A Short Discussion of School Shootings

Why the recent school shootings? We've turned our backs on God, working tirelessly to remove signs of faith from daily lives, deadened the value of life with the Culture of Death, attacked empathy with invasive technology, and refused to take any degree of responsibility for our family's personal safety... Is it any wonder these shootings are happening more regularly? 

In my opinion, we're witnessing a perfect storm of a variety of societal factors: loss of sacredness of life (Culture of Death), loss of spiritual dimension to lives, loss of empathy attributed to both technology and media (glorification of violence), fatherlessness, and even a faltering capacity for language. You notice people can't debate like they used to. Inability to effectively articulate feelings may heighten elements of aggression. Look at the 1950s and ask yourself whether, or not, it was easier or more difficult to get one's hands on a gun. In general, I think most would agree that it was easier. If liberal logic were accurate or consistent, then we'd expect to see a decrease in gun violence as access has been more and restricted; that's clearly not the case.  Here's what a relative remembers about guns in the 1950s and 1960s.

I remember well the 1950's. We had a lot of bullying in & after school, but none of this violence. And yes, I remember how easy it was for kids to access guns through the 1960's. Dad had shotguns & .22 rifle propped in a corner of the basement, with ammo in the hall closet. I had a .22 rifle & ammo in my room. But honestly it never even occurred to me to ever shoot another person, or even point a gun at anyone. We played cowboys & Indians when I was a kid...running all over the neighborhood with cap pistols, "shooting" each other. We called it "guns," by the way, never cowboys & Indians. "Hey Mom, we're going out to play guns. Be back by 6:00 for dinner." I grew up on TV shows that depicted violence, & John Wayne movies, and I liked going out to a deserted place to shoot grasshoppers with a .22. Taking my bike down to the river in junior high...I carried my .22 rifle over the handlebars of my bike, and you recall how long a ride that was. No one bothered me. My first 2 rifles I bought I got at Montgomery Wards downtown, bought them at age 16 or so, no questions asked. I bought a Ruger .357 Magnum revolver at age 17... Dad had to go down with me, since I was under 21, but it was mine & he never blinked at my having a magnum revolver at that age. Dad gave Don a .22 revolver for Christmas when he was about 17, and Don and I shot it so much out at Terrace Heights we practically wore it out. Dad never gave a thought to giving him that, or us going out unsupervised to shoot it. I recall that until the 1968 Gun Control Act (following the murders of Jack Kennedy & Martin Luther King) I could have bought rifles mail-order from numerous magazines. Hundreds of different rifles, in dozens of outdoor magazines. Send a check, get a rifle in the mail. But no, absolutely no, mass shooting violence. So the availability of guns is absolutely not connected to today's mass shootings. Plus, as the number of guns in America has exponentially grown in the past 30 years, and it most certainly has, the rate of violence has steadily & commensurately decreased to the lowest in recent memory (& not coincidentally, prison populations have soared.) More violent people are in prison. This data is easily accessed in the FBI's website.

The news media also bears a great deal of blame here.  Years ago, I wrote a newspaper editor to suggest they stop printing the names of school shooters.  He replied that, while he understood my concerns, there was too great a public desire and right to know the details.  Well, it's those details that are partly responsible for the proliferation of copycat school shootings.  The Roseburg, Oregon shooter reportedly said as much in his sick online ramblings.  The Douglas County Sheriff certainly understood this when he refused to name the Roseburg shooter.  A friend and retired educator of incarcerated youngsters commented the following.

They seemed to have no ability to foresee their future and had fantasies about either doing something big or doing something bad that would get them into the newspapers. Wanting to find some sense of "self-worth" in violence that would get them noticed was prominent. Those who had committed murder did not seem to understand death. Suicide is often the expected outcome or to be shot by the police. 

Another dimension of my thinking on this topic is the fact that I'm a fellow who can say that I've saved lives both by use of a weapon as well as the use of emergency medical knowledge--CPR. That reminds me that the most important thing in this debate is to avoid becoming either kind of bystander--e.g. one who fails to participate in the debate in a constructive way and one who is shot. (Of course, we have less control over the latter, but I suggest there is a responsibility for our own protection that many ignore.)

Three short-term suggestions for readers' consideration.  First, increase plainclothes police in schools.  They should be patrolling schools on a random, yet thorough, basis.  Second, as Rob Myers suggested, engage more with those on the margins of society, the outsiders.  Teach your children to be kind and to treat others with respect and love.  Third...take your family to church and limit the influence of the internet and technology within your family.

I'll conclude with some final thoughts from the same relative quoted earlier in this post. (In early 2016, or so, watch for a short story pertaining to this serious cultural issue.)

Because this particular ugly phenomenon is with us for now, but aside from it, there are massive numbers (more than ever) of peaceful people who walk among us armed, with a concealed pistol license, who never hurt anyone. Half a million CPL holders in WA State alone. These people see themselves as sheepdogs, keeping an eye on the herd, watching for the occasional wolf, expecting that if forced to they'll act to save innocent life. I can personally attest to the fact that hundreds of women are getting CPL's, not necessarily running out to buy a gun, but getting emotionally ready for the day when they may feel compelled to become a sheepdog. Every state now has, for the first time since the 1930 Gun Control Act, a CPL system, so there are more citizens going about armed than at any time in almost a hundred years, yet violence continues to drop, relentlessly, every year. In every way except mass killings. Is the next thing we face going to be suicide bombings?

Shared Online Dialogue (from September 2024)

(I begin.)

As a licensed concealed carry guy, I personally wouldn’t be upset with the banning of semi-automatic weapons such as AR-15. The counter argument is the slippery slope regarding 2nd Amendment rights, but…we have to be willing to lose some perhaps. It’s still worth noting, though, that half a century (or less) ago firearms were more accessible than they are today to young people. My father remembers rifles in vehicles parked at schools. For rural families in particular, they were part of the fabric of life. And, of course, the shootings did not happen. It’s accessibility to higher powered weapons combined with something much more dangerous…a loss for the respect of life and empathy for others.

(Other)

I think the article entirely misses the actual causes School shootings. There's been quite a lot of research about this, and most importantly we see all of the factors that are mentioned in the article present in other places and no school shootings. The primary drivers of school shootings are frankly the notoriety around school shootings and the sensationalism with which they are covered, along with easy access to firearms. That's the whole reason for it. After columbine, it's pretty simply a Snowball Effect. Marginalized and disenfranchised children who have access to Firearms see it as a way to make a mark on society and draw attention to themselves and their own sense of disconnection from society. This is not uncommon in youth overall, but the difference is that they have easy access to firearms and the sensationalism around them increases the attention that's brought to bear.
It is actually arguable that our level of empathy for one another has increased overall within the society up until the last approximately 8 years. There has been General Trend toward the acceptance of people and moving away from othering them on the basis of various group identities. Again, until very recent times.

(Me)

I talked to a news editor about that once, asking if they couldn’t see the affect their stories were having, but there seemed little inclination to reduce the shooters’ publicity and fame. I think that’s likely an important part of it. Of course, media did exist prior to the shootings…so saying it’s primary mover seems to perhaps be putting the cart a tad before the tired horse. Is social media alone the primary culprit? Well, I think we could agree news combined with social media can be darn powerful force to contend with. If kids had better informed sense of moral conscience, empathy, and introduction to a faith system besides secular humanism, they’d be better able to contend with these issues, though. It still boils down to lost hearts.

(Other)

Media existed but the *way* it was covered since Columbine is the trick. And there was basically one school shooting before Columbine and that was UT and was college, not high school. It hasn't blossomed elsewhere from their school shootings because of the lack of guns. So it's media + guns.
You can minimize the media coverage to that locality but the politicians, if no one else, will make a huge issue of it. Both sides.
Leaves us with guns. We have to reduce them. We have to.
"If kids had better informed sense of moral conscience, empathy, and introduction to a faith system besides secular humanism, they’d be better able to contend with these issues, though."
Again, other nations are even more secular, less religious, have less 'reverence for human life', more secular humanism...and *do not have this problem*.

It's an interesting discussion.  It seems obvious to me that you have to have some degree of availability + secular humanism, etc, so I don't really think the concluding arguments are that convincing.  Still, it's always good to have a conversation about difficult topics like this rather than throwing stones.