At last count, the total killed in a Connecticut school shooting was 27. Twenty of those dead-Kindergarteners. Five-year-olds. Little chubby faces with eyes bright and full of promise. The outrage of previous school shootings was high, but a shooting targeting the youngest members of the student body is unfathomable. It makes us hold our children tighter, give them extra hugs, and give second thoughts to putting them on the bus in the morning or letting them play at the playground in the neighborhood.
In times like these, we search for a reason why. Our humanness searches for understanding. We have an innate need to understand. We need to make sense of things. Unfortunately, in these types of situations, things just don’t make sense. You won’t be able to figure it out at the end of a pencil.
As we have examined the previous school shootings over the years, from Columbine to Paducah to Virginia Tech, we have learned a few things. First, there is no “profile” or “formula” to use to identify a potential threat on this scale. If that were the case, we could have predicted and prevented the other shootings.
What we know is it is almost a case of a perfect storm in these situations. Just as in nature certain elements line up to create storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes, acts of violence often come about due to certain predispositions, experiences, and circumstances in an individual’s life. Here are some of the factors that may be at play within an individual who perpetrates such an unthinkable act.
MENTAL ILLNESS
This is a complex factor. It is important to understand that mental illness alone does not cause someone to be violent or aggressive. However, mental illness can include symptoms such as depression, anxiety, hallucinations, a loss of touch with reality, and other issues that can cloud someone’s judgment.
ABUSE HISTORY
Abuse has destructive consequences. It can completely change someone. Those who have suffered abuse often take one of two turns. They can either retreat within themselves and become withdrawn, anxious, and reclusive or they can turn their anger outward and become abusive to others, angry, and aggressive. The abuse can be in the form of sexual abuse, bullying, or verbal and emotional abuse. Abuse wounds deeply and often those who have been abused do not reveal their abuse or seek help in dealing with its devastation. This is especially damaging.
POOR PARENTING
A parent’s job is to provide a safe environment in which their kids can grow and thrive. Parents are to do their best to meet the needs of the child-physical, and emotional needs. This means parents are often the bad guys when they exercise discipline and set boundaries. But, this is absolutely necessary in order to give our kids the best shot of becoming well-adjusted adults. Without those boundaries and discipline, our children grow to believe the world revolves around them and exists to make them happy. When they bump up against the real world and it doesn’t bow to their wishes and whims, they aren’t equipped with the coping skills to know how to handle those disappointments. We cannot forget it is a parent’s job to meet their child’s spiritual needs. We need to teach them about God, right and wrong, and the need to do the right thing, even when it is hard or takes some work. Honesty, integrity, compassion, generosity-all Christian ideas-make this world livable. We need more of these traits in our world. Many of us learned those traits at church, but church seems to take a back seat to sports and school and TV and video games these days.
GENETICS AND BIOLOGY
There is no gene linked to causing violence. However, our genes determine our temperaments. How emotional we are. How _______________________________________________. If we pair our temperaments with an abuse history and poor parenting, we have quite a few strikes in our column for adapting well to the ups and downs of life. Traumatic brain injuries can also affect a person’s ability to make good decisions and can completely change someone’s personality based on the area of the brain in which the trauma occurs. Those types of injuries cannot be fixed with medication.
GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT
There is one issue in the field of psychology that is not debated-the effects of violent TV, violent movies, and violent video games on children and adolescents. Recent research has shown the pre-frontal cortex of the brain (the decision making center of our brains) is not fully developed until our mid-twenties, sometimes early thirties. If we allow children to play violent video games and watch violent TV and movies when they turn 6, by the time they are 25, they’ve had 19 years of garbage poured into their brains. It has an effect. A terrible, horrible effect.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
We all have chemicals floating around in our brains. Each person’s brain chemistry is different. Often, when our brain chemistry is out of balance, we turn to prescription drugs, legal drugs (alcohol), and illicit drugs to help us feel better. Unfortunately, everyone responds differently to chemicals we add on our own to our systems. Sometimes chemicals grab ahold of us and don’t let go. No matter how much we will ourselves to be rid of the drugs, our brains crave it so badly we can’t kick the habit. The drugs change us and it takes quite a bit of work and heartache to learn to live life without them.
EVIL JUST EXISTS
We do not live in a perfect world. Eutopia just doesn’t exist. Bad things happen to good people. Evil is no respecter of age, person, wealth, or position. It is a hard, cold fact of living in this world. Evil just is.
It is extremely important to recognize that one of these factors alone does not usually provoke such violence in an individual. We cannot sit back and blame this man’s parents. We can’t blame his genes and give him a pass. However, we can pay closer attention to those around us and try to help those who may be struggling. Perhaps you can be a listening ear to someone struggling with depression. Or, maybe you can step into the life of someone who has been abused and show them what pure and unsullied love really looks like. Maybe you know a child who is without a mother or father and you can include them in your family gatherings and set a good example for them by allowing them to see how you parent your own children. If you know someone who is struggling, you may even be able to suggest he/she contact a professional counselor or therapist to help them sort through some of the pressing issues. Whatever you do, don’t bury your head and wait for someone else to help. Someone else may be looking to you to do it.
