Austin Wiest
School Shootings
Most people when hearing the words “school shooting” they immediately think of Columbine High School, where in 1999 two boys attending that high school shot, and killed thirteen then committed suicide. Or perhaps they may envision Virginia tech, where in 2007 a senior attending the school named Seung-hui Cho murdered 32 and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks. School shootings are not a new phenomenon, in fact, they’ve been happening since as far back as 1850. If something that has been taking innocent lives for over 160 years and is constantly repeating, then why have there been no extreme preventative measures? Because people are unpredictable. Many try to connect similarities of the attackers to form a more concrete solution into preventing shootings from ever happening. Like unusual behavior, or children that are considered outcasts, kids under psychiatric care, and under medication. These things may be in common with many shooter of the past and present but they are also in common among hundreds of thousands of people. People that you walk by day to day and even have been acquainted with. The first step in solving this issue is to disband the many myths and stereotypes that revolve around school shooters. And that is that school shooter all share common traits. It is very easy to connect similarities between attackers in the past however it’s much broader than that. Children or teenagers who attack can be of any age, ethnicity, race, gender, family situation, level of intelligence, and so forth. We need to begin by not alienating these people from our society because anyone apart of it can commit such an act, and are capable of anything. If you put all your focus into one area you will fall short in others. This principle applies that same to investigating possible violent teenagers or children. Others may see that individual as an example to getting attention and will follow their footsteps. Violence is like a plague it can spread as long as there is someone to spread it. There must be a concrete solution that does not require investigating conspicuous students which sadly has become the only viable solution. Relying on observation is no means to making parents and students feel safe in school anymore. Problems are caused by a source, and to solve that problem you must begin by eliminating that source. Statistics taken by the National Association of school psychologists (NASP) state that in 2010, there were 2,711 infant, child, and teen deaths by firearms in the US alone. On average there were seven such fatalities daily and 52 weekly. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) also, In relation to weapons at home and in school, states that in 2011, 5% of high school students carried a gun on school property, and 7% were either threatened or injured by a weapon on school property. The CDC furthermore had found that 16.6% of students had carried a weapon (e.g., a gun, knife, or club). This proves it is very easy to get your hands on any type of weapon including firearms regardless of age. There is a profuse number of loopholes that prevent weapon manufacturers from trying to avoid so easily selling firearms. One of them would be the initial background check required for legally purchasing a firearm. For example, the same man I named earlier responsible for the Virginia tech shooting, Seung-hui Cho, passed a gun background check and was permitted to purchase two firearms that he had used to kill those 32 students. Emily Friedman, from Abc News, states that Cho’s mental health records consisted of two phone calls and one in-person consultation with mental health professionals from the Cook Counseling Center. The in-person consultation followed Cho’s release from the psychiatric ward at Carilion St. Albans Hospital on Dec. 14, 2005. Documents say later that Cho had been admitted to overnight care at the hospital after his roommate reported Cho was going to commit suicide. And of the two