...Introduction Section On December 14th 2012, a fatal shooting occurred, the lives of twenty children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school were taken within minutes. Though he does not deserve any attention, the man that took these innocent lives was named Adam Lanza and he was just twenty years old at the time of the shooting. The children of Sandy Hook Elementary school were only in the first grade, and their lives came to a tragic end. I chose to talk about this event because I think that it is important to remember these victims, who were not old enough to have any chance to defend themselves or hardly begin their lives. As well as the fact that in 2012 I was in high school, and had cousins in Elementary school, it was so frightening...
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...William Tubao Kaplan May 7, 2014 The issue of school shootings is important to students and should be to the general public. A school shooting involves an educational institution and a firearm being discharged at its facility. It may also refer to shootings near or on a school bus or near a school when it is in session. School shootings could occur anywhere in the world where firearms are available for access. These types of shootings in particular have generated a political dispute on stricter gun control. There are well known shootings in the United States, Europe, Canada, and other countries. The United States has the highest number of school related shootings. This paper will examine a few of those incidents and compare how the media and academic articles portray them. Overall, media articles show that coverage of school shooting events such as the ones that occurred at Virginia Tech University and Sandy Hook Elementary School tend to primarily focus on the number of victims, reactions of family, the misfortune of the event, as well as the mental state and background of the shootings. For an example, in the Los Angeles Times article “Gunman kills 20 kids, 6 adults at Connecticut elementary school”, they focus on the number of dead, imagery, and the emotion after the shooting such as parent’s reactions and children’s reactions. In the article they seem to dramatize the whole situation by saying things like “Evil visited this community today”. Although it is a tragic...
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...Introduction Criminal acts, such as homicidal shootings transpire everyday. Simply shooting civilians has the ability to seriously evolve and become an active shooting emergency. An active shooting or an active shooter incident is the involvement of an individual actively engaging in killing a populated area of people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation works closely with active shooter incidents. According to the Washington Post, throughout the past seven years, averages of 16.4 of these disasters occur every year. Sixty-nine percent of them transpire in five minutes or less, thirty percent in two minutes or less. Sources also say sixty percent of these events were over before first responders arrived. The preparedness and responding of these occurrences can affect the severity of the outcome. Shooting disasters commonly happen in houses of worship, workplaces, transportation stations, community areas, and schools. Active shootings that happen in schools are incredibly dreadful because of the substantial population of children/ minors. On December 14, 2012, a local elementary school of Newton, Connecticut underwent an unexpected catastrophe. The Sandy Hook Active...
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...Circumstances of the Episode The morning of Friday December 14, 2012 claimed the “deadliest mass shooting” ( wiki) in a high school or lower level institution and the second worst mass shooting that the United States had encountered throughout history following Virginia Tech (NBC/ WASHINGTON). The most heartbreaking side to the occurrence was the fact that it took place in Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School; a place full of innocent angels that would have to face horrific scenes and undergo an unforgettable experience at such a young age. The Friday morning of such event began with a murder that no one had any idea about except for twenty-year-old Adam Lanza, the mass murderer of this episode. Before driving to Sandy Hook Elementary,...
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...14, 2012 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. That day, Lanza, who was 20 years old, shot 20 children and six adults before he killed himself and after shooting his own mother (Stanglin & Bello, 2014). According to the Office of the Child Advocate report (2014), Adam Lazan shot his mother four times with a riffle. Later, he went to Sandy Hook Elementary School and eight minutes later he had killed 20 children within the ages of six and seven, and six staff members including the school principal, psychologist, teachers and teachers’ assistants. Finally, when first responders were arriving to the school he shot himself with a handgun. Such act resulted in the establishment of the Governor’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, which provides recommendations in public safety (Shooting at Sandy, 2014). In order to analyze the criminal act and the motivations behind it, first we will...
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...They feel laws restricting gun use punish honest citizens. They believe that the governments continuously implementation of laws that restrict guns use is unconstitutional. In my opinion, the government should enforce more restrictions on gun use and gun possession to ensure the safety of children and the people in America. I will support my claim with events, incidences, and statistics that prove guns pose a threat to children. Loose restrictions on gun use or gun possession have had a negative effect on the safety of schools. Because of numerous school massacres, parents are no longer assured of their child's safety in school. There have been various cases of school massacres that have led to the death of many children and students in schools. Very popular cases of school massacres include the Sandy Hook Elementary School, The Columbine High school, and the Virginia tech massacre. All these cases illustrate the danger guns pose to children in...
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...patterns, developed in early childhood that controls behavior over the life course. These offenders may have also been bulled or abused as children who may have led to their insecurity. An example of psychodynamic theory is the case of 20 year old Adam Lanza with the Sandy Hooke shooting. On December 14, 2012, Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT and opened fire on the school. The gunman Adam Lanza had three guns, including a .223-caliber rifle. He shot and killed 20 children and 6 adults before turning the gun on himself. Also the shooter's mother was found dead at another location. According to reports, Lanza was shy as a young pre-teen and then developed into a mentally unstable adult who was a virtual outsider and had an obsession with mass murder and war. Although, Lanza was taken out of public school at 16 and homeschooled by his mother, there was nothing to suspect he would later commit such a crazy and horrifying act. There was no indication of a motive because Adam Lanza took his own life we will never know why. There are some indications he had an obsession with mass murder and collected numerous paper clippings and stories of these crimes especially the Columbine High School shooting, however, there were no indications of abuse. This led us to believe that a mental or personality disorder may have been at play. Crime is everywhere around us and you never know whose doing what in our area. In my own metropolitan area Former Philadelphia Eagles...
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...Columbine, Sandy Hook, & Stoneman Douglas are just to name a few of the deadliest school shootings in the past 20 years. Safety measures and precautions have been recently set in place to prevent massacres in the future from being a yearly occurrence. April 20, 1999 has a spot in history as one of the most tragic days in US. History. At approximately 11: 20 am, two fellow students of Columbine High School entered with the attempt to kill, destroy, and to attack on everyone in sight. As of November 30, 2012, there was 456 children enrolled in kindergarten through fourth grade at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The school's security protocols had recently been upgraded, requiring visitors to be individually admitted after visual and identification review by video monitor. Doors to the school...
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...about columbine and the 5 year old really outraged me because I believe there were signs of trouble before the shooting but I believe the administration and people around them just didn’t pay attention to the boys. Probably saying ‘boys will be boys”. It turned out to be the worst school shooting in history. The article said “A Kentucky mother stepped outside of her home just for a few minutes, but it was long enough for her 5-year-old son to accidentally shoot and kill his 2-year-old sister with the .22-caliber rifle he got for his birthday.” (5-year-old Kentucky boy fatally shoots 2-year-old sister) There is no good reason a young child should own a gun but the worst part is this is not the first and probably won’t be the last. There are others like this like two other incidents involving young children shooting others. In early April, 2013 a 4-year-old boy in Tennessee shot and killed a 48-year-old woman, and just days later, 6-year-old Brandon Holt was killed in New Jersey after being shot in the head by his 4-year-old playmate. “On April 20, 1999, two teens went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 others before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. The crime was the worst high school shooting in U.S. history and prompted a national debate on gun control and school safety, as well as a major investigation to determine what motivated the gunmen, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold...
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...continuing to change. The issue of gun control and safety if one of the most controversial and heated topics in the state as well as across the country. Gun control requires regulating the sale, possession, and use of firearms by civilians within the state. This issue has become incredibly challenging in the state following the school shooting in December 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary school. Since that dreadful day six years...
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...Gun control has always been something extremely controversial in society. But when events occur such as the shootings at columbine high school and sandy hook elementary, gun control becomes even more of an issue not just in government but in the eyes of citizens. April 20th 1999, for most people in Colorado I’m sure it started off as a normal day. By the end of the afternoon it stood out as one of the most tragic days in recent history. About twenty five people lost their lives during the shooting that day, not including the shooters who committed suicide. On December 14th 2012, an event occurred that left the whole country struck by sadness and tragedy. A mass murder occurred in sandy hook elementary school in newton Connecticut. A man named Adam Lanza killed twenty children and six staff members in the elementary school. After events like these, gun control laws become much more controversial and emotionally driven because people are still in devastation. Many parents and other family members of these events become so involved in gun control laws because of how emotional and close to home gun control becomes, after your own family is impacted. After the event at sandy hook, president Barrack Obama delivered one of the most touching and memorable speeches of his presidency. In honor of the deaths he expressed enormous sympathy for the families of the victims; he ordered flags to be flown half-staff in honor of the victims. Also Obama honored the six adults with the 2012...
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...too many accidents involving people being killed by firearms. Criminals can purchase guns to commit a crime. Semi-atomic weapons and automatic weapons are for military purpose only, and not to be used by civilians. Children can gain access to a gun and harm someone or themselves. There also would be less mass and school shootings if the government would make ban the purchase of guns. There are people who believe that there should not be a gun control law. They believe that guns protect the rights and freedoms of...
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...Sally Ngo 3/23/2015 Professor Davis Mass School Shootings Should Not Get Media Attention “So our hearts are broken today -- for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost. Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children’s innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that will ease their pain…” Obama delivered this speech to the solemn crowd about the horrific school shooting that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Should the media be allow to broadcast school shootings? The media is an accomplice in almost every single public shoot out. Nobody realize the risks local television stations and radio stations are doing by broadcasting school shooting. Could the media be at fault for creating mass shooters? Yes, because when events like this occurs, all major television stations drops their current duties and focus their attention on the shooting, and suddenly it becomes a major media event. Because they want to be the one who has the breaking news first. And that is what the perpetrator is aiming for; to become famous. The perpetrator now a name for him or herself and instantly he/she becomes an overnight celebrity. All major television and radio stations will talk about nothing else but him/her, the spotlight will primarily...
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...Research Proposal, Draft 1 It’s the morning of December 15, 2012, a day after the Sandy Hook Elementary Shootings involving twenty-year old Adam Lanza. After having to support by brother through the intense fear of being looked at differently for his disability following the shooting, I found the topic of the media scapegoating Asperger Syndrome as a main factor in school violence relevant to our class. As school violence has grown in the past twenty-five years, the media has similarly sensationalized the many killers, often times looking to diagnose them with some sort of mental illness instead of digging deeper into the environment of the individuals who commit these acts of violence. In particular, I am interested in examining the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, as well as the UC-Santa Barbara shooting. What I am particularly interested in learning more about is the media’s reaction to these two shootings in conjunction, as one was done at an elementary school with children ages 5-11, whereas the other was done on a college campus. This interests me because Asperger Syndrome is a social disorder, and the social scene of an elementary school is quite different from the social scene of a university. By providing statistical data, victim and killer testimonials, and historical data, I will make the main claim that the media has sensationalized school shootings and too often jumped to the conclusion that Asperger Syndrome is to blame, instead of investigating...
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...that occurred on December 14th 2012 that would change the world forever. This wasn’t any school shooting that could compare to ones in the past but labeled more as a mass murder. It had taken place at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, Connecticut where twenty children and six adults were fatally shot (Karl, Dwyer, & Bruce, 2013). The 20 year old man, Adam Lanza was help responsible for the shooting and killings when he then turned the gun on himself (Karl, Dwyer, & Bruce, 2013). This event has left out country weeping, broken, and frightened for such a terrible thing to happen in an elementary school of all places. This is why President Obama is trying to create a new gun control law to ban types of assault weapons, ban high-capacity magazines and put a limit to only allowing someone to having 10 rounds in their weapon but, is this going to create peace or is it going to cause more conflict (Karl, Dwyer, & Bruce, 2013)? Conflict is described as disbelief but, this does not always mean fighting as most people believe (Myers, 2010). Conflict can exist in any situation where desires, facts, or fears start to push or pull people against each other or in opposite directions (Myers, 2010). In this specific situation, the conflict would be what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School and why a mass murder like that should be able to happen in such a place as an elementary school taking so many innocent lives, young and old. Then this leads in what conflict resolution...
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