School shootings have become more prevalent over the past few years in the United States. After the Columbine High School shooting that left 15 dead; another tragedy happened just 1,000 miles away six years later. This tragedy was soon to be known as the Red Lake Massacre that would later become one of the most deadly school shootings since the Columbine shooting. The shooting received major amounts of media coverage due to the findings that the tragedy was pre-planned, and the offender suffered from a lack social bonds. When I examined the findings from the Red Lake Massacre, I came to a conclusion that the offender lacked major social bonds in his life. Social bonds that included family attachment, community commitment, and even school involvement. It is hard for one to figure out an offender’s motive when he/or she is not present or alive to give explanations, but one can give explanations as to why the violent event may have occurred. In this paper, I will discuss in details the shooting of Red Lake Senior High School, discuss how Travis Hirschi’s social control theory explains the massacre, and the media and societal outlook of the tragedy. On Monday, March 21, 2005, a 16-year old boy by the name Jeffrey Weise, opened fire on his grandfather, grandfather’s girlfriend, Red Lake Senior High School students and staff, and eventually killed himself. Weise’s rampage began with the killing of his grandfather, Daryl Lussier, 52, and grandfather’s companion, Michelle Signa, 32, early Monday morning before heading to Red Lake Senior High School. Lussier was “a veteran sergeant with the Red Lake police department” (Maag 2005: 4), who had a “.40-cal. handgun and 12-gauge shotgun” (Magg 2005: 4) located within the home. From previous e... ... middle of paper ... ...n such an event like this occurs, it is very hard to figure out what to do next. As a society in general, after the massacure The Red Lake Massacre became national news due to the simple fact that it occurred in a small town and, Weise was a teenager who faced many issues growing up. Weise’s actions drew major media coverage because he was a teenager that had been diagnosed with depression and suffered with suicidal thoughts. After intensive investigation, and interviewing, media reporters found evidence that the shooting was pre-planned. Works Cited CNN. 2005. Newspaper. March 23, p. 1-3. Maag, Chris. 2005. “The Devil in Red Lake.” Time 165 (14):35-37. Weatherby, Georgie Ann., Sara Strachila and Bridget McMaho. 2010. “School Shootings: The Deadly Result of Teasing and Ostracism?” Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Research and Education 2 (1) :1-15.
Settled in 1845 Rosewood Florida was mainly used for lumber where it got its town name from a red color cut of cedar wood. Rosewood had both African American and caucasian settlers. In 1890 the pencil mill closed down because of Rosewood losing its population of trees. Most of the caucasian settlers moved to Sumner where they farmed citrus and cotton. In 1900 almost all of Rosewoods population was African Americans. And almost all of Sumner’s population was caucasian. The two towns were ok they basically just kind of stayed out of each other's way.
The media effects coupled with predisposers, precipitants and facilitators can have dire consequences on their own, but the last subject for mass murderer that demands attention is mental illness. In order to distinguish between the various kinds of mental illness and criminal culpability, this paper will analyze the criteria for ‘insanity’ developed by Cohen and Coffin. The victim is innocent and there is no reasonable way the perpetrator should consider them an enemy. The motive is unintelligible, delusional, unrealistic, and inappropriate for the nature of the murder. The method is ill-planned and often requires a situational weapon such as a blunt or sharp object. No attempt for secrecy, concealment, to avoid guilt, or to evade capture. And there should be queer behaviour illustrated before and after the fact such as depression, suicide attempts, etc. This point does not mean to convey that mass murderers and serial killers are insane by the same definition for they are usually calculating, patient, pursue the most prolific and in some cases sadistic methods, and realize their actions are wrong. However, it is important to recognize that they are clearly exploring sociological deviance and their mental instability is a contributing part. Teams of socio-scientists researching Jonesboro and Paducah cases found the shooters were: socially marginalized from bullying/teasing, had family problems, failed to attract attention from authority figures, had an availability of guns, and suffered from mental illnesses making them more vulnerable than other youths. Perhaps the media would not have such a far reaching and tight grip on people’s lives if it were not for the culture where children are reared. The weapons that are ...
In order to fully understand the circumstances surrounding the Kent State Massacre, it is important to back track several days and establish a timeline of events leading up to the massacre. On April 30, 1970, then-President Richard Nixon announced to the American public his decision to send US troops into the nation of Cambodia. The first protest against this decision was held the following day, May 1, on the campus of Kent State University. However, due to class schedules, the protest had to end prematurely, with the organizers agreeing to reconvene and continue their protest on May 4. That evening, things got out of control when several hundred people launched violent acts in the street surrounding Kent State. The police arrived within an hour to quell the violence; however, in that brief period, many fires were set and looting was rampant.
“I’m not a humanitarian, I’m a hell-raiser.” Mother Jones followed her own advice concerning a small town in Las Animas County. The Ludlow Massacre occurred on April 20th, 1994, in the tent town of Ludlow, Colorado, the intricate web of events that lead to the events that happened in Ludlow are a look in to the conditions that some of the minorities and immigrants had to live in, during the early twentieth century.
The Wounded Knee Massacre was final result of the growing problems between the Lakota Sioux and the American Government. After the Civil War tension began to escalate and ended on December 29, 1890. When the government took over most of the Lakota land and forced them into reservations the Indian way of life was destroyed and the large bison herds were hunted until they were endangered. The life in reservations was also difficult since many of the promises made by the government remained unfulfilled: “Promises to increase rations, made by U.S. officials in 1889 in order to secure signatures to reduce Sioux treaty lands by half, and to create six separate reservations, had proved false. Instead, rations had been cut precipitously, and the people were nearly starving.” (Robertson 1). Treaties which were signed to protect the reservations from outsiders were also ignored by the government. There were also other factors which led to the killing such as the Ghost Dance, Murder of Chief Sitting Bull, and the struggle with evolved into a massacre.
The United States will not soon forget the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut that came just two weeks before Christmas last year. This tragic event resulted in the death of twenty students and eight adults. Although the event shocked the nation, rampage shootings are nothing new. Over the years, many families have lost loved ones to these horrific events. As a result, these mass shootings such as the one that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary caught public attention leading to a push to find the cause of these events. Out of this research a variety of possible causes came to light consisting of arguments stating that high school bullying, availability of guns, mental illness, violent movies and video games are the cause of mass shootings. However, these researchers and debaters tend to ignore the role of massive media coverage in the increase of copycat shootings in the United States.
Langman, Peter F. “Grasping for Answers.” Why Kids Kill: Inside The Minds of School Shooters. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 15. Print.
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.
The Columbine Shootings were one of the greatest tragedies that the nineties faced; and changed the world that was once known. The fault for this tragedy falls on popular culture, moral climate, and the parents of the shooters; not the shooters themselves. Society has greatly affected the minds of the youth, and viewing violence on television, video games, and on the internet, has planted a negative seed of thought in their minds.
Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the violence. The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were commonplace. Also in this “home” guns were easily accessible to the child. Children growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the child’s young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma we face in this country. Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news reports and write a book entitled, “How to Slay Your Classmates”. This onslaught was ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless weeks. Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation blamed it on television’s violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun’s fault that a person killed another human being?
On the 29th o April, 1977 Captain Cook, commander of a British fleet, landed on the eastern shore of Australia, in an attempt to claim the land under the name of Britain. The land was to be claimed by Britain as a land where the British government could send convicts; in an attempt to ease the struggle in the over flowing prisons. Upon Cooks arrival, he was ordered to follow three rules of claiming a foreign land. They were;
As the world recovers from recent school shootings, people wondered why these events have occurred. They are focused on drug use, violent society, video games, bullying, and mental issues to try and explain an unexplainable event. The idea that a person would shoot others for little or no reason gave little relief to the survivors.
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.
A study was conducted to determine if there is a correlation between social rejection/isolation and school violence. Media commentators have suggested that school shootings within recent history were preceded by social rejection/isolation, but no survey research has examined this claim. Through the examination of fifteen school shootings between 1995 and 2001, it was determined that acute or chronic rejection (ostracism, bullying, and/or romantic rejection) were present in all but two of the case studies. To determine if these findings were accurate, a survey was created and conducted. Results of this survey indicated that social rejection/isolation is believed to to be one of the top causes of school
“People are so unaware...well, Ignorance is bliss I guess… that would explain my depression.” (Klebold, Dylan). With that sentence, I divulged myself into the most horrendous, sad journal I have ever read, hoping to gain some insight into a disturbed young man’s mind. On April 20th, 1999, Dylan Klebold accompanied his friend, Eric Harris, in one of the most publicized and shocking school shootings of the modern day--The Columbine Massacre. With their sawed-off shotguns and godlike dispositions, the boys exacted their revenge not only on their peers, but on themselves. As the nightmare collapsed, and thirteen people lay dead, the questions began. How could two boys so young commit this crime? What forced them to be this way? For the Klebold family, one question remained: How had Dylan become involved in one of the crimes of the century?