School Shootings

Introductory Slide

In America, there have been 291 school shootings since 2013, that averages at about one per week.
A report by the Urban Institute showed that in a single school district of Washington DC, there were at least 336 gunshots in the vicinity of schools over a single school year
Despite this, gun laws are still a controversial issue in America, as little has changed while the numbers of school shootings is on the rise.

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According to Peter Langman in 2013, there are three types of shooter, which are the traumatic, psychopathic and the psychotic shooter.
- The Traumatic shooters generally come from dysfunctional families with many issues such as sexual abuse or poverty. It is from this that the rage and depression begins to build
- The Psychopathic shooters are generally narccisistic, and have no empathy, remorse or any respect for laws, regulations or authority. They are also sadistic, meaning thay gain pleasure from having power over life and death
- The Psychotic shooters are in the schizophrenic spectrum and most are very isolated. The extreme isolation can cause hallucinations, they hear voices talking to them and this very often is what motivates them to shoot up their schoolmates and teachers
From the psychotic shooter perspective, it can be discussed whether a school shooter builds to their action or simply snaps. According to Langman, ther is often a series of events which pushes the individual over the edge, such as getting into conflict with the school, as well as peer pressure or encouragement

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In Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings, Newman attempts to explain school shootings by relating the issue to the increase in youth violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s
- One of the major culprits was the availability of guns, as well as the crack cocaine epidemic and a culture of violence
- Criminologist Mark Moore suggested a synthesis that starts with the deterioriating social and economic conditions of inner-city neighbourhoods in the late 1970s and early 1980s
- Also, sociologist William Wilson argued that during the 1970s, joblessness increased in inner-city communities, and economic and social stress contributed to the breakdown of families and other community supports for children and adolescents. This led to mroe youths becoming involved in gangs, and guns were readily available

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