The issue of gun control and preventing school mass shooting is a pervasive issue in the US with policymakers experiencing an impasse over means of bringing this issue to an end. Indeed, the US has in the past centuries had troubled youths, with a good number of them owning guns while in the school. Nevertheless, mass shootings began being an issue in schools in the late 20th century. Presently, school mass shootings affecting elementary level, secondary, and higher education institutions is one of the most significant social issues that the US struggles to fight. While many causative factors are leading to the mass shooting, coming up with preventive measures is of utmost importance. According to Mears, Moon and Thielo (2017), school shootings are occurrences, which take place in schools during school or extracurricular hours, resulting in casualty or injury from gunfire. Before the 14 mass shootings that took place in 2018, there are other instances of mass shootings that include; 75 school shootings in 2017, 80 in 2016, and 55 in 2015 (Mears, Moon, & Thielo, 2017). Therefore the role of this paper will be to highlight school shootings and provide an in-depth analysis of how to prevent them amidst the prevailing challenges. Indeed, while mass shooting is a recurrent social issue in the US, effective gun control, an increase in trained security personnel in schools, implementation of public health strategies for reducing guns on school grounds, and parenting and guidance and counselling are some ways of preventing the causes of school shootings.
Causes of School Shootings
In the United States, political and popular discourse frequently focus on various assumptions after a school shooting. First, the effects of mental health and its impact on the school shooting (Metzl & MacLeish, 2015). Second, gun control measures and gun violence. Third, parental and social issues and their role in gun violence. Given the fact that a broad array of factors likely causes school shootings, if the US needs to increase the safety in the schools, then there is the need to address each of the elements. According to Paolini (2015) the reality is that the majority of children and adolescents have mental issues and this impedes their ability to function at home, at school, and in the community. While on the surface it seems reasonable to argue that the students or people that perpetuate school shootings have mental health disorders, the counterargument to this assertion is that most mentally sick individuals do not act violently as such leading to such challenges.
Moreover, such a claim raises another concern on why the mentally ill individuals should be in possession of such sensitive weapons. According to McGinty el, al., (2014) research indicates that childhood trauma is a pervasive and have lifelong effects on the developing psyches, both in psychological worldview and physiological system dealing with stress and anxiety. Therefore, school shooting not only poses a threat by creating security concerns in the society but leads to the loss of essential members of the community.
Another vital argument explaining the causes of the school shooting is the parenting and social disorder arguments. Indeed, such an argument proposes that some aspects of American society are to blame for creating social issues, for instance, gun violence and this puts the blame on the shooter and not the gun (Butts et al., 2015). Therefore, pundits of the social disorder argument blamed poor parenting. However, such an argument cannot be used to explain some events, for example, Columbine where the shooter was said to be an orphan. Further, the argument cannot hold when the killer is an adult. In the United States, it is undeniable that those people with violent tendencies should not have access to weapons, which they could use to harm others and themselves (Metzl & MacLeish, 2015).
Indeed, most often such actions are always perpetrated by unstable and mentally deranged people that should have never access to firearms (Leiner, De la Vega & Johansson, 2018). However, such self-evident images of the mentally disturbed are recent phenomena, and this reinforces broader arguments for gun rights. Therefore, the presence of such reasoning leads to calls for expanded gun rights, and a focus on the individual by limiting guns to the severely mentally ill as it would be hard to restrict guns rights for white Americans, or men even though these groups are often linked to most school shootings (Metzl & MacLeish, 2015).
Preventing School Shooting
Gun Control
Typically school shootings are some of the most difficult to control through gun control legislation. However, there is substantial evidence that law enforcement, including those of gun control and the minimum requirements for owning a gun, have missed the obvious and precise implementation of gun control policies (Bucci, 2018). Some incidents, for instance, those that took place in Parkland and Columbine were blamed on the law enforcement bodies. As a result, the adequate implementation of the gun control policies will ensure that only eligible people possess guns and provide limitations for gun ownership beyond which law enforcers can confiscate the guns. The role of the security officers should be to keep in check the number of guns that people own and their reasons for possessing such firearms.
Increased Trained Security Personnel in School
The presence of highly trained security personnel can act as a deterrent to potential accidents. According to Bucci (2018), trained police officers can coordinate with the entire school system and thus improve the security of the school. While the untrained officers have little or no knowledge about security issues, the well-trained security personnel can connect with the learners. Moreover, the trained officers can manage to respond to security threats compared to the untrained security agent.
Implementation of Public Health Strategies for Reducing Guns on School Grounds
Another promising strategy to reduce school shootings focuses on coming up with public health strategies aimed at reducing guns. Evidently, in the United States, many students, especially in campus, already have weapons. The higher the number of guns in the school compound, the higher the students become exposed to gun violence. According to the data from students in California in 2017, 5% to 7% of students in California high school and campus students took their guns to school (Studdert et al., 2017). Given that there are close to three million students in California’s high and campus students, this translated to more than 200000 guns brought to school (Studdert et al., 2017). Evidently, with this vast numbers of weapons in schools, shooting or killing is bound to take place. Therefore, there is the need for changes in gun acquisition patterns in the various cities across the US as this can reduce school shootings.
Parenting and Guidance and Counseling
Parental support is vital in assisting the student to develop to their full potential. Therefore despite the counterarguments that poor parenting contributes less to school shootings, it is still important to note that proper upbringing can help in saving lives (Bucci, 2018). Noticing early warnings from kids and adequately addressing them can help protect people from unpredictable harms. Evidently, having parents in kid’s lives and understanding their surroundings at all times is vital in preventing school shootings. Some of the significant facts from students who participate in the school shooting are that often, they are victims of bullying, and this makes them have uncontrollable anger, which leads to indulgence in school shootings (Bucci, 2018). Peer counsellors have also been able to identify emotionally disturbed learners and adequately address their emotional concerns in time.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, school shootings are on the rise, and it is imperative to note such occurrences require different or multiple approaches which entails identifying the causative factors. Therefore, the schools and the community must assess risk perpetration before deciding on the most effective method of addressing the epidemic. Further, while the school system can prevent some school shootings, some are relatively beyond the school control, for instance, external attacks require the state’s intervention. Therefore, such cases call upon the implementation of strict and firm gun laws in the US. Indeed, while all these factors represent failures in the US society in protecting its young population, schools shootings represent a national wakeup call when political and social adversaries should find common ground where guns become allowed, banned, or regulated. However, doing so entails understanding that all these factors are interrelated and thus not reducible to simple cause and effect.
References
Bucci, S. (2018). 4 Steps to Better School Security. Retrieved from https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/4-steps-better-school-security
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Leiner, M., De la Vega, I., & Johansson, B. (2018). Deadly Mass Shootings, Mental Health, and Policies and Regulations: What We Are Obligated to Do! Frontiers in Pediatrics, 6. doi: 10.3389/fped.2018.00099
McGinty, E., Webster, D., Jarlenski, M., & Barry, C. (2014). News Media Framing of Serious Mental Illness and Gun Violence in the United States, 1997-2012. American Journal of Public Health, 104(3), 406-413. doi: 10.2105/ajph.2013.301557
Mears, D., Moon, M., & Thielo, A. (2017). Columbine Revisited: Myths and Realities About the Bullying–School Shootings Connection. Victims & Offenders, 12(6), 939-955. doi: 10.1080/15564886.2017.1307295
Metzl, J., & MacLeish, K. (2015). Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms. American Journal of Public Health, 105(2), 240-249. doi: 10.2105/ajph.2014.302242
Paolini, A. (2015). School Shootings and Student Mental Health: Role of the School Counselor in Mitigating Violence. Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/school-shootings-and-student-mental-health.p
Studdert, D., Zhang, Y., Rodden, J., Hyndman, R., & Wintemute, G. (2017). Handgun Acquisitions in California after Two Mass Shootings. Annals of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 698. doi: 10.7326/m16-1574
