School Shootings 2018

Bam! You’re Dead!

And so it goes. In America. In 2018. A new year but still 18 shootings in schools so far in just a few weeks. And there’s more: 29 mass shooting incidents in America so far this year; that’s 11 shooting events in public that involved more than one fatality and additional wounded victims. Mass shootings. Intended to kill human beings. Targeted or not, just shoot to kill.

And terrorize.

Attract attention to the shooter. He has the gun. He has the moment. It is all about him.

Until it isn’t. until the blood seeping out on the floor is noted; and the bodies. Especially the bodies. One, two, three…how many more? How many this time? Our mind races to the count before asking why?

Why? The why is important. It’s the brain’s method of making sense of these events. Why do they exist? What made this such a reasonable ‘solution’ or action to the shooter? What triggered the action? Later we can try to figure out what triggered the thinking process days, weeks, months or years ago that led this person – this fellow human being – to take such action. And was this final act inevitable?

Could we interrupt the process and avoid the final act of mayhem? Could we notice this building in a way that causes us to intervene? Do we know enough? Do we know what to do and when?

And in a population the size of America – 330  million – can we pay enough attention to individuals to make this intervention probable? Or are we too large? Or too fixated on other matters to train enough professionals to watch for formation of dysfunctions in individuals?

Is this task unmanageable? Unrealistic?

If so, then what do we do to help the situation? What’s another option?

·       Make schools impregnable? We’ve addressed that; can do more, but really, aren’t we barring the barn door when the shooter is already among us?

·       And arming the teachers and school staff? Some schools are already doing this, but how does an armed citizen respond adequately in such situations? How much training do we provide them? Or is this voluntary and unsupervised? What threat do these people pose to the rest of the population without the training? How many innocents will be added to the body count?

·       Police staffing of schools? We are doing that in many communities. At least one police officer per building. Wow. Such an overpowering number! One officer per how many students? How many doors to the building? How many points of entry and exit to guard and monitor for weapons? One per building? Really? Ineffective is a word that pops to mind. And more officers only add to the costs exponentially.

·       Metal detectors at all entrances? In high crime areas this is already done. Weapons still make it in. And what about non- high crime areas? That’s where the school shootings are happening now. Wealthy, poor, high-crime, low-crime – it doesn’t seem to make a difference. And the cost?

·       Mental health strategies to pursue? Most schools have a school nurse, not a psychologist. Most social mental health service programs have suffered funding cuts. Our society is removing mental health services, not adding to them. Institutions in which to house and focus on such patient needs are fewer, not more these days. And the costs?

How many other options do we have?

Let me share a brief story. I work with teen drug addicts one evening per week. Been doing this for over 5 years. The common thread among patients is their feeling separated from their family roots. They are not communicating well with parents and siblings. They feel different and alone. They seek companionship in more radical ways. Drugs, alcohol and thrills become the means. Addiction soon takes over and obscures the patient’s ability to self-control other aspects of his/her life. Connection to significant others in a healthy manner. Communication as connection. Connection as caring.

Do our parents and families listen to one another? Are their lives integral to one another?

I suspect the key to aberrant behavior among young people has a lot to do with feeling connected to the core family. As parents and siblings expand their duties, careers, responsibilities and activities, are they (we) able to maintain healthy connections to one another in the household?

How we turn our attention back to the family is a daunting logistical problem to manage. And families need help in knowing how to do this successfully. How can we provide this core support? What will the cost be? Will this cost be demonstrably lower than the chaos now occurring? Is this doable? Is it even the critical factor needed at this time?

We have a problem: too many shooting deaths. In schools, malls or on the streets of our own neighborhoods, there are too many shooting deaths. The common factors are guns and motivation. The former we know and understand. The latter we don’t. Laws to curb the violence don’t work, or at least, are ineffective. So, what’s the answer?

Focusing on the shooters will help us understand them. Perhaps we will invent methods to help specific age-groups so they do not become shooters? Who knows?

Restrict gun ownership? What about the 300 million guns already out and about in our midst?

I’ve thought about this a lot. No doubt so have you. What are our options? And who can help make those options work effectively?

The time to find the resources to work on this problem is now. Not later. It is not money. It is people and knowledge and research. We know what the problem is: too many shooting deaths. Now, how do we reduce that number? How?

February 16, 2018