Campus Shootings

News of another tragic campus shooting, this time at Northern Illinois University, makes me wish I knew more about criminology and crime prediction, and I have been looking for and at literature on the subject. We know that some crimes generate copycat crimes, but it is hard to say in advance which ones do so. If, some years ago, airline hijackings triggered imitations, perhaps because the media coverage was a draw or because it became the implicitly agreed-upon battlefield between terrorist groups and some governments, then that was an important thing to know as soon as possible because precautions could be taken to reduce the incidence of the crime or to reduce the loss of life once underway.

Campus shootings seem different and, in a way, more difficult. Perpetrators (like hijackers) must expect to die in the act, and indeed it may be that most of the plotters would plan simpler suicides except for the fact that they see a way to go out in a blaze of mayhem, which they seem to find appealing. If so, one strategy might be to try and encourage (which is to say substitute towards) more conventional suicides in order to avoid the murdering of innocents. I do not propose that we censor the media, but reports of these killings do provide a great deal of information about the killers, and too little about the victims. I can now recall many details about the Virginia Tech shooter, and also about one post-office shooters, but I regret to say that I remember very little about the victims. We might try to cut down on this coverage of the killer-suicider, and emphasize the victims more, so that would-be plotters might prefer to die in solitude. One might be tempted to say that we ought to hope for more coverage of the lives and death of solitary suicides, if that will encourage substitution away from mass shootings, but that runs the grave risk of encouraging more suicides. Current news coverage seems aimed at the question of whether we can predict who these killers will be. if we can, then of course it is a good idea to share information and contemplate what steps might have been taken to ward them off. But if our best guess, or science, is that prediction is close to impossible, as is my impression from the reading I have done, then we may do much more harm than good by proceeding as if our task is to understand what drove these people to their crimes and deaths. 

Finally, there is the question of straightforward deterrence. If high school and college campus shootings become regular events, we will face the familiar question of gun control versus armed guards or citizenry. Again, I am merely a consumer of that literature, but so long as the perpetrators plan to take their own lives, as they seem to, deterrence is awfully difficult. Campuses and buildings might be secured, as they are in Israel, with bags checked at each entrance. This is a serious cost, and not one we will find many campuses doing unless things get much worse. Moreover, the killings we have experienced are generally committed by persons who would have access to campus because they are students. Large-scale security operations generally wave through most regulars and focus attention on guests. We must hope that our tragedies will be, at worst, intermittent rather than multiplied. This is very sad, and sadder still because while we hope for improvement, there seems to be very little we can do to bring improvement about.

Comments

[Joan A. Conway]

are irrational act of violence, act of opportunity, and not so random, His intention was to be acknowledge for his talent to present a graphic description or representation: Picture of a striking college-aged grouping usually associated with a living picture. Of course, we all know it is nothing new in the last two decades. 'Slo' depicted a scene usually presented on a stage, lecture hall, or curtain lecture if you will, by silent and motionless everyday-wear participants for prosperity. 'Slo' wanted recognition for his suicidal-artistic leanings in the end of his act. It was curtains for 'Slo' if he was caught. That is a motive of a COWARD, who engaged a final solution for his mental illness, and leave behind him a curtain call via his murders and slain colleagues. I believe 'Slo" knew what he was doing in an irrational way; that it was planned for sometime too. These individuals are gaming our attention with their immature minds. They want our attention on way or another. I further guess somewhat had gotten 'Slo's' goat and he felt he had to get even as well. Another pretext to commit suicide. His reasons are superficial. These are my interpretation of why

[Joan A. Conway, Media's MacBeth Dilemma: Living Picture vs. Death Picture.]

The Amended Version:

Now that I have a computer it should be easier for me to stay the course.

However, I first attacked the subject from the point of view of who are the defendants in a potential case, and then with further thought over Steven Kazmierczak's "Tableau" of silent and motionless everyday wear participants I recognized a curtain call as his final solution to the mental illness deranging him.

The media will race for the death picture and forego the living picture, because the former is news.

It was curtains for Steven if he would have been caught; this is a pretext to commit suicide for a coward, because he is choosing an end to his acts of mass violence for his own demise.

The overtones are artistic in the sense that Steven made a graphic representation of his slaughter and elimination of colleagues; his competition went insane for reasons we can only guess.

I suggest someone got his goat and he was defending his honor. He desired to be thought of as a person capable of creating a striking or artistic grouping to attach to his legacy.

Again literary life cares more for the insane mountain-climber versus the sane pedestrian.

Steven draws another picture of a conclusion that 'a curtain lecture' was held between the unfortunate colleagues he held to be his subject in death, and him being the master of their terror and being extinguished.

[LegioNofZioN]

I understand your ideas Roach, but I must admit to being fairly weary of guns. In Toronto the last few years saw an upswing in murders, especially gun related ones. Our policians immediately went about trying to secure our border further from the US as most of these guns originate there. 2006 was dubbed the summer of the gun locally as murders quickly approached near record numbers 2nd only to 1991. In 2007 our police actively engaged in anti gang sweeps and many of these guns were taken off our streets. Last year our murder rate slipped slightly due to this proactive stance, but then stabbing related murders increased dramatically. the moral of the story is that even without guns people still kill, and the root causes and factors must be addressed. Eliminating guns or arming everyone, neither situation can guarantee that no one will be senselessly murdered again. If the aim is the curb violence, despite my concerns, arming everyone has proven to work better than bans albeit only in small communities. My goal, and the goal we should all be worried about is eliminating the issue.