FREE ESSAY ON THE REAL REASON BEHIND THE RECENT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

THE REAL REASON BEHIND THE RECENT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic
school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors
such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the
violence.
The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who
killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or
three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the
media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more
attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the
child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were
commonplace. Also in this "home" guns were easily accessible to the child. Children
growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for
future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school
violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the
child's young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma
we face in this country. 
Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was
still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to
kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information
regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding
to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news
reports and write a book entitled, "How to Slay Your Classmates". This onslaught was
ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless
weeks. 
Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation
blamed it on television's violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music
recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these
reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and
CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries
controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same
explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun's fault that a person killed another
human being? We try to blame the way our young generation is behaving on inanimate
objects. Parents need to accept the responsibility for their children's actions.
As we look around at other countries, we see that the United States is the only country
with this problem. Additional discipline is needed in order to stop this madness. We need
more discipline in the family, in school, and even in public. We need to educate children
that their actions do have consequences. As our country's morals keep declining and the
murder rate continues to rise, we will still be blaming our problems on anything but us.

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