The Science of Conspiracy Theories

School Shooting Controversy

School Shooting Controversy

I wrote this in response to the latest egregious shooting at a Florida school. I consider it a controversy in respect to the methods that could be used to prevent these attacks. My first thought was how an ex-student could get inside this school with an AR-15 and ammunition.

First of all I would like to offer my condolences to all of the families involved in this latest tragedy. This was a horrendous tragedy and a particularly evil crime. I can't imagine what the parents of the victims must be going through. I grieve for their losses, and I pray that they can survive this evilness and seek solace in faith.

I believe that this incident and most previous ones are the result of The Columbine incident in 1999. I was so wrong! It turns out that school shootings go back to the Colonial times and have occurred in all of the years and decades since. I had no idea that gun violence was that well established in the United States. Again, I was so wrong. School shootings have occurred in many countries, including Canada, Mexico and many European countries as well as Asia and Africa. Obviously, the United States has suffered the lion's share of these shootings. The only conclusion I can come to is that the gun is the preferred weapon for mass killings, so it makes sense that this has been the preferred method for murder.
The Columbine incident is thought to be the modern birth of the planned mass school shootings and that many of these crimes since are based on that fateful event. It is a fact that the frequency of these school shooting events has risen since the 1990's, and certainly the incidents have been planned rather than being spontaneous, which is the case of most shootings previous to the 1990's. These latest shootings could be labeled as domestic terrorism.

What are the reasons for a child or teenager to want to kill their fellow students and teachers?

Psychologists and criminal experts have sited a number of reasons, including bullying, psychiatric drugs, notoriety, perceived injustice, and mental illness. In some cases, the motive has not been ascertained because the perpetrators were killed. Many of them appeared to be suicidal.

This brings up what methods could be applied to prevent these school shootings. That's where it gets dicey because there is no agreement on any of the ideas.

The principle countermeasures include: arming teachers, more stringent gun laws, restricted entry points, better alerting systems, and psychological counseling.

More stringent gun laws always comes out of any major shooting incident, but then it falls victim to political gridlock. The NRA has a lot to do with this option being taken off the table.

Restricted entry points have been a reasonable suggestion, and some schools have tried this. However, installing checkpoints at entrances would be costly, and with the restricted budgets many school systems face, would be improbable. I believe this is sad because in the latest incident a student that had been expelled was able to enter the school with an AR-15 and ammunition. This is ridiculous.

I saw a student survivor of the Florida incident saying that the system failed them. I agree with that assessment. Not only has the school system failed us, but the government itself. In my day, the idea of someone coming in a school with a gun and killing students and teachers would have been considered fiction. When a student wanted revenge it was usually in the form of a fistfight behind the bleachers out of sight. No one carried a gun or knife to school.
Alert systems have been installed in many schools but are not always effective against a planned attack, which seems to be the trend these days. Locking down a school is not as easy at it seems, especially if it's a large school. What would be needed are Panic rooms in most classrooms, but that solution would be very expensive.

Supposedly, the perpetrator of the Florida-school-shooting set off the fire alarm, which caused students to be rushed out of classes right into his sight. Normally, school doors are locked, but in this case they would be opened to allow students to exit. This shows that the murderer knew what he had to do to increase the kill rate. It's also obvious from his social media postings and other students' testimony that this murderer was a troubled person. There is also a possibility that the FBI knew about him and investigated without any action being taken.

Psychological counseling for troubled students has been tried previously but has met limited success. There are also privacy issues associated with any psychological intervention program. If government officials could get psychological data pertaining to possible crimes the incentive for those suffering mental problems to obtain help would be stymied.
Arming teachers has also been suggested but has been met with mixed approval. Any plan to arm teachers would involve having them trained for combat shooting and subjecting them to psychological testing. Some people think this would result in more problems than it's worth. Carrying firearms has the risk of inciting violence. There is also the issue of using ricochet-resistant ammunition. Then, there is the variance in carry-laws. Some teachers favor this idea, but there are many more who do not. The only thing that would be a plus is that this would not cost taxpayers.

One idea that could be employed is the more stringent firearm safety in the homes. Preventing children from obtaining guns would go a long way in preventing spontaneous shooting incidents. However, this would involve passing laws to force people keep firearms under lock. It's not certain how effective this would be.

My take on these school shootings is that many of them are the result of bullying. A recent shooting incident near me was when T. J. Lane, a 17 year old student, walked into a cafeteria on the morning of February 27, 2012 and killed three students and wounded three others. He was convicted and is serving time. It was never revealed why he did it, but the assassination-style killing suggests bullying to be the reason. I'm sure that some are the result of copycat or notoriety motivations, but I believe that bullying is principle reason for most of them. Obviously, this subject would require several books, some of which have already been written. My reason for posting this is mostly frustration.

Thanks for reading.