School Shootings

School Shootings and Gun Control: Why We Need to Change Throughout the years, mass school shootings have become a more prevalent issue in America. But why are they occurring more often? To discover the perpetrator’s main goals and why these murders are becoming more common, it is first necessary to look at why schools are targeted. Schools are often made targets because they are largely populated institutions full of innocent children, teachers, and coaches. The shooter wants to inflict harm and pain to not only the victims, but parents, friends, family, and the nation as a whole. They intend to make others feel unsafe. The most effective way for them to accomplish this sinister goal is within a place that parents expect their children

Reports show that up to 60% of shooters suffer from symptoms of anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, or other disorders. When people have mental illnesses, they sometimes are simply not in their right mind and these illnesses are frequently left untreated. Some often feel as though there is no hope for themselves and that they are leading miserable lives. Their minds can be full of negative thoughts and they could others to feel the same hurt and pain that they’re feeling. Although mental illness is a common and important factor as to why mass shootings occur, it is never the singular reason; disorders do not correlate to massacres. Mass shooters are complex beings and more reasons factor into it as

This mistreatment causes one to lash out on their peers because they felt ostracized in school and want revenge. Records show that 71% of shooters had been bullied, either in the past or in the present. The rejection and hurt often weighs down on them. In an article titled Aggression and Violent Behavior, author Donald Dutton claims, “They become and remain fixated and obsessed with rejection by what they see as an elite in-group whom they see as having unfairly achieved success. Instead of transcending the rejection, they formulate plans to annihilate the transgressors, which they justify as vengeance for the transgressions made against them,” (Dutton). In the moment, this act of violence allows the shooter to finally have power where they initially had none. If the perpetrator had connections to the school, this is likely the main cause of the