The Mystery of Stephan Paddock’s Brain was published in the days following Mr. Stephan Paddock’s October 1st, 2017 mass killings spree of 58 people and leaving 851 injured. The article delves into the possible biological and psychological components which could have played a role in his decision-making processes. Given that the article was published less than a week after the shootings, it is plausible that the author did not have the proper diagnostic information to make educated assumptions about Mr. Paddock, which he concedes from the very beginning. David Eagleman is a writer, neuroscientist, and works as an adjunct professor at Stanford University. His understanding of the brain and what may drive an individual to commit such a heinous…
Introduction On April 16th 2007 in Blacksburg, VA at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Seung-Hui Cho a senior at the university shot a total of 49 people, killing 32 of them, then proceeded to turn the gun on himself in one of the most disastrous school murder-suicides of all time. One of the most casualty producing school shootings of all time. The damage was the lives of the taken students and the psychological health of those at the university. Within this shooting there were two incidents. The first he had killed two people in a dormitory room, in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a residence housing about 900 students.…
Malcolm Gladwell is a credible man, who works for the N ew Yorker. He wrote an essay about school shootings, and the threshold it took for some individuals to complete an act of violence. In order to prove his points Gladwell made sure to cite from other credible researchers like s sociologist Mark Granovetter. The main points that Gladwell discussed in his essay truly captivates the reader 's attention, even though he does not talk with excitement when discussing the essay. Not only were Gladwell 's points intriguing, they are also able to convince the audience that school shootings occur because of other phenomenon’s.…
Everyday life seems normal but in the mind of an ill person, it is a whole different story. When people think of getting revenge, they do not think of what will happen in the long run. A variety of thoughts come to a person’s mind when they are angry. They think of the worst, possible things that they could do and they do it. Usually people who commit the most violent crimes, like murder and assault, have something wrong with their psychology.…
Another theme touched on the subject, "Dealing with Disasters," which includes the accessibility of guns to "young people" (Aronson 37). The book disagrees with the National Rifle Association (NRA) that states "Guns don't kill people, people do," by saying that the presence of guns in a home increase the probability that young people will use them on other young people. In addition, the book also centers around a specific research that all the school massacres had in common: all the shooters were adolescent boys (Aronson 48). The author makes a theme of bullying and taunting and suggests reducing or eliminate it by implementing serious policies such as zero-tolerance policies that many schools have for weapons, drugs, and sometimes fighting (Aronson 71). Lastly, the authors major theme is introducing the "jigsaw" classroom method and address its problems and benefits. "…
Hardly new in the United States, school shootings are perceived as devastating, frightening and incomprehensible acts, with long-lasting effects on society. Representing the work of America’s ten deadliest school shooters, statistics compiled, account for one hundred and thirty-three dead and one hundred and forty-two injured. Yet, the question remains, what type of person would enter a school with the purpose to extinguish human life? Do school shooters aim with specific targets in their sights, or are their victims struck at random, guilty of nothing more than of being in the wrong place at the wrong time? To fully understand what drives one to commit school murder may be impossible; however, through investigating ten of the most disastrous…
Say, an educator is face to face with a school shooter in their classroom, both of them having weapons actively ready and on them. There’s still no guarantee the teacher will be able to successfully take down the shooter, even if it was just the two of them face-to-face. Dr. Linda Woolf of Webster University argues that, unlike in television and movies, killing a person is much harder to do than portrayed, especially for one who isn’t professionally to do so, like a SWAT or military personnel. It may be even harder for a teacher if the shooter is a familiar former student, their hesitation potentially being enough for the intruder to act. Woolf also brings up what she refers to as the “Weapons Focus Effect”, an occurrence where, when emergency first responders arrive to take down the active shooter, they aren’t always going to be double checking to make sure who’s the good person with the gun and who’s the bad person with the gun.…
What is known is the shooter had significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life, as well as the ability to interact with others. What contribution this made to the shooting, if any at all, is unknown because mental health professionals who saw him did not see anything that would have indicated this future behaviour. However, a teacher told investigators that “In all my years of experience, I have known (redacted) grade boys to talk about things like this, but Adam’s level of violence was disturbing.” The teacher added “Adam’s creative writing was so graphic that it could not be shared”. He was familiar with and had…
Two articles focus on school shootings. The reasons why students become shooters is explained by Jesse Signal. The preventive actions that can be taken towards school shootings are given by Frank J. Robertz. The article "Deadly Dreams: What Motivates School Shootings?' written by Frank J. Robertz and published on Scientific American on July 30th, 2007 describes how young adults become school shooters. Robertz explains the process of how over a long time adolescents start being more descriptive of the killings and staging how they will do it.…
When I was 14 years old, and a freshman in high school, I took a stance. This stance was controversial at the time, but is something that I believe in ever more strongly today. This stance was on gun control reform. I wrote a bill and presented it to the Minnesota State Legislature. I wrote this bill shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.…
Devastating, frightening and incomprehensible, school shootings are hardly new to the United States of America. Statistics gathered from just ten school shootings, account for one hundred and thirty-three dead and one hundred and forty-two injured, representing the work product of America’s ten deadliest school shooters. To qualify as one of the ten deadliest, the shooter must have struck a minimum of ten individuals and caused at least five deaths. Yet, the question remains, what type of person would enter a school with the purpose to extinguish human life?…
Heart of America The second amendment to our constitution states that Americans have the right to bear arms. Which means own firearms. The original intent was to have the weapons for defense. (Martinell, 2014)…
Humans are motivated by what is called psychological egoism, we are always motivated by what we perceive to be in our own self-interest, and it is the reason behind many of our everyday interactions and choices we make. However, what influences interactions we never hope to have, and decisions we never hope to make, such as deadly mass shootings? Was it a form of free will, or was it a result of psychiatric disorders such as PTSD or antisocial personality disorder, or was it the unleashing their anger, such as the rage and discrimination that they might have dealt with throughout their lives. The recent attacks on police forces were not only influenced by the recent attacks of black men but also as a result of PSTD as both attackers were being…
In other words, violence is not something you are born with but rather learned though personal experiences. In this paper I will be giving a literature review of two different studies, the first article looks at the misconceptions that associate with mass shootings. The second article is from the FBI crime statistics page online. The article contains statistics that have been collected on active shooters between…
These are the statistics of only three of the many school shootings that take place nationwide. Students and teachers were fatally harmed for no reason at all by troubled teens who struggled in their everyday lives. If they had been given proper help, would that have made a difference? If the schools had better security and safety precautions, would it have saved the many valuable lives lost? Although school shootings are insufferable tragedies, they benefit modern society with improvements in security tactics, mental health services, and crime prevention through environmental design.…