Video Game Violence Sparks Real World Controversy A loud crack echoes through a school hallway and what seemed to be a peaceful day of education, turn into a lesson in terror and fear. For years, school related violence has always been on the table for debate. Of all the topics that come up, the one that strikes fear and panic into the hearts of many is a school shooting. When one occurs, people are in a frenzy to figure out all the information as quickly as they can. As a result, many fingers get pointed in all sorts of directions. The number one culprit for these school shootings is video games specifically the violent games. Arguments from concerned parents, state that if kids were exposed to such violence that the schools would not be as bad as they are. Is this really the case? This is but a piece in the puzzle, to fully understand the issue one must look at the common motivations of the shooters, school shootings that have occurred, the video games that are brought up, and what parents can do to help. The first piece of information that reporters scramble to find out is the motivation of the shooter. So, what drives an average student to become a cold blooded killer? One of the most common is if the person is dealing with a bully. Some schools do not know how to effectively deal with school bullying, and when problem is not resolved the student might think the only way towards freedom is take matters into their own hands. Another motive is poor performance in school. When a student is not doing well in school, it can lead the student to become desperate to succeed at any cost. Unfortunately, a motivation of a shooter can be that they are a social outcast. These are the people that have difficulty expressing ... ... middle of paper ... ...9 Apr. 2007. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. . A young man who attended Virginia Tech shot two people, because they were bullying him. Feeling guilty he creates a confession tape and sends it. In the tape he says that he didn't have to do this but has was forced to. He also states that he gave his bullies a chance to back off, and when they didn't he snapped. This is quite the interesting video, the amount of plan on the killer part is really convoluted. This video is just a glimpse in to the mind of a killer. The pictures included with the video are an attempt to show the world his transformation from normal guy to cold blooded killer. Wisconsin School Gunman Samuel Hengel Dies After Shooting Self. ABC News. ABC, 20 Nov. 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. .
Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, Adam Lanza, Steven Phillip Kazmierczak, and Seung-Hui Cho all have a few things in common, they are all school shooters that have killed and injured a combined total of 149 human beings and are or were believed to be avid violent video game players, who also committed suicide immediately after carrying out their attacks. To the public, school shooters seem to share a direct connection to playing violent video games and that playing them leads to violent behavior. Violent videogames have become a highlight in the media and national debate for this very reason but, there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of a causative connection between participants of violent videogames manifesting violent behaviors. The media provides biased information that misleads citizens into believing that said link is well established and accepted. I argue that parents should make responsible and well informed decisions in regards to their child’s videogame activities in spite of the lack of scientific research.
One of the most obvious characteristic of a school shooter would be parental neglect. This neglect was evident in both the Columbine shooters as well as fictional character, Peter Houghton. If Dylan and Eric’s parents took interest in their sons, they would have recognized the boys’ obvious dysfunctional thinking. Written on the front of Harris’s journal was, “I hate the fucking world.” (Rosenburg). He continued to write that he hates racists, martial arts experts, and people who brag about their cars. Through out the following pages, he continued to state what else he hates, including Star Wars fans, people who mispronounce words, and other ridiculous things. If parents believed that their sons were normal, the boy’s yearbook should have definitely raised a red flag. In 1988, the boys wrote about killing and retaliation, and even drew a picture of a person holding a gun with dead bodies surrounding them. A caption stated, “The only reason you’re still alive is because someone has decided to let you live.” Videotapes as well as guns and bombs were also in the boys’ rooms. Harris also made a w...
High school is a place where bullying, teasing, threats, humiliation, sarcasm, physical abuse and social isolation are commonplace. Almost 30% of youth in the United States are estimated to be involved in bullying as either a bully, a target of bullying, or both. (safeyouth.org) The shooters are usually among those who are tormented daily by their peers. Killing, then, is their act of revenge. Although this does not suggest that torment justify murder, it does illustrate that the hostile atmosphere of most high schools is a major root cause of the recent shootings.
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.
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...
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.
Alan Fox discussed some typical characteristics of school shooters which included easy access to guns. Other characteristics were alienation, frustration, and low self esteem. Mr. Fox stated that these kids typically just don’t feel good about themselves. He blames the recent spate of school violence on the media and instant popularity arising from intense news coverage after the violence which encouraged a surge of “copycats”. He also discusses the role of violence seen in today’s movies, MTV and video games. Ignoring the warning signs of potential explosive juveniles was also sighted as a reason for this surge in school shootings.
Young adults are not just creating this school violence, kids as young as twelve are committing acts as dangerous at their own school shootings. In Sparks Middle School in Nevada, twelve-year-old Jose Reyes had taken his parents hand gun with him to school. He had shot 2 children and killed a teacher that was also a war veteran. He then turned the gun on himself ("US School Violence Fast Facts." CNN). Many other incidents had occurred as early as 1927 to present day. Many of these shootings include the principal and certain classmates as the target. Simple disagreements between classmates can trigger a response that creates the such violence.
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.
"In October 1997, a 16-year old in Pearl, Mississippi, first killed his mother and then went to school and shot nine students, two fatally; in December 1997 a 14-year old went to his school in West Paducah, Kentucky, killed three students and wounded five others; in March last year, two boys, aged eleven and thirteen, killed four girls and a teacher outside their school in Jonesboro, Arkansas; the next month a science teacher was shot dead, allegedly by a 14-year old, at a school dance in Edinsboro, Pennsylvania; last May in Fayetteville, Tennessee, an 18-year old student allegedly shot dead a classmate in the school car park; two days later, in Springfield, Oregon, a 15-year old opened fire at his high school, killing two teenagers and wounding more than twenty (police later found that his parents had been killed at home) ("Lesson"). On April 20th of this year, two teenagers enter their school and open fire, killing 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives.
The first school shooting dates all the way back to the 18th century (List). School shootings are becoming a devastating epidemic throughout the United States. Why do the teens resort to such violence? Maybe its because they are bullied and they feel there is no where to turn. The violence that the teens display is typically blamed on and is explained to be caused by many different events or factors, bullying being one of the main factors that cause school shootings. Bullying isn 't the only factor though. Relaxed gun laws, the wild west, mental break downs or illnesses, violent video games, and many other factors can be what cause school shootings to happen so often.
In 1998, the US software industry sold $6.3 billion worth of video games (see Unknown). Not bad for an industry that didn't exist 25 years ago! Yet despite its continued growth, all is not well in the video game industry. School shootings in Littleton, Colorado; Pearl, Mississippi; Paducah, Kentucky; Conyers, Georgia and many other towns have shocked the nation (see Malcolm). Understandably, grieving parents and sympathetic citizens are searching for a cause for this "outbreak" of youth violence. It is natural to assume, "when children, the symbol of innocence, commit the severest of crimes, then something must be going wrong with society." (see Maker)
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.
Johnson, Alex. "College Gunman Disturbed Teachers, Classmates." Gunman Disturbed Teachers, Classmates - US News - Crime & Courts - Massacre at Virginia Tech | NBC News. N.p., 18 Apr. 2007. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. .