User:CID2019/school shooter sandbox

School shootings
A school shooting is an event in which a shooter at any educational facility ranging from elementary to universities shoots or injures at least one student or faculty member at a school. For it to be considered a mass shooting 4 or more people at an educational facility have to either be killed or injured.

The University of Texas Tower Shooting
The University of Texas tower Shooting goes by different names across the U.S such as Texas Tower shooting of 1966, University of Texas tower clock tower shooting. This incident occurred on August 1, 1966 During the last summer session before fall semester had begun. The ordeal ultimately left 14 people dead and one of the few included was an unborn child in the womb. The shooter wounded 31 more and used a sniper rifle to target his victims and was at the top of The University Tower right under the clock. The shooting lasted 96 minutes after police officers finally made their way up to tower and shot the alleged shooter on sight. This was one of the first mass school shootings that occurred in the U.S and would be covered all over the media.

The gunman was Charles Joseph Whitman, at the age of committing the crime he was 25 years old and was a student at The University of Texas at Austin who was majoring in mechanical engineering and would later switch to architecture. Before being a student on campus he was an ex-marine who was discharged the year 1965 before committing the crime. He had joined the military right after graduating from high school. Since being a child, he was exposed to weapons because of his father who was a firearm enthusiast would teach each of his sons how to shoot, clean, and maintain the weapons and take them hunting as a hobby. Charles was the oldest boy of 3 and his father's relation with his kids and wife was one that was met with physical and emotional abuse over the span of his lifetime.

The day before the mass shooting occurred, he had killed his mother and wife justifying their deaths by sparing them from the embarrassment of his actions he would do the day after (Tower shooting) and relieving both of them from any kind of suffering. During the year of 1955 through 1966 he had visited numerous doctors during his span at The University of Texas and after meeting Dr.Whitman, he expressed his fantasy of one day going to the tower and shooting people with a deer rifle and spoke about his childhood and expressed his distressed with his father and parents recent separation. The doctor concluded he was not dangerous enough for involuntary commitment and ask Joseph to return one week later and he never did. After his death he wrote a suicide note asking that he’d be given an autopsy after his death and once done so they found a tumor on his brain the size of a pecan. He started to experience irrational thoughts after being discharged from the military and as it happened his mental state worsened and was never given the right treatment. There is still a debate wether or not his brain tumor had any influence to him committing the act. The brain tumor was pressed against the amygdala which therefore resulted on his inability to control his emotions and actions.

Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting
Throughout the years there has been an increase in school shootings and the year 2018 was the worst year by far in the United states. One of the worst ones that occurred that year was the school shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, also known as the Parkland school shooting. The shooting occurred on February 14, 2018 and killed 17 people, leaving 14 wounded and used a semi-automatic rifle to target his victims.

The school shooter is Nikolas Cruz, he committed the incident at the age of 19, he was a former high school student at Stoneman Douglas who was expelled for fighting with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. Despite being expelled, he was getting suspended numerous different times. His biological mother was an extensive criminal and a drug addict. While pregnant with Cruz she would actively do cocaine and other drugs, after he reached the age of 2 his birth mother would give her son away for adoption. As a hobby of Cruz, he would begin to kill squirrels in the fourth-grade and later make his way to chickens, pigs, frogs and enjoy killing them with guns or a knife. Many people who knew Cruz said he was always violent with others and showed aggressive behaviors since a kid, he would pick fights with others, stealing bikes, mail and vandalizing property.

All the warning signs go far back to his high school days, especially making the threat on a Youtube comment saying he would one day become a professional school shooter and his behavior on social media which involved taking pictures of guns and dead animals that he had killed was also abnormal. Although Cruz was adopted, Lynda Cruz the adopted mother never treated him poorly and was too good to him, yet after her death he was depressed and relocated to one of his former friends from high school. All the warning signs were there but authority never took the initiative to seize him before the deadly shooting.

School Shooter Personal Life
HOME:

-School Shooters can often be seen to be the product of a home where the parents are divorced or a parent is absent from their life. This is not to say that every person who is raised by a single parent is a potential school shooter or that those raised with parents should be over looked. A study in 2013 from the Institute for Family Studies noted that "nearly every shooting over the last year"(Wilcox, 2013)involved a young man who's parents were divorced. Unfortunately school shooters are often witnesses of domestic violence at home or they themselves the victims of child abuse. It is well documented that Charles Whitman, the UT tower shooter, and his family were victims of abuse from his father. In the lives of many of these shooters there is often a lack of stability in their home lives, which includes being in and out of foster care. The constant change in environment and guardianship can lead to behavior issues since the rules of a home and the disciplinarian are ever changing.

-Another unfortunate reality that in the cases of these school shooters the parents often are unable to recognize the problem signs that their child may be showing. Many parents are unwilling to acknowledge that their child may have a problem and simply pass off an event as just a one time thing. This may be a result of a parents lack of mental health awareness and inability to recognize the symptoms of their child's mental health issues. There is also a high probability that the potential school shooter became very good at hiding any telling signs or behaviors of a mental health problem from their parent.

-Financial insecurity is another common characteristic seen in the lives of school shooters. These individuals are often not financially in a good place, many times they have been expelled from school and do not have high prospects of being financially stable people in the future. This financial insecurity would also mean that they more than likely are unable to afford medical attention for their problems.

-As noted in the statistics below 83% of school shooters had access to guns in their homes. Growing up in a culture that is deeply connected to guns means that guns are something that are apart of their daily lives. This means they are often well informed on how to use them do not have problems finding access to them.


 * 54.7% of shooters are caucasian [9]- 50 yr review
 * (25%) of the shooters had a troubled home life that included a non-trusting relationship with an adult, physical/emotional/ sexual abuse, and/or being cared for by a guardian due to the parent being incarcerated, hospitalized, deceased, or absent due to other circumstances [225] -active shooter
 * Eleven (46%) of the shooters gave multiple communications stating their plans for an attack or had researched ideas for the attack. [224] -active shooter
 * People were concerned about an act of violence occurring in 6 of the incidents, prior to the attack happening. Parents, teachers/administrators, or community members had voiced concerns or had completed a threat assessment on the shooter prior to the incident. [225] -active shooter
 * (83%) took the firearms from their homes where they belonged to a parent or guardian. There were at least 2 known cases where the firearms were properly locked in a safe but the shooter knew the code or had access to a key to open the safe. [223] -active shooter
 * School shootings typically occur in stable, close-knit, low-crime, small rural towns or suburbs (92% of the incidents in Newman et al., 2004, study) {pg 19} -youth violence

School Experience

 * Perpetrators often have average or better than average intelligence and academic achievement (secret service study) {19} -youth violence
 * Ten of the shooters (53%) had recorded academic issues. They had struggled in school with grades and frequently broke rules and regulations.11-33 [227] -active shooter
 * (42%) of the events had targeted victims, with 7 events targeting students (70%) and 3 targeting staff/administrators (30%).11-33 [224] -active shooter
 * 78% of school shooters were socially marginalized- newman {19} -youth violence
 * 53% of non-adult shooters reported severe bullying -active shooter

Personality

 * less than 15% of youth, and that even within this group violence is not a universal behavior {21} -youth violence
 * differences in self-control most consistent observed individual correlates of crime, delinquency, violence, and other problem behaviors (22) -youth violence
 * Dark triad- psychopathy, narcissism, machiavellianism -youth violence
 * narcissism, poor anger management, fascination with violence, poor self-esteem and lack of empathy.”8 Along with noted depression, the shooter(s) had an identifiable note of peer rejection, an interest in death, poor impulse control, and sadistic tendencies.8 [220] -active shooter

Mental Illness

 * The shooter felt hopelessness, despair and suicidal thoughts in 10 (42%) of the shootings where handguns were used. [223]
 * Six of the shooters had a diagnosed severe and persistent mental illness including a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, psychosis with audial hallucinations, visual hallucinations and/or delusions, and several had an additional diagnosis of conduct disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, schizophrenia, and severe anxiety. [227]
 * Eleven of the shooters (48%) died by suicide [227]- active shooter
 * 81.8% of shooters aged 20-27 committed suicide [12]- 50 year review

References: Bushman, B., Newman, K., Calvert, S., Downey, G., Dredze, M., Gottfredson, M., Jablonski, N., Masten, A., Morrill, C., Neill, D., Romer, D., & Webster, D. (2016). “Youth Violence: What We Know and What We Need to Know,” American Psychologist, 71:1, 17–39. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039687.

Dagenhard, P., Thompson, A., Dake, J., Pescara-Kovach, L., Rega, P., (2019). Active Shooter Events in Schools: A Review of Reports and Related Materials. Health Behav Policy Rev., 6(3), 219-231. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14485/HBPR.6.3.2

Langman, P. (2016). Multi-victim School Shootings in the United States: 50 Year Review. The Journal of Campus Behavioral Intervention, 4, 5-17. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308401952_multi-victim_school_shootings_in_the_united_states_a_fifty_year_review

Influences of Social Media
Social media use has grown exponentially throughout the 2000's and 2010's. The first popular social media site was MySpace, launched in 2003. It was quickly followed by FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Many school shooters have used social media to express and document their anger, aggression, and self-pity. Many have also written manifestos, journals, and recorded videos, taking advantage of the sensationalist media which they knew would show their materials to the world.

Examples:

Columbine:The Columbine shooters had a website where they wrote about the violent acts they wanted to commit in their community. A student from the high school saw a murder threat meant for him on the website. Nothing was done about the website. The two shooters also recorded videos of themselves while they practiced shooting targets. In the videos, they talked about the fame they would receive after their massacre. Both of them kept personal journals where they documented their planning of the massacre. In his journal, Eric stated, "I want to leave a lasting impression on the world".

Virginia Tech: The shooter, Cho, prepared a video and 29 photos days before he carried out his attack. About two hours after the shooting began, he mailed the video and photos to NBC studios. NBC received the package and released some of its content to the public. This previously prepared and meticulously planned package shows that Cho wanted to receive media attention. He knew that the materials would be a gold mine to the media, and that his face would be all over the news. Cho also idolized the Columbine shooters. This shows that how the media and social media represent shootings can have an influence on the occurrence of future shootings.

Isla Vista: The Isla Vista shooter, Elliot Rodger, posted videos about his loneliness and anger toward others on YouTube. Some video titles were, "Life is so unfair because girls don't want me" and "Elliot Rodger, Lonely Vlog, Life is so unfair". Rodger's mother had found the videos and contacted police. Law enforcement visited the apartment but could not act because of insufficient evidence. Minuted before the shooting, Rodger emailed his 107,000 word manifesto to family and acquaintances. The manifesto detailed the loneliness, frustration, and aggression he felt for others.

Parkland: Cruz has a presence on social media sites such as Instagram, FaceBook, and YouTube. His Instagram page consisted of photos of Cruz in masks, him wielding knives and guns, and mutilated animals. Cruz allegedly had a group chat with other students where he boasted about spending his paycheck on body armor. Before the shooting, police responded to a concern about a YouTube comment a user received from a user called Nikolas Cruz that stated, "Im going to be a professional school shooter". Unfortunately, the police investigation did not yield any results.

Similarities All of the school shooters mentioned above had a desire for their actions to be widely seen by the public and to remain a part of history. All of them wrote graphic notes, manifestos, social media posts, or recorded videos. A lot of their media was accessible and seen by their peers or parents. However, the concern of their peers or family was not enough to get law enforcement involved and often went unreported. A majority of the shooters were inspired by their predecessors and wanted to outdo them.

Outcomes: As social media and news coverage becomes more accessible and thorough, it may contribute to students becoming fascinated with these events the incidence of copy-cat shootings increasing. Already, there have been numerous school shooting threats made over social media sites like FaceBook and Snapchat. The ones that were reported garnered police response and subsequent consequences for the perpetrators, who claim they were "just joking". Each false threat costs the tax payers money and spreads the police force thin. The social media and news response to these threats is immediate and they become major headlines and topics of discussion online. Students vying for attention may see this as an opportunity for attention.

Guns and America Quiz
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/13/us/14xp-gun-facts-quiz.html

Potential Ways to Prevent School Shootings
Stricter Gun Laws
 * Increase Legal age to purchase
 * Universal Background Checks
 * Bulleted list item

Arming Teachers

Campus Carry Law Improves School Security
 * Enacted in 2016, allows for students with the proper permit to conceal carry a firearm inside of all public university buildings, in Texas. Faculty and Professors are not allowed to prohibit a student from doing so.
 * Metal detectors at all school entrances

Improved Mental Health awareness
 * mental health education
 * mental health training for educators

Gun Laws
Internationally

In most nations, gun laws are a lot more strict. After a school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland left eighteen people killed, the UK reformed gun laws. The government instituted a buy-back program where people could sell their guns and get compensated. It's difficult to get approved for gun ownership because a certificate from the police is needed as well as a good reason to possess the gun (self-defense does not count). No school shootings have occurred since the stricter gun regulations were put in place. Germany also has strict gun laws. In order to possess a gun, a license is needed as well as a background check and mental health screening. Government officials can enter private property at any time in order to make sure that all guns are being stored correctly.

Gun Laws in the United States In many states in the United States it is legal to purchase, assault rifles, shotguns, and other long styled guns at the age of 18. The legal age to purchase handguns is 21. In most states, there is currently a background check that is needed to be done before a person is able to purchase a gun but only when the seller is a licensed firearm dealer. In the event that the gun is purchased from a private dealer or given as a gift, a background check is not required. This is known as the "gun-show loophole"

Long-term Effects of Shooting
There is no surprise that school shootings would have significant effects on the students and staff at the school. There has been extensive research done on the test scores and enrollment after a school has experienced a shooting on the premises. It was found that suicidal shootings had no significant impact on any variable that was tested. This led to suggest that the results were driven by trauma that has been associated with an actual murder that took place at the school. Exposure to a violent murder can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in students as well as staff and overall poor mental health. These can ultimately prevent the students from concentrating in their classes. The students may also show reduced engagement in group learning activities that could hinder learning. Lastly, witnessing these shootings could cause an increase in absenteeism, which could lower enrollment to the school and escalate dropping out of school. Adolescent violence exposure is directly associated with poor mental health outcomes later in life. They are more likely to experience depression in adulthood and behavioral problems.

A girl from the Stoneman Douglas shooting took her own life after suffering from PTSD and survivor's guilt. Her close friend was one of the victims of the shooting, and the girl's parents said their daughter was never the same after that incident and never sought help to battle her severe mental illness. Another case was a father taking his own life after suffering from survivor's guilt when his child was a victim in the Sandy Hook school shooting. This shows that survivor's guilt and mental illness not only impacts those directly involved in a school shooting but also people that are close loved ones of the victims.

Blame for the Incident
A study has been done to study the aftermath of school shootings and where people put the blame. The study analyzed the first several comments on the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8B3yyeHU8Q) and an article from the mothers of the perpetrators. The different categories that were created were family, mental illness, guns, and bullies and each of these categories had two sub-categories of sympathy and blame. An example of family sympathy would be removing the blame from the family members while an example of family blame would flat out blame the parents. Also, in the family category, the comments in that section were further categorized into comments about the mother or father or both. The Columbine shooters created results of 42% blame for the parents and 27% for bullies and 19% for mental illness. The Sandy Hook shooter created results of 58% blame for the parents and 22% for guns and 8.1% for mental illness.

Both parents were in the picture for the two Columbine shooters and Adam Lanza's father was in the picture till his parents divorced and two years prior to the shooting, Adam and Peter had no contact. Even so, a majority of the blame is targeted to the parents. Out of the almost 100 posts that blamed the parents, not a single one was oriented towards the father or indirectly referenced the father.

Courtesy stigma plays a role in this data as well. Courtesy stigma is when the stigma is stretched to the people closely associated with the person that has the stigma to start with. The mother received courtesy stigma at a much larger capacity than the fathers. This corresponds to the gender bias in parents and how mothers are left with a larger burden of responsibility and culpability of their children.

Punishment of the Shooters
The defense for the school shooters attempt to make a plea bargain on the basis of insanity. This is incredibly hard to prove. A study analyzed several school shootings and it stated that all defenses attempted to make a plea bargain on the basis of insanity, but the court always found that the defendant was guilty, and they would reject the insanity plea. The court would claim that the defendant was seeking attention during the crime and was just an evil and hateful person. Prosecutors would go to court with the mindset of winning the case for a death penalty of the assailant. In a 2005 Supreme Court case, it was ruled that the death penalty for minors that were minors during the crime constitutes as a cruel and unusual punishment, which goes against the 8th amendment.

This important question remains a topic of great controversy: What punishment should be given to the perpetrator of school shootings? Life in prison, the death sentence, or confinement to a mental institution?