School Shootings, Video Games & Bullying

In response to the continuing problem of mass shootings, especially in schools and performed by students, I want to address the root issues, as well as the question of firearms, because I feel that the media is focusing far too much on the wrong thing and that will not help us to deal with the problem effectively.

My condolences to all the families who have suffered.

My apologies to those who feel that I am brushing aside the issue of gun abuse. I am trying to get at the root issues of the problem because only then can the problem be gotten rid of through correct actions. Focusing on the end results is like putting a small bandage on a severed carotid artery.

This is the short version (~5 minutes)

and this is the long version (~17 minutes)

Note: School shootings between individuals (teachers and students, students and students, parents and teachers, etc.) has been a national problem since the 1700s but it was only in the late 1800s that shootings involving multiple students attacking or being attacked were first noted. Mass shootings by a student or students were recorded as far back as 1966 (University of Texas-Austin, by 25-year-old engineering student Charles Whitman, who also killed his mother and his wife), and was (somewhat) emulated by 18-yo Bob Smith a month later at Rose-Mar College of Beauty, 1971 Larry Harmon at Gonzaga University, and 1976 Charles Allaway at California State University, Fullerton.

But the first Columbine-style shootings by teens was performed in 1974 by Anthony Barbaro, followed by James Briggs in 1975.

Also of note were mass shootings by school/national guard : 1968 South Carolina State University (racial segregation protest), 1970 Kent State (anti-war protest), 1970 Jackson State (anti-war protest).

As a special note in light of the current movement to arm teachers, many of the shootings over the past 200+ years were committed by armed teachers.

1. Correlation does not prove causation. I am not saying that shooters don't feel more comfortable with the idea of shooting in a school where no one is armed; I AM saying that to state or imply that gun-free zones are responsible for the shootings is just lame duck logic.
2. To call gun-free zones "magnets" ignores the fact that most of these "violent and crazy" people are students of those schools, or live nearby. You don't see people from other cities and states traveling to these zones to shoot at people.
3. Many students and teachers used to bring guns to school. I am unaware of when this stopped, but guns were used by parents, teachers and students to kill each other, usually on school grounds. There's a very long list of such attacks and murders. The significant different is that the shootings were almost always one-on-one/two.
4. School shootings have been occurring since the 1700s, but situations where students went in and started shooting lots of students and teachers only started occurring in the 1960s.
5. Gun control can help to an extent, but the shootings' real causes need to be addressed if we want it to taper off. In the decades since I was in high school, it seems like most school districts are doing little to nothing to address the root causes, and they can't do it alone - the issues involve the home and community, too.
6. One change in recent decades is the prevalence and popularity of highly realistic video games where people are scored on their ability to wreak havoc and murder. When I was young, video games had poor graphics and audio, so even if you were killing "humans" they looked like cartoons at best - blobs of color at worst. Now, kids are foolishly allowed from a young age by parents to play VERY violent games that reward them for murder, thus implicitly saying, "it's okay to shoot people," as well as teaching them how.

Take a child who is suffering abuse at home, in the community and/or at school, teach him that killing is okay through video games and violent films, and some kids will naturally follow through.

As long as the huge problems of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as well as substance abuse and poverty, at home, in the community and at school continue to remain unaddressed, the nation is going to see more and more shootings.

The knee-jerk reaction to firearms isn't going to solve the problem. Yes, assault rifles, and automatics should be banned, and the gun show loophole should be closed because people calling themselves private sellers are actually avoiding the law and, often, selling to people they should not sell to (but don't care) but if the US wants to follow in Australia's footsteps, it's going to take a great deal of unity, which will never happen as long as parties with a vested interest in weapons continue to stir up the pot.

Watch the videos to see just how easy it is to buy guns without a background check.

Focus on the real problems, not the physical manifestations of them, such as mass shootings. People do these things for reason, and marginalizing shooters as "crazies" and "terrorists" is not going to help.

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