Journalist and author, Dave Cullen, in his book, Columbine, redefines how his readers understand the Columbine tragedy. His purpose is to illustrate the misconceptions Americans have of the shooting by explaining how these misconceptions came about and became rooted in Americans’ minds, although they were so unbelievably wrong. Cullen creates a blunt tone in order to get straight to the facts to show who Eric really was. Through his use of rhetorical devices in this passage, Cullen unravels that Eric was not a bullied outcast like so many believe, but a psychopath.
Social Control theory can be used as a reliable and valid psychosocial explanation of school violence, specifically in explaining the actions of the Columbine school shooters. Kempf-Leonard and Morris described control theory in their journal in a way that provides an explanation for how behavior conforms to that which is generally expected in society. Some control theories emphasize the developmental processes during childhood by which internal constraints develop. Social control theories, however, focus primarily on external factors and the processes by which they become effective. Deviance and crime occur because of inadequate constraints.
In his article, “Thresholds of violence” by Malcolm Gladwell, has effectively proven that the school shootings changed and they’ve became ritualized. From an incident, a group of three officers had arrived to the unit’s door step, and a young man stood in the center. The man became extremely defensive when one of the officers had to pat LaDue down. The officer had over heard that LaDue was making bombs in the storage locker, then had found a SKS assault rifle with sixty rounds of ammunition, a Beretta 9-mm, hand gun, including three ready-made explosive devices hidden in his bedroom. “There are far more things out in that unit than meet the eye” (Gladwell 2), exampling how there’s not only going to be a specific amount of bombs that would have
Eric reportedly strangled and sodomized Derrick with a small stick. He also dropped large rocks on Derrick 's head. Eric was reported to have been bullied for his looks and had been
On April 20, 1999, the unimaginable occurred at Columbine High School in the small town of Littleton, Colorado. A school shooting, carried out by, then senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold took the entire community by storm. With 15 deaths, including the perpetrators, and 24 non-fatal injuries, the memories of this horrific massacre will forever resonate in the minds of all. With a meticulously thought out plan, the two shooters prepared guns and bombs in order to perform the sickening act. Families, the FBI, local officials, psychologists, and more spent a multitude of time trying to figure out the reasoning as to what motivated the two boys to kill and cause so much pain to others.
Columbine High School can forever be associated with the massacre that took place April 20, 1999. Dave Cullen, author of Columbine, captures the heart wrenching and cruel events that unfolded that April through his analysis of the normalities within the day and specific dialogue. Using many rhetorical devices, Cullen develops an agonizing emotion behind the terrible truth; it can happen anywhere. While spreading the terrible truth, he manages to also spread light on the events of April 20 in order to debunk bullying motives and help all people understand the idea of psychopaths.
School Shootings: How We All Miss the Point... The aftermath of a school shooting is tragic, depressing, and causes hatred for the lives lost and the person who took them. Everyone, especially the media, tries to interpret why the shooter killed their victims, or why they felt the need to end others’ lives and their own. How We All Miss the Point on School Shootings, by Mark Manson, explains what and why these mass shootings happen. He starts by using examples of shootings and the murderer’s past.
Through reading “Columbine: Whose Fault is It?” by Marilyn Manson we can identify that the media had a great influence in the aftermath of the shooting, and who was the scapegoat for it, in other words who is to blame for what happened to those poor 13 innocent teenage kids. The Columbine High School massacre was an infamous event that went down as one of the worst shootings to happen to a high school in America. In 1999, a pair of two students named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold decided to assault a school in Colorado named Columbine High School. Their intent was unknown, and because of that, many people started speculating as to why the duo decided to shoot up the school.
Symbolic interactionism illuminates fundamental elements that attribute to school shootings. According to Jeanne Ballantine and Joan Spade in their book, Schools and Society, A Sociological Approach to Education, “Symbols are the concepts or ideas that we use to frame our interactions” (2015:19). Symbolically, a sense of self and hierarchical place is determined by social interactions (Ballantine and Spade 2015). Students find themselves determining how they see and feel about themselves by how their cohorts, parents, siblings, teachers, and others interact with them. Sadly, the young perpetrators of school shootings have derived their sense of self from their social experiences of isolation, bullied harassment, and low hierarchical status, producing skewed and biased self-perceptions.
A simple way to stop school shootings in our district would be by eliminating all the factors that form a school shooter. Most school shooter suffered from bullying or had some sort of mental illness. In order to minimize the chance of a kid becoming a school shooter, we need to increase awareness.
(Sub-subpoint 1) 87% of students said that the main cause of school shootings is because they want to level the playing field. (Alfred University) 2. (Sub-subpoint 2) For example, a 12-year-old from Nevada opened fire at school because he was bullied. He was called “an idiot, a retard and gay”.
Sierra Holtsclaw Mr. Litz American Lit Period 2 The Shooting As a result of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's stomach-turning actions in the columbine shooting, security measures were taken to improve students and staffs safety not just in school but all around the united states. Dylan and Eric were not very popular in school and statistics of school shootings show that kids that are victims of bullying are “twice as likely to bring a weapon to school” (Mother Jones par2). Many people tend to overlook the situation of bullying in school and social media.
The Vicious Cycle School Shootings Create As school shootings are on the rise, so are students’ fear all across the nation. “According to Everytown for Gun Safety, there have been at least 149 school shootings since 2013, 52 this year alone” (Board). This shows that school shootings have become more prevalent over the years. Violent people who feel depressed, attacked, or alone, may become school shooters. While some feel these may be the causes, others think that accessibility to guns is the number one factor in these attacks.
The Columbine shooting was one of the first mass school shootings in the US, and it was one of the first school shootings on the national radar in which the shooters killed twelve students and one teacher. People sometimes admire these people and reason people try to replicate this shooting is because they sometimes idolize former school shooters. These followers will try and replicate the former assailants, in which inducing another shooting/mass shooting. It is purely disgusting that people would idolize the monsters that committed these terrible attacks on innocent
The school environment is one that has been stressed to be a safe and enjoyable place to learn. However, for many individuals, that is not the case. Students around the world have very unique experiences at school, which can unfortunately become abhorrent. According to the Center of Disease Control (CDC), and average of 96 Americans lose their lives to gun violence each day (Gun Violence by the Numbers). There are several causes of death by gun violence, but one of the causes that have become a growing problem is school shootings.