Through analyzing Cho’s life with the insights of Lankford, we are able to notice that although Cho had mental problems, it was the failures and stresses in his life that caused him to go overboard. He wanted the attention that was associated with fear, and the school was an easy target that would ensure him worldwide fame within hours. In relation to Pinker and Mack, Cho’s outbursts in his poetry class were all over the news, feeding the perception between mental illness and mass shootings. With the knowledge of what Pinker and Mack, Adam Lankford, and Danah Boyd present, we are able to distinguish that although the news makes us perceive that mental illnesses cause school shootings, the actual cause is the failure to reach the American Dream.
