First off, I personally don’t quite yet believe it to be an “epidemic”. There’s what, twenty or thirty thousand or more elementary and high schools in America? (That’s just an off-the-cuff guess.) All with a total of what, twenty million students? More? I’m just guessing here…
But how many school shootings have there been? And let’s face it, that’s what we’re talking about, shootings. Not fistfights, or hazing, or bullying, or even gang battles.
There’s been what, eight or ten major shootings in the past ten years? The two recent ones in Cali, the infamous Colombine, the one in Arkansas… and… ?
Don’t get me wrong, each one is a tragedy, and I don’t wish to make light of any of them. But really, is it an actual “epidemic”, or is it merely a few sporadic and highly unusual events that are simply greatly overhyped and exploited by the mass media?
In Washington DC, a couple of druggies are killed each month, but does that make national news? Why not? Because they’re “just” drug dealers? Because it happens so often in DC that it’s not news anymore?
In LA, when Crip “A” shoots Blood “B”, why doesn’t that make nationwide headlines?
To get back to the original question, there IS an answer.
To paraphrease Bill Clinton, “It’s the Parents, Stupid!”
Yes, there’s a small aspect of violent media, a smattering of bad influence/peer-pressure from friends and schoolmates, and a badly undermanned and overwhelmed law enforcement aspect, but really, the key here is the kid’s parents.
If it were something simple like the highly erroneous claims of “easy access to guns”, then why didn’t we have hundreds of school shootings in the 50’s and 60’s? One could buy a firearm by mail order back then. Drugstores had gun sections, and it was perfectly legal for a 14-year-old boy to wander in and plunk down is cash for a rifle. Military surplus weapons could be bought for as low as $7 to $10.
Nowdays with computerized record keeping (a gun manufacturer has to keep records more scrupulously clean than cigarrette or booze makers- even ONE missing and unaccounted for can mean the revocation of license) instant background checks, federal forms, waiting periods, required picture ID, age limits and so on, there’s hardly an “easy” access to guns.
But now we have more school shootings… so what’s changed? Crime overall is down to levels lower than they’ve been in ten years. Firearm-related deaths are at the lowest levels since 1910 (!)
But firearm OWNERSHIP is at all-time highs.
So what’s wrong with the kids?
It’s not guns, knives or weapons. Such things are merely tools, all of which have been around for hundreds of years.
It’s not bullying either, because kids have bullied and been bullied since the dawn of schools themselves, probably longer.
Personally, I think the problem is both the parents themselves- and in many cases, the lack thereof of at least one- and our current ‘new age sensitivity’ “politically-correct” emasculated society.
Let’s face it, kids need to be spanked on occasion, but today that’s considered “child abuse” and there’s a DFYS branch poised on a springboard to yank your kids if anyone even suspects you raised a hand to your child.
Okay, so you can’t spank ‘im. Now what? Yell at him when he sneaks out and spray-paints swastikas on the neighbors’ car?
Nope, sorry, that’s verbal abuse. Can’t yell at Billy or you’ll hurt his self-esteem.
So now what? Ground him? Aaaaand what do you do when he sneaks out even though he’s grounded? Ground him some more? Can’t spank or slap him- and he knows it- can’t yell at him- and he knows it- so where’s the threat to make him think twice before breaking his curfew again?
And what’s worse, is that few parents even care that much. Single parents- assuming they even try to raise the kid well- are outnumbered. The parent tries to work, so the kid spends all day in the summers hanging out with friends (who are equally unrestrained by that niggling back-of-their-mind thought of “what would happen if Mom caught me?”) or all day at school… Eight or nine hours a day of negative influences cannot be undone or counteracted by an hour or two of “quality time” by even a determined parent.
And let’s face it, that parent spends half that time vegged out in front of the tube anyway, so much of even that minimal opprotunity is lost.
And there’s more- nobody’s responsible anymore, and the kids are learning that one fast. It wasn’t me, Billy did it. I only slugged him with a sawed-off pool cue because he called me a dirty name. I’m not responsible because Mom’s a coke addict. Daddy molested me when I was 12 so that’s why I became a serial rapist. Both my parents were alcoholics so I never really learend right from wrong… and so on and so on.
Bottom line: Raise the kid right and well, no problem. Let the TV babysit him, pay no attention to what he does or where he goes or who he hangs out with, and you get Columbine.
