Solitude

What shoud be done after the recent school shooting?

Eighteen years after Columbine, the worst high school shooting in the US; another shooting has occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school.

The survivors of the recent school shooting have decided that enough is enough. The student body of Marjory High School has designated March 24th as March For Our Lives. They plan on marching the streets of Washington to demand gun control and for their lives and safety to become a priority. The students are encouraging other students within the country to join the protest, whether in Washington or in their own cities in the country or outside. The embodiment has also designated April 20, as a National School Walkout. This day makes a statement as it'll be nineteen years since the Columbine school massacre. At ten am on April 20th, students are to sit outside their school and peacefully protest, to share their thoughts. The organizations slogan is "We are students , we are victims, we are change."

But the underlying question is: has anything changed since Columbine? I would have to say that  nothings changed in the past eighteen years.

When these type of tragedies happen the public, politicians and the victims react in the same way. The public change their profile pictures on Facebook, twitter or whatever social media they have and demand change, without getting out from behind their screens. The politicians say the same thing over and over, "Sending thoughts and prayers to the families." Then the people affected demand change and that they'll stop at nothing to get what they want. After that, the tragedy will appear in the news a few more times and then people will slowly stop talking about it. As soon as the public stops talking about it, people start to slowly forget about what happen and go back to their regular lives. As soon as people forget, Congress writes the incident off as another tragedy and don't do anything about it. In result, the survivors are left fighting an impossible fight.

But is there more that we can do? Of course! I think for one, students across the United States should know the warning signs of a School shooter.

According to Maureen Healy, an child's emotional health expert with more then twenty years experience;
there are many signs a School shooter shows before acting. These signs are:

1. No Remorse: The lack of remorse is probably one of the most striking signs of a shooter. They do unspeakable acts and display no regret. Last year, I met with a teenager (per his mother's request) and he had killed his family dog. This teenager showed no regret about it and had done this intentional act to "see if he could do it." His lack of remorse and proclivity towards violence urged me to have his family get him serious help—and also made me think of him as fitting the profile of a shooter.
2. Act Violently: Shooters don't perform their first "big act" like today's massacre. They tend to do little things along the way—whether it was hurting the family dog or other acts of violence so they can build up their violence muscle. It is really mental illness that can act so violently over and over again.
3. History of Social, Emotional & Mental disturbances: Shooters have a history of being socially inept, lacking in emotional intelligence, and not "fitting in" with their peer group. Paradoxically, they are also intelligent by traditional measurements. For example, James Holmes ( Colorado shooter) dropped out of a doctoral program and his social demeanor has been described as standoffish. He also graduated with honors with an undergraduate degree in neuroscience.
4. Obsession with weapons: Shooters tend to study how to build explosives, learn how to acquire guns from the high powered assault rifle to glock handgun like Holmes had today, and many have collection of weapons like knives as well as weapon memorabilia. Today, the officials noticed this from outside of James apartment—he had his place booby—trapped extensively.
5. Lack of Ethics: Shooters are resistant to learning and displaying ethical decision making. They thrive on this unhealthy display of violence, lack any sense of healthy conscience; and ultimately don't understand the teaching of "what goes around comes around" like my child client Brian, aged 13, said to me last week.
6. No meaningful friends: Shooters tend to remain by themselves, unless they find—perchance a like-minded person like the two shooters in the Columbine shooting (1999)  that joined forces. It is this reclusive nature combined with obsession with weapons, violence and lack of a conscience that is the huge red flag—this person may fit the shooter profile.
7. High family dysfunction: Nearly everyone comes from a "somewhat" dysfunctional family, but the shooter usually has a large degree of dysfunction. Said differently, there is a biological basis for a young man (or woman theoretically) to become a shooter. They lack healthy brain development, environments that support positive emotional health and usually tend to be far removed from ideal social role models.

I think that if students and staff knew the signs of a school shooter, incidents like the recent tragedy could be avoided. Guidance counsellors or teachers could get the help that the person needs by seeking out a professional. In result, lives could be saved and tragedies can be avoided.

The video above helps my opinion. Upon seeing the video for the first time, I missed all the signs and actions by the individual playing the shooter. I was too distracted by what was going on in Evans life. I decided I would send the video around to my friends and asked them if they saw any of the signs. Here is what they said:

"I didn't even notice. I'm kinda scared now."

"The first time I watched the video I didn't notice any of the shooter stuff in the background. "

"No. I missed all the signs."

A few other people had said they'd seen the video before and therefore they noticed all the signs. But out of the people asked, majority said they didn't see the signs. Maybe if the warning signs were implemented in schools and students had to know them, school shootings could be preventable.

The obvious course of action however would to be to implement some type of gun control in the states. But as I've said before, it's been almost nineteen years since Columbine and nothing has changed. I will applaud the student body of Majory Stoneman Douglas high for the events they have planned within the next couple of weeks and months. But does this mean that Congress will listen?

I personally think they will not. The current president spent only fourteen minutes visiting victims and thanking the doctors and nurses for doing all they could before going off to play a game of golf. When Columbine happened, Bill Clinton was the president and had years of experience in politics before he won presidency. Clinton didn't do anything after Columbine, despite public outcry for gun control and protests. If nothing has changed since 1999, who says anything will change now?

I believe there will be no gun control implemented in our life time and it is hard to say whether there will be implemented within our children's lifetime. It's a realistic opinion but I think that it's fantastic that people are protesting and using their voices for change. However, I think all the student bodies across the states should know the warning signs as it is the best course of action.