School Shootings: What You Need to Know

A school shooting is a horrifying thing, but as much as a lot is being done to curb it, the act keeps on reoccurring. The question that is on every mind of American is the reason why they keep on happening. Others might attribute and blame those stand for gun control since guns have been the fabric of the life in America. On the other side , others believe that the issue is eminently preventable since the United States is the high-income country that records such high mass shootings. The shootings put the homicide rate at twenty-five times higher than other middle-income nations (CNN, 2018). The problem that a lot of people are trying to seek answers to the menace is the cause of the problem. Santa Fe High School marks the latest incident of the ongoing threat that has taken away the lives of young Americans for quite an extended period. From the attack, ten people died following an attack from a gunman believed to be a student at the institution. The institution is located in Texas and has become the latest casualties of gun violence after incidences which have rocked the nation including the February massacre in Florida High School (CNN, 2018). The assailant, who is seventeen years was taken in by authorities. The incident took place on May, 18 and brought a lot of grief and horror. The fatal shooting is the 23 rd incident that led to injury and death.

Situation Analysis 

A lot has been said about the Texas School shooting, and there have been various blames. Others have directed their blames to media or the ease of access to weapons, gender or the assailant guardians. Seeking answers is a way of recovering from the tragic things that people have gone through but finding the solution is not as simple as it may appear. Speculating, on the other hand, may serve as another problem that adds more challenges to the misery. Following the Texas attack, many cities have taken a step toward making the law enforcement agents appear on their gates on a daily basis. The uncertainty is the effectiveness of the precaution. Even though it may seem like a precautionary step, it is a doubt that this is going to solve the problem from happening in the future.

Discussing this issue from the sociological imagination perspective, if the incident just took place once, then we could call it an isolated case and an act of crime. Crime, in this case, is an offense that is not acceptable within the society and in most cases punishable by some laws. With this understanding, we could reasonably describe the problem as being under the influence of external factors by probably linking it with mental instability, background environment and so forth. If so, their act of crime would be a personal problem but when the problem keeps on reoccurring, then it is way better to be understood as social problem and a public issue because of the basic structure of one being a loyal citizen as well as law-abiding people not probably applying to everyone (Dahmen, 2018). The correct manner to obtain the possible solutions and the cause of the problem needs an in-depth consideration of the economic and the politics of the society but not entirely treating the situation as a personal situation or taking it as an isolated character of unlawful individuals who are obsessed with crime.

Understanding what can trigger one at the age of seventeen to perform a mass killing such as in Santa Fe High School is very difficult and can be described regarding a social construct, that is, the belief of the people within a given society. Some believe that a community has to have individual characters who have to be on the wrong side of the law now and then (Teasley, 2018). Some people go even further to inquire whether they can attribute it to societal surrounding or the individual himself. Aftermath the terror, there are usually public debates trying to link the murderers with certain perspectives: Ether a socially dysfunctional being or mentally challenged. Beyond this idea , others believe the existence of remarkably sane people but with a drive of a particular ideology. However, we cannot entirely put the weight of the actions in any of the factors.

However much one uses a given perspective to categorize the case, it should be noted that before someone decides to be a mass murderer, the idea has to build up and develop a given motivation behind the action or probably due to lack of social control. The social control, in this case, implies to those rules that the society has put up in the form of laws or social pressure. Treating it from the perspective of social sciences, the crime of this nature can be described from two points of view: Foremost is the individual responsibility where anyone is free to decide what to choose. Secondly, the societal model, which links such an incident with the surrounding factors or the culture in which someone was brought up with, either hatred or vengeance as a solution to a given problem. Generally, the two views are neither different nor do they clash but can be used to contemplate one another. The individual model connects with personal anger and aggressiveness, but it is not necessarily that these feelings always cause such harm to others since every individual chooses how to deal with destructive emotion by either suppress ing them or act ing weirdly. Moreover, for others, lacking social bonds may be another indicator (Horstkötter, 2014). A person may be poor when it comes to social integration, therefore, creating the existence of individualistic societies which is the breeding ground for mass shooters. The lower the degree of social interaction possess a higher risk of social isolation, therefore, strengthening mass murdering.

Deviance can as well be used to explain this form of the act. To reduce this kind of violent behavior, we must understand the reason why it occurs, and this is through getting to know deviance. Deviance, in this case, can be as a result of poor outcome from the gap failing to attain a specific target, more so, the cultural emphasis on success and the failure to do so. Moreover, poverty and the surrounding environment may lead teenagers to develop values that promote one to be deviant. The social control theory explains the act of deviance being as a result of weak bonds to acceptable and cultural organizations that limit the belief in societal norms, ethics, commitments and beliefs (Horstkötter, 2014). If someone possesses a criminal personality because of deviance, that person limits himself to unrealistic expectations and feels that the life he is living at the moment is not just, for example, the American society brings up people to believe that wealth, prestigious life and fame are something that they can achieve quickly. On the other hand, schools serve as the places where shooters received education and at some point were told that diligence is a virtue that will bring success and thus people have to work for it. If one does not achieve this success, the become deviant and seek revenge in institutions and places of work. In other words, it translates to the manner in which one can cope with failing to achieve his/ her ambitions.

Conclusion 

To conclude, it is challenging to rely on any of the social aspects entirely to explain the behavior of an individual to take other people’s life even though one is a teenager. Every individual has a specific reason behind it and can be described as an act of vengeance, crime, social control, and social construction. These sociological issues can be used to analyze the situation and be able to come up with a better view of mass killing.

Reference

CNN. (2018). Alleged shooter at Texas high school spared people he liked, the court document says. Retrieved from https://edition-m.cnn.com/2018/05/18/us/texas-school-shooting/index.html

Dahmen, N. (2018). Visually Reporting Mass Shootings: U.S. Newspaper Photographic Coverage of Three Mass School Shootings. American Behavioral Scientist , 62 (2), 163-180. doi: 10.1177/0002764218756921

Horstkötter, D. (2014). Self-control and normativity: Theories in social psychology revisited. Theory & Psychology , 25 (1), 25-44. doi: 10.1177/0959354314561487

Teasley, M. (2018). School Shootings and the Need for More School-Based Mental Health Services. Children & Schools , 40 (3), 131-134. doi: 10.1093/cs/cdy015