How do you suppose we help would be school shooters?

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...There was an article in ESQUIRE some months back by a convicted would-be school shooter who was stopped before he did it and so is out of prison now ~ His identity was concealed .
Did anyone else here read it ?????

There's no point in examining the potential for absolutes. Dichotomies are always false.

Japan averages about 2 firearm deaths per year. But i don't care to discuss that.

What we can do about these events is twofold.

1: Vastly increase the availability and affordability of psychiatric care, to the point of providing it gratis for the majority of people under the age of, oh, lets say 25 or whatever the average age is where the prefrontal lobe becomes fully mature and the hormones start to normalize. And potentially making it compulsory for people who have certain clinical traits that statistically increase the probability of violence.

2: Make it substantially more difficult for people judged to be psychologically or emotionally unstable by a qualified professional to legally acquire firearms. Typically, school shootings are not perpetrated by hardened criminals so it is expected that most of them have no clue how to acquire a gun illegally. It would be necessary to additionally pass laws outlining the partial responsibility of those who make firearms available - intentionally or through negligence - to those who cannot acquire them legally. This would mean that parents of unstable children will need to either not have firearms or to keep them in a safe of some substantial quality without giving their children access to the safe. This would also cover the girlfriend scenario ala dylan klebold. If you can do 20 years for proxy purchasing, people will be less inclined to proxy purchase. You could even have exemptions for shooting ranges, legal hunting well outside of civilized areas, etc - so long as the person who hands them the gun for a legal use is held responsible for getting it back before the leave the area of the legal use.

yes, but these other weapons aren't nearly as efficient in killing, especially not in numbers.

Nothing can be done. Most don't seek psychiatric care that need it (and it was just on the news that psychiatrists are much in demand - more patients and no doctors to treat), and guns can always be bought on the black market. The only way is to arm the teachers and allow conceal carry on campuses and for campus security to be armed. Also cameras throughout along with a "panic button" in every classroom.

In Japan, it's widely and strongly agreed that guns are for cowards. This may have something to do with their low firearm-death figure.

Yes but guns are quicker to kill with. With a rock or any other weapon, you would have to go to each individual and do it and that gives other people time to stop you and retrain you but with a gun it's quick you can kill people fast with it.

Also I am not smart enough to even make a bomb but I would understand if anyone didn't want to take that chance because people can be full of surprises.

I would think anyone who has a history of violence, behavior issues, issues with impulse, being impulsive, should not be allowed to handle a gun or be taught how to handle them. That is the pattern I have noticed with school shooters, they always have a history of these problems and the fact they have violent fantasies. That is why my parents kept me away from guns by making sure my grandfather's was locked up and that they never had any at their house.

The three main issues are:

1) The lack of mental health services in the U.S., due to constant defunding from the 1980s on.
It is really hard to get any form of mental health services in most states, due to this issue. Most private insurance won't cover it in any real degree let alone the prescriptions. You are essentially paying out of pocket for the most part in nearly every state.

2) There is a huge negative stigma against any man or boy who admits to mental health issues including depression, anxiety and sadness. Men and boys are still taught to man up and not seek help, unless they want to be seen as weak or feminine. It's not unusual to be ostracized by family, friends and co workers for having these issues and seeking help.
Hell men and boys get fired for it all the time (obviously they don't list it as the reason).

3) in practically every state you can go to a gun store have your name and ID ran, and get a gun very quickly provided no major red flags come up. Also the system is not easily updated due to insurance companies and others not willing to hand over the information easily and quickly.
So you can get a gun within a few hours and go on your way.

If you go to a gun show, pay in cash and you walk out with a gun. It is treated like any other purchase.

They need to close these loop holes and force a decent wait time to allow for through background checks, maybe a week or two wait period before you can take your gun home.
Imagine if you had to jump through the amount of difficult hoops to get a gun as you do to get your insurance company to pay your medical bills... It would seriously put a dent in gun sales and violence.

WHY IS IT HARDER TO GET MEDICAL AND CAR INSURANCE TO PAY BILLS THAN TO GET A DAMN GUN?!

Give them another outlet besides guns. It's no coincidence that there was a rise in shootings around the same time that there was a zero tolerance for fighting and violence in schools. I'm not advocating fighting, I'm saying that because kids brains aren't developed all the way yet, sometimes they need some kind of primitave sort of outlet and if they can't duke it out without getting expelled and locked up, I'm pretty sure a lot of them feel like they might as well go for broke and take others out instead.

Stop that zero tolerance BS.

sports and video games are outlets. fighting need not be added.

They don't really help get the frustration out. I'm not saying encourage fighting, just stop making the huge deal out of it they do now. If kids know they can punch the other kid they are more likely to do than instead of shooting them.

More generous mental health system, much more emphasis put on transition and adult services. Too many people fall between the cracks, would this stop all would be shooters? No but nothing would. Guns aren't the problem, it's completely after the fact that most do anything that would disqualify them from ownership. People lose their minds, it's a process. Schizophrenia's onset is around 21 years old, what age are most of these shooters? Everyone needs more jobs and some fulfillment in their lives, maybe if these people valued something in their lives they wouldn't of done what they done.

Which would you rather have: Loss of trust or loss of life?

There is the idea that motorcycle helmet laws were enacted because motorcyclists could not be trusted to drive safely, for example.

Monitoring the behavior of every teenager and young adult would lessen the chances that any one of them would "fall through the cracks" and commit a violent act without warning.

So what if trust is lost? People aren't worthy of trust until they've earned it, anyway.

I'll use the infamous Columbine High School shooting as an example.

Eric Harris' activities should have been more closely monitored, especially because he was depressed. I suppose it is okay to watch violent movies and play violent video games, however Eric made that fictional violence a reality. The quantities of medication he was taking were superfluous. He had copious amounts of anti-depressants in his body upon his autopsy. The controlled substances he was taking weren't monitored by his parents, that was a large factor.

Eric's mother could tell his behaviour was strange. She could have checked his room. She would have found all the guns and pipe bombs he owned. She could have confiscated those.

If the parking lot was monitored even more, they would have been able to contact proper authorities quicker and lowered the death count substantially.

The police didn't enter the building until the massacre was over. They should have had the resources to go into the school and arrest or kill the two shooters.

It could have been prevented.

As for the gun control debate. I don't think there is a solution to prevent shootings.

Also, bullying often causes school shootings. Bullying needs to stop. There are a few outcomes.

-Victims kills him/herself.
-Victim shoots up the school.
-Victim finds ways to deal with it.
-Victim bears with it until they can leave the problem.


If bullying could stop, that might help as well.

http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/wayne-c ... in-schools

A Wayne county judge (the county Detroit is in) said Zero Tolerance is a pipeline to prison.





Zero tolerance still has public support.

^^^^^^^^^^ Excellent point. That and the fact that private ownership of most guns is illegal in Japan.