, in Blacksburg, VA. Upon investigation, they discovered that two people had been shot and killed, one male and one female, in their dormitory room. ("Virginia Tech.") Over approximately the next two and a half hours, school police and other investigators would assess the situation and alert students of what was happening via e-mail and other methods of electronic communications. Students were urged to remain where they were and stay away from their windows, and were advised that a gunman was "loose on campus." Then, at approximately 9:45 AM, police received a second 911 call alerting them to a second shooting at Norris Hall, on


Cited: Aigner-Trewory, Adam. "The Background Check Debate." The Daily Nightly. April 23, 2007 "Cho Seung-Hui." Who2 Biography. www.answers.com . May 28, 2007. Kingsbury, Alex www.usnews.com . May 28, 2007. 2006. www.indystar.com . May 28, 2007. "Virginia Tech shootings timeline." Massacre at Virginia Tech www.cnn.com . May 28, 2007.
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