Yet Another School Shooting…

I sat, eyes glued to the television today watching breaking news on yet another school shooting.

A bit of history… The earliest recorded school shooting according to Wikipedia dated back to 1764 in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. However, this one was a little different; it was called the Enoch Brown school massacre and was carried out by four Delaware (Lenape) American Indians. They shot and killed the schoolmaster Enoch Brown and then attacked the children with hand-to-hand style weapons (close body combat style killings). Only two children survived the attack, but then, there were only nine children in the schoolhouse at the time.

Here is a breakdown of the number of school shootings per century as reported by Wikipedia in the US alone:

One school shooting in the 1700’s (the Enoch Brown incident)

37 incidents in the 1800’s

234 in the 1900’s

223 so far in the 20th century (consider that we are only 18 years into this century – that’s an average of more than 12 per year so far)

Even if we do not take into consideration the previously trended growth, we could reach 1,240 by the end of this century…compare that to the one school shooting in the 1700’s.

The first school shooting that I remember was at Columbine High School in 1999; it is the first one that I recall being covered so extensively by the media. This brings me to my main point…I honestly think that if the media did not cover these tragedies as extensively as they do, perhaps they would not happen quite so often.

Here are my thoughts… when something like this happens the media are like hungry wolves chasing after Bambie. You can almost see the drool dripping from their mouths as they scarf up every bloody detail. It reminds me of the lyrics from Don Henley’s song ‘Dirty Laundry’…

”We got the bubble-headed bleach-blonde who comes on at five; 

She can tell you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye.”

One thing that really gets under my skin is when reporters interview the victims or the victim’s families, they always ask the question, “And how did that make you feel?”  How do they think it felt???

I’ve always secretly wished, just one time, someone would say (with all the sarcasm they can muster, and eyes rolling)…, “Well, uh (so and so) how the (*blank*) do you think I felt!” (They are like, “tell me your horror, your pain, and just how bad was it for you”… they are total drama junkies. It’s utterly pathetic!)

But the worst part, in my opinion, is that they plaster the picture of the perpetrator in all their pixeled glory on television for the entire world to see. Seems to me, this is possibly the very reason such sicko’s do it in the first place.

So often, they are suicidal and want to take out as many people as possible when they go. They feel that life has handed them a raw deal and revenge is tempting when the media offers them an opportunity to go out in a blaze of glory…in their errored estimation that is.

Suddenly, they are notoriously known to the world. And whether they are acknowledged in a good way or a bad way matters very little as long as they are known. This satisfies their need for attention, for validation, for recognition. They can’t be ignored – and they no longer feel little or insignificant, they feel empowered!

And like it or not, they have, in fact, changed the world (howbeit for the worst).

I believe if the media would refuse to display their pictures or even reveal the names of the perpetrators, perhaps these crimes of passion would not be as prevalent…as least for the ones driven by a desire to have their fifty minutes of fame.

Honestly, when these tragedies happen, you hear way more about the criminal than their victims. Wouldn’t it be better to downplay the perpetrator and dedicate the airwaves to the victims for a change?

I realize that there is something in all of us that “wants to know” – we have a natural curiosity and drive to know who, what, when, where and how. But, in cases like this, we must ask ourselves, are we paying much too high a price in our quest for knowledge?

I know I can live without knowing a few details if it means that television will no longer be used as a tool for disturbed delinquents to gratify themselves at the expense of the innocents.

What do you think? I would love to hear your comments, your opinions, and your ideas.