by Rabi

Created on: February 17, 2008

Turn on the news, and the headline leaves you with that horrible sinking feeling. Another school shooting. You can't believe it. Neither can the rest of the nation. What could possibly be fueling these types of uncontrolled outbursts? People want answers. Who was the shooter? Who were the victims? How were they related? Was it planned or random? There's a multitude of questions, but the most important one to mainstream society is who can we blame?

Society is so shocked and upset by the occurrences that nobody really seems to be taking the time to step back and look at why they're happening. We've had a lot of scapegoats since all of this started. Marylin Manson must have struck a nerve with someone somewhere down the line, because he and his music were one of the initial targets of blame. Then of course, someone decided it was time to start blaming violence in the media. Television, movie, and video game violence must be it.

That's a load of garbage. Take a look at all of the shootings in the past few years. It's nearly impossible to get beyond the horrific nature of each incident. The shock value clouds the judgment of what truly went down. These youths have far too many similarities to ignore. The common trends stick out like a sore thumb, and it's irresponsible to ignore them in favor of blaming violent media.

Most of these shooters have been bullied, withdrawn, on some form of medication, etc. It's then a very distinct split from there. They were either pushed and pushed over a period of time, such as the Columbine shooters, or something out of nowhere happened that just struck the right button. This is no excuse, but it does offer some closer and more realistic outlets for blame.

What's important to realize is that the reasoning going through these shooters' minds was completely rational to them. It likely won't be rational to us. We need to look at why they saw it as the ultimate solution. Sometimes you just have a case where someone was pushed too far.

The reaction these people likely had towards violent TV, movies, and video games could potentially have served more as an indication of their direction rather than a cause of it. Sure, it may have provided tactical ideas, but the idea doesn't just appear out of thin air. There had to have been some driving factor that lead them to it.

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