Are School Shootings a Consequence of Ignorance?

by Laura Mayes

More people have died and been injured in mass school shootings in the past 18 years then the collective total for the whole of the 20th century, but why the sudden increase? In Lionel Shriver’s award winning novel We Need to Talk About Kevin her antagonist, Kevin, exclaims that "to be really famous in this country, you've got to kill somebody." It’s hard to believe that this cold and, controversially, truthful statement is uttered from the mouth of a teenager. His honesty paints him as a sadistic character and when he murders over ten people it’s hard to see him as anything but a demon. But monsters have been used throughout the ages in literature to signal a threat to the established order and Kevin, similar in his tendencies to any other despicable fiend from fiction, offers a glimpse into the problems of today’s society and, perhaps, the probable causes of school shootings.

We live in a world where there are more conduits for communication than ever before. In fact, 71% of the world’s population has a social media account but in spite of this a survey conducted by the Harris Poll, on behalf of the American Osteopathic Association, revealed that nearly ¾ of the participants claim to experience loneliness. Also, worryingly, in most cases these feelings of isolation are experienced predominantly by young adults and teenagers; as a recent report by London’s King’s College has revealed, generation Z (the demographic cohort after the Millennials) is the loneliest yet. There are numerous reasons why this may be the case: an increase in pressure to conform, an increase in the usage of social media sites (where children are confronted by unrealistic body goals) but, also, a decrease in quality time spent with friends, families and colleagues’. The rise in the tragic number of school shootings has led to the stereotype of what a mass shooter is becoming socially acceptable: a loner with a rubbish homelife, dressed all in black, finally snaps one day and brings a gun to school. Yet it is paramount that we stress that this is hardly ever the case. Although, yes, in most cases it is white males who are the perpetrators of the crime it is also important that we acknowledge that there are no clear patterns between the socio-economic or cultural background of mass shooters.

So, whilst school shootings may be a consequence of our society's ignorance in accepting the dangers of modern life there is also the possibility that it is caused by a generation’s absence of understanding. The Oxford dictionary describes ignorance as a ‘lack of knowledge or information’ and the one factor that seems to be so easily blindsided is the issue of mental illness. Analysis of the factors Americans considered to be to blame for mass shootings showed 48 percent of people felt that it was the inability of the mental health system to recognize those who pose a danger to others was a significant factor. But this still this doesn’t acknowledge the fact that maybe the only real danger is that their need for help is being ignored. Whilst it would be an oversimplification to say that mental health issues are the cause of school shootings there is a mountain of evidence that proves that both (mental health issues and school shootings) have increased, at terrifying rates, in the past fifty years. And whilst the conclusion that all mass shooters are indeed mentally ill is in fact grossly false, it is still important that America recognises that sticking that label on all their issues is indeed misleading and damaging to those that seek help. Although there is still no valid conclusion as to the reasons why people commit heinous crimes, whether it’s to do with a biological cause or a change in their environment. The answer is perhaps still clear: America needs to smarten up and put in place gun control reforms - this I believe is the only solution to a problem that will not stop growing in frequency and violence.

So, regardless of the causes of school shootings it’s time to stop accepting them as a normality and start pressing for change. As DaShanne Stokes says ‘when a country with less than five percent of the world's population has nearly half of the world's privately owned guns and makes up nearly a third of the world's mass shootings, it's time to stop saying guns make us safer.”