SCHOOL GUN VIOLENCE1 School Gun Violence [Student Name] Professor Small Wichita State University School Gun Violence Problem Statement America is very well known for school violence, and more specifically, school shootings. Seventeen people were killed and more than 15 injured in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018, bringing the total number of school shootings in the United States since the beginning of the year to 18 (or roughly three per week). This is the most recent shooting where there have been mass casualties, and this ultimately started the debate on what defines a “school shooting”, because of the rising gun violence. The difficulty of agreeing on a common definition of "school shooting" shows just how many different types of firearm incidents occur on school grounds. The difficulty of defining it just highlights how common it is to find guns on school grounds — in the hands of intruders, security personnel, and the students themselves (Emery). Literature Reviews/Discussion The first academic journal, Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence, talks about the two main points’ people debate on what is to blame for gun violence. Those two points are the availability of guns and mental health. Students report being increasingly afraid to go to school; among young people aged 12 to 24, 3 in 10 say violence has increased in their schools in the past year. The concern over school shootings has prompted intense national debate, in recent SCHOOL GUN VIOLENCE2 years, over who or what is to blame. The internet, daycare, movies, and other forms of media have been blamed for the rising violence, but people mainly focus on the gun availability and mental health debates. Firearms are the second leading cause of death to children between ages 10 and 14 and the eighth leading cause of death to those ages 1 to 4 (Kimmel). Some people blame it on the fact that there are too many guns that are easily available, and others believe all of this violence happens because there aren't enough guns. Big brands like Dicks have taken a stance on this debate and raised the age requirement to purchase a firearm. The other debate focuses on the mental health of the attacker. They say that the reason people go on killing sprees is because they aren’t completely put together and they had a bad childhood. This doesn’t always add up, however, because almost all the shooters came from intact and relatively stable families, with no history of child abuse. If they had psychological problems at all, they were relatively minor, and went unnoticed (Kimmel). The second journal, School Shootings, the Media, and Public Fear, focuses on school shootings as a moral panic, and it also looks at the roles played by the media and politicians in using isolated incidents to support their interests or distract the public eye. In the .

1. SCHOOL GUN VIOLENCE1
School Gun Violence
[Student Name]
Professor Small
Wichita State University
School Gun Violence
Problem Statement
America is very well known for school violence, and more
specifically, school shootings.
Seventeen people were killed and more than 15 injured in a
mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018,
bringing the total number of
school shootings in the United States since the beginning of the
year to 18 (or roughly three per
week). This is the most recent shooting where there have been
mass casualties, and this
ultimately started the debate on what defines a “school

2. shooting”, because of the rising gun
violence. The difficulty of agreeing on a common definition of
"school shooting" shows just how
many different types of firearm incidents occur on school
grounds. The difficulty of defining it
just highlights how common it is to find guns on school grounds
— in the hands of intruders,
security personnel, and the students themselves (Emery).
Literature Reviews/Discussion
The first academic journal, Adolescent Masculinity,
Homophobia, and Violence, talks
about the two main points’ people debate on what is to blame
for gun violence. Those two points
are the availability of guns and mental health. Students report
being increasingly afraid to go to
school; among young people aged 12 to 24, 3 in 10 say violence
has increased in their schools in
the past year. The concern over school shootings has prompted
intense national debate, in recent
SCHOOL GUN VIOLENCE2

3. years, over who or what is to blame. The internet, daycare,
movies, and other forms of media
have been blamed for the rising violence, but people mainly
focus on the gun availability and
mental health debates. Firearms are the second leading cause of
death to children between ages
10 and 14 and the eighth leading cause of death to those ages 1
to 4 (Kimmel). Some people
blame it on the fact that there are too many guns that are easily
available, and others believe all
of this violence happens because there aren't enough guns. Big
brands like Dicks have taken a
stance on this debate and raised the age requirement to purchase
a firearm. The other debate
focuses on the mental health of the attacker. They say that the
reason people go on killing sprees
is because they aren’t completely put together and they had a
bad childhood. This doesn’t always
add up, however, because almost all the shooters came from
intact and relatively stable families,
with no history of child abuse. If they had psychological
problems at all, they were relatively
minor, and went unnoticed (Kimmel).
The second journal, School Shootings, the Media, and Public

4. Fear, focuses on school
shootings as a moral panic, and it also looks at the roles played
by the media and politicians in
using isolated incidents to support their interests or distract the
public eye. In the journal, they
define moral panic as when a “substantial portion of society
feels that particular evildoers pose a
threat to the moral order of society. As a result, the general
consensus among the group is to “do
something” about the issue (Burns)”. In this article it said that
some presidents have seemed to
use the attention that school shootings get to distract the public
from something that they have
done wrong. For example, President Clinton was very outspoken
in responding to the school
shootings. Throughout all of the shootings, Clinton was faced
with several potentially damaging
issues, including the Whitewater investigation, accusations of
sexual misconduct and perjury,
and other related issues.
SCHOOL GUN VIOLENCE3

5. The third journal, Suicide by Mass Murder, focuses on school
shootings that ended with
the attacker killing themselves before they were able to be
punished for their actions. More
specifically the article focuses on the school shootings at
Columbine, Virginia Tech, and
Northern Illinois. All three of which were committed by white
boys who were seemingly bullied
and wanted to take revenge on innocent lives. This trope of
school shootings is only becoming
more and more common with each shooting. Committing mass
murder can be an instrumental
way to achieve a sense of power; and framing one’s suicide with
violence and aggression may
serve to make it appear a more potent act (Kalish). The school
shootings at Columbine, Virginia
Tech, and Northern Illinois all seem to be cases of what we can
call suicide by mass murder.
Theory
Functionalism sees society as a complex system whose parts
work together to promote
stability and harmony within society. Functionalism also
analyzes how criminal acts can provide

6. some functions in society. This does not justify acts of violence
against innocent people, it just
shows that crime can have a role in society, and some positive
outcomes can be seen coming out
of extremely negative circumstances (Din). It can strengthen
group cohesion; people seem to
unite to express outrage over a crime. We feel connected to our
fellow community members.
Tragedy connects them even more deeply to one another. We
carry out collective tributes of
respect and honor the people lost in the tragedy. Crime also
inspires social change. Attacking
innocent civilians is something that needs to be punished. As a
society we see that the killing of
the shooter by police officers in such situations is something
that is accepted because of their
attack on innocent civilians.
Conclusion
SCHOOL GUN VIOLENCE4
I personally believe that guns are too available. I shouldn’t be
able to walk into Walmart

7. and purchase a gun on the spot. I shouldn’t be able to own a gun
before I can legally drink; but
that’s just my opinion. Mental health is a factor in all of this,
but in my opinion it doesn’t hold up
with being the main reason a shooting happens, lots of people
have mental health issues, they are
getting more and more common, but not everyone shoots up a
school or public area, something
else has to be going on. Take Sandy Hook for example, no one
in their right mind would kill
over twenty preschoolers, that person had to be psychologically
deranged, but I believe that there
has to be a motive to do something like that. Guns don’t kill
people; people kill people, with that
being said there needs to be stricter requirements and longer
backgrounds checks, along with
limiting the type of assault rifle available. I don’t think that
politicians are intentionally
capitalizing on the attention shootings get to hide their own
wrong-doings, I just think that that
all has to do with timing. Along with the last journal, it sucks
that mass murder-suicides are
becoming so common. In my opinion it is awful; to kill innocent
people just to make the killers

8. death have attention around it.
Works Cited
Burns, R., & Crawford, C. (1999). School shootings, the media,
and public fear: Ingredients for a
moral panic. Crime, Law and Social Change, 32(2), 147-168.
Din, M. (2013, September 25). Analyzing Tragic Mass
Shootings As A Sociologist, Part 1.
Retrieved April 28, 2018, from
http://sociologyinfocus.com/2013/09/analyzing-tragic-
mass-shootings-as-a-sociologist-part-1/
Emery, D. (2018, February 16). How Many School Shootings in
2018? Retrieved April 28, 2018,
from https://www.snopes.com/news/2018/02/16/how-many-
school-shootings-in-2018/
SCHOOL GUN VIOLENCE5
Kalish, R., & Kimmel, M. (2010). Suicide by mass murder:
Masculinity, aggrieved entitlement,
and rampage school shootings. Health Sociology Review, 19(4),
451-464.

9. Kimmel, M. S., & Mahler, M. (2003). Adolescent masculinity,
homophobia, and violence:
Random school shootings, 1982-2001. American behavioral
scientist, 46(10), 1439-1458.