Imagine a day, where you wave your loved one goodbye and they walk towards their warm, protective embrace, their school. An hour later you receive a phone call that the school was the primary target for an armed attack. Imagine your panic, at that second, frantically wondering if you would see them ever again.
‘School shooting’ is a term a used to describe deliberate armed attacks on any educational institution, such as a school or a university. It is a product of the lack of gun control in the United States. From October 2013–2015, America has witnessed 142 shootings. We often find ourselves staring thunderstruck, as children, barely teenagers, at the peak of their ages, killing their fellow classmates and finally themselves.
The high school massacre that occurred on April 20, 1999, shook the foundation of parental trust in Columbine, Colorado. Two high school seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, picked up arms and fired at the school cafeteria killing 12 students, 1 teacher and injuring 21others. Similarly, in Virginia, in their biggest tech Institute, a senior, picked up arms against his college mates injuring 17 and killing 32. These are just incidents out of 142 others that make us enquire, whether school are places where we learn to fight terrorism or where we learn terrorism?
While we often find ways to blame and publicise the names of the shooters, earning them hate from the world, after their death, we don’t question what was it that made these individuals killers. Nobody, by birth, is born a murderer. Our society creates them, with their biased beliefs and unjustified dimensions of success. A few common thing these teens and young adults shared with each other was mental illness that went unnoticed, self-harm that was made fun of and bullying that was ignored. Eric Harris was diagnosed with psychosis, living in a destructive family who indulged in immorality. According to Sue Klebold, Dylan’s mother, she mentioned in her Ted talk that her son had been suffered for almost two years before the shooting. He used to self-harm and hide behind doors. There is a point before any drastic action where people are silently crying for help. They are searching anyone and anything to hold onto. Adults with their perfect standards of living do not try to understand, rather jump to conclusions. We shouldn’t ask why does this happen, but instead, how did this happen. The answers are drastically different. In the mind of a shooter, they want to end their suffering. Suicide drives a person to a point where rational decisions are no longer a part of their conscious mind. They take matters into their own hands, and end all their pain and allows a final satisfaction.
School shootings, however, was the necessary evil to arouse rules on the use of guns, debates about gun control, the rising heap of bullying, mental illness, self-harm and suicidal behaviour. It is high time we took action against these demons. Let’s strengthen people, not drag them through ditches of hopelessness and terror. As adults, empathy can change the true outcome of any action. Sometimes, we seek only for someone to understand, not advice, not judgement or conclusions. School shootings are vivid examples of the socialisation we have within the inner strata of our society. Before thinking about how to end these acts of redemption, think about how to not let them happen again. “Prevention is always better than rebuilding from the damage.”
-Christina Joshy
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