Imagine bracing under a desk not knowing if someone will break into your classroom and start firing rounds. On April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people in Columbine High School. They planned the attack for months but showed signs of something wrong for years. They started their attack but placing bombs inside the school hoping they would detonate sending a flurry of students out of the school, this did not work making them start their rampage inside the school (“Columbine Tragedy” 1.) In April of 2007, Seung-Hui Cho shot 32 people around the campus of Virginia Tech. He started his attack near his dorm killing 2 students, then moved on to a hall where classes had already started ("Students Killed in Virginia Tech” 1.) In the most recent tragedy, Adam Lanza shot 20 first graders and staff members on December 14, 2012. He killed his own mother before breaking into the school and killing the first people he saw. He then moved on to a pair of first grade classrooms and 20 …show more content…
At the time of the shooting classes had already begun so there were not many students roaming around. April, 2007 Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University. At 7:15 am Cho shot and killed 2 students in a dormitory. Then,2 and a half an hour later, Cho moved on to a classroom building and shot 31 students before taking his own life. The police response to Virginia Tech was very slow compared to other shootings. The first campus police call reporting a shooting had been at 7:15 am, However the students were not alerted until 9:26 am. The news of the shooting was released to the public several hours after the shooting and had continual coverage all day. After Cho shot two students in a dormitory, he sent a confession video to fox news at 9:01. The video contains an 1800-word confession and motive on why he committed those terrible acts ("Students Killed in Virginia Tech”
Shootings at Kent State University What happened at Kent State University? This is a question that many Americans were asking following the crisis on the Kent campus. In the days preceding May 4, 1970, protests, disruption, and violence erupted on the university grounds. These acts were the students’ reaction to President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia.
On May 4, 1970, the shooting on the Kent State campus took place. The National guard shooting of the students at Kent State University occurred as a result of the students protesting the bombing of Cambodia, which caused the war to expand. The U.S president Nixon sent troops into Cambodia after he promised to withdraw them from Vietnam. On April 30, 1970, when Nixon gave a speech announcing the invasion of Cambodia, anti-war factions rose up across the United States. The speech caused a significant reaction from the American college student population and led into great controversy and heated debates.On May 2, 1970, several unknown students burnt down the ROTC building, which directly caused the military actions they were so vehemently protesting against. Also, more than a thousand protesters gathered
Cho’s first victim was Emily J. Hilscher who was in her room with her roommate at the time. Cho shot her and then shot the RA that tried to come help. It was said that Cho and Emily had a romantic relationship that went south but no proof of this was found. After shooting them both Cho quickly fled the scene back to his dorm room in Harper hall. The campus was not evacuated after the first shooting. Cho was next seen by the duck pond in different clothes and then by the post office to mail NBC news a package about his massacre. This package was later found to contain videos, photos, and a manifesto explaining why he “had” to do it. He blamed the rich and spoiled kids that treated him poorly at the
The history of school shootings has shown an increase in mass school shooting. The very first known school shooting in the United States occurred on July 26, 1764 in present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania. As part of the Pontiac's Rebellion, four Lenape Native Americans entered the school house and started shooting, killing the schoolmaster Enoch Brown and about nine students. Only two students survived the massacre (“History”). Since the 1700s the United States society has changed in many ways. Schools have become more than just one room school houses and each grade has its own teacher. Furthermore, the problem of school shootings has not decreased but rather increased over the years. On the one hand, reports from the Centers for Disease Control showed that in general school violence decreased from 1992 to 200...
In its societal context, the Columbine school shootings are not an obvious part of a discernible sociological pattern. We know that approximately 4,500 youngsters are killed every year in intentional shootings, with thirty per cent of that number probable suicides. That's almost 13 a day, the same number as were killed in Littleton (The Washington Post, April 25, 1999). The data on school shootings, according to the Center for Communicable Diseases, indicate that only about 28 per cent actually occurred inside the school and that one-third of the victims were not...
In December 2014 an elementary school was attacked by an armed gunman. The shooter’s name was Adam Lanza. He killed twenty first graders an...
It is a sad time in American history when one can easily recount recent school shootings in their own area. This ease stems from a sharp increase in the number of firearms brought into elementary and middle schools across the country, with an intense focus on the issue beginning after the shooting of 20 children from Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Most school shooters are male, white, and often upper middle class. They are also more, often than not, under some type of mental stress that is causing them to create this type of violence in our communities. In fact, many school shooters are never suspected of doing any harm to their peers and teachers until it is much too late.
There have been many horror stories in the news about mass shootings at schools. The public, and even the president of the United States, is asking if anything can be done to prevent these tragedies. There are many theories on why students kill their peers at schools; these range from increased violence in video games and movies to bullying troubles at school. Almost always, the perpetrator suffers from some form of mental illness (Khadaroo). Because of this, motives for these crimes are extremely difficult to discern. Although the theories for the causes of this dilemma are tenuous at best, the effects are very perceptible. Can anything be done to prevent these massacres? School shootings are a complex problem that cannot always be prevented, but there are a number of actions we can take to reduce the frequency and extent of the damage caused. These actions include placing more restrictions on firearms, creating detection programs for shooters, hiring more counselors for unstable students, and placing guards or police in schools. School shootings are a serious problem, and a solution is needed in order to prevent these calamities.
Active shooters and terrorist attacks are happening more frequently not only in our nation, but across the globe. According to an FBI study released in 2014, in their website, the average of incidents that happened between 2007-2013 was 16.4 annually compared to the average numbers of incidents from 2000 to 2006 which were 6.4 annually. Active shooters can happen anywhere and at any given time such as at schools, churches, restaurants, etc. 70% of the time most active shooters happen in businesses or educational buildings. The objective of most active shooters is vengeance. The shooters want specific people to pay for any physical or emotional damages caused to them, but to make their point clear they organize mass murders. For example, the
On April 16th, 2007 Cho had created one of the most deadly school shootings in America. ( "Virginia Tech Shootings Fast Facts." CNN.) It was unfathomable to think that in the close future, America would encounter many more detrimental school shootings. This is including the shooting of elementary students in Newtown, CT where Adam Lanza had shot and killed 27 children and faculty. Lanza had been known to have significant health issues that had kept him from living a normal life. (Sanchez, Ray, Chelsea J. Carter in Atlanta, Yon Pomrenze in New York, and The CNN New York Bureau Staff. ) Both of these shooters had killed themselves shortly after their attacks. School violence has become a nation-wide issue.
School shootings have altered American history greatly over the past two decades. From 1997 to 2007, there have been more than 40 school shootings, resulting in over 70 deaths and many more injuries. School shoot-outs have been increasing in number dramatically in the past 20 years. There are no boundaries as to how old the child would be, or how many people they may kill or injure. At Mount Morris Township, Michigan, on February 29th, 2000, there was a 6 year old boy who shot and killed another 6 year old girl at the Buell Elementary School with a .32 caliber pistol. And although many shootings have occurred at High Schools or Middle Schools, having more guns on those campuses would not be a good environment for children to grow up in. However, on a college campus, the pupils attending are not children anymore; the age range is from 17 to mid 20’s. Therefore they understand the consequences associated to the use of weapons and have gained more maturity. In April 16th, 2007, at Blacksburg, Virginia, there was a shooting rampage enacted by Sung-Hui Cho (23 years, from Centreville, VA) who fired over 170 rounds, killing 32 victims, before taking his own life at the Virginia Tech campus. Colleges and Universities would be a much safer place, for student and teacher, if guns were permitted on campus for self-defense purposes.
The Virginia Tech shooting, also known as the Virginia Tech massacre, was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at Virginia Tech, shot and killed thirty-two people and wounded seventeen others in two separate attacks, about two hours apart, before committing suicide. Another six people were injured trying to escape from the classroom windows. The attack is the deadliest school shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history and one of the deadliest by one single gunman worldwide. The attacks received international media coverage and speculation. It created an intense debate about gun violence, gun laws, gaps in the U.S. system for treating mental health issues, the shooter’s state of mind, the responsibility of college administrations, privacy laws, journalism ethics, and other issues
How safe do you feel when you attend school everyday? Many students and faculty don’t really think too much about school being a dangerous place; however, after a couple of school shootings had taken place their minds and thoughts may have changed completely. On April 16, 2007, in the town of Blacksburg Virginia, a college student who attended Virginia Tech, opened gunfire to his fellow classmates. This shooting has been considered to be the biggest massacre in all of American history. There are many things to be discussed in this major tragedy. Some of them include the events leading up to the shooting, the timeline that the shootings occurred, the causes, and the significance in this particular shooting. The Virginia Tech is only one of the several examples of the horrible behavior and violence in our school systems today.
The United States is one of the only countries with the continuing problem of mass murder. 58 people lost their lives and more than 50 were injured when a man opened fire at an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas on October 1st, 2017 (Hanley 6). This is one of countless massacres that have occurred in the United States. It is no surprise when one turns the TV on in the morning and a “News Flash” story pops up on the latest shooting. Gregory Kate of USA Today states that there has been greater than 200 events of mass murder in the past 10 years. It is no secret that guns are an easily accessible weapon in the United States, and in numerous other countries that is not the case. Most people can obtain a firearm with a simple, online background check on a computer. Within minutes the check is completed. Kate states the only people to be declined would be: "felons, fugitives, drug addicts, the mentally ill, illegal immigrants, some legal immigrants, people
(2016), noted that the police were notified of shots being fired around 7:15 am in the Ambler Johnston Hall, which housed almost 900 students and that there, were at least two individuals hurt. Then the shooting stops as the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, takes time out to mail his videos and ramblings to NBC News in New York City. It would be during this lull in the shootings that the campus police and local police would believe that the earlier shootings were an isolated event. At 9:26 am the school sends out a mass email message about the shooting that took place earlier that morning on campus however a mere 19 minutes later a second round of shooting begins in classrooms in Norris Hall where 32 lives are taken and five minutes later a second email is sent notifying individuals of the second shooting. At 10:43 am students have been notified by email, text and word of mouth that classes are canceled, there were two separate shooting locations on campus and that they have a person in custody for the shootings which turns out to be a senior at the school who is a native South Korean who has become a US resident in 1992. Cho would later die from self-inflicted gunshot wounds and would become the 33rd person in this massacre to lose their