What Motivates School Shooters?
Summary:
This article in the Psychologytoday.com, tells the reader about how and why mass shooters act a certain way. What their motives are behind this and what steps to take to prevent at least a minority of these events. This article is being written by a PHD women that wrote this information based on what recently happened in the United States. This is because the writer brings up a lot of back up information, and real life example of actual shootings that happened in the past. The writer tells the reader that all these shootings are done for a reason, and that we as humans have to spot these “Red flags” that can lead to a positive outcome result for us. One of the shooters motives are a quest for fame. The writers explain that shooters are being given the wrong image or perception that to be noticeable you need to stand out. Although when this is mixed with the wrong kind of fame, like being astonished by the violence another one commits, then this gets out of hand. For these people the reality and the Hollywood films get mixed up and they seek fame in all sorts of fields, even the ones that include violence and mass killing! Another option Wendy the author explained is that the shooter in the past might have been perceived a sort of false rejection, that he/she over exaggerated. Thinking that they are the worst victim being bullied over time gives a sense of rejection. This blocks them away from the public and they feel that they are left out, when in reality they made all this up and their mind just went along with it. Returning back to fame, which in the first place is a sort of motivation to get the job done and go till the end. When put in a negative environment this leads to very dangerous situations that anybody can commit. The opposite of this is the feeling of being rejected or left out, the so-called victim is always in a state of depression and doesn’t really show any movement until at one point something big triggers this fast impact. The third and last thing the author talked about is that these people always feel a sense of injustice to themselves and always complain that their life’s not fair. When the brain gets used to this negativity then over time it only takes a small issue to turn into an enormous scandal, and this leads to fights, arguments, and loneliness for the shooter. These are the early signs of the danger that can lay ahead of them. Wendy says that the public needs to stop the ongoing mass information that as she sees it, provokes the mental disorder of these people even further.
When the news or any other information based agency gives out all the details, then for these traumatized mentally ill people comes an understanding that there are others like them and that this is normal. She argues that these news agencies show way too much graphic contend and sort of feed these newly developing insane ideas. All this is usually just making business and not actually feeling of sadness even to the actual victims of these mass shootings and therefore these realities get mashed up into this one big mess. Even these journalists don’t really take this seriously, because for them it’s another typical shooting that they have to cover in order to make money. Their feelings and the brains stimuli loses its awareness over time. Wendy writes that these people say that the wrong people are being treated nice and that they are the ones that are supposed to have all the success and attention. But when the brain gives up thinking because of too many depression or nerves, these people can’t even physically do anything to change in a possible way. They need the help of qualified professionals, that have already encountered this type of situation. Although saying this may not always be right, because sometimes the case gets so out of control that even the medical personal can’t change the situation!
Analysis:
In this article, there was a lot of good things said and I agree with most of the stuff Wendy said. I also think that behind all these mass shooting there has to be something more than just a mentally ill patient. These were years of dehumanizing the person and the loss of reality plays a big role in this. Nowadays there are too much video games about violence and mass information that anybody, even a teenager can access. Teen years are especially dangerous because without all these mental issues, teens already have a hard time with there every day life. They go to school, learn a lot of information that might not even be needed and then have to make a right decision that will positively affect their future. They are also falling in love and the pressure from adults that are put on their shoulders can be stressful. The mental process is reaching their peak speed, and are coming to a finish. Now imagine that on top of all this, they start to develop the wrong instincts of there life and survival. Every person is different and unique in his or her own way, and one’s actions are total complete opposite of another’s. That said, a person’s mental process and its behavior differ also, a type of trigger to get mad can impact work on one person, while totally not touch another. Experiences are the background to everything in my opinion. What a person went through is therefore how they react in certain situations. Character also matters alongside with personality- they shape the durability and how much a person can take before either falling down, or having a rebellion reaction. Sometimes these norms are moved in the wrong direction and a person can think that what he is doing is right, when in reality this is a very dangerous path that he just took. A lot of factors contribute to one’s behavior, but in my opinion one thing always plays a key role. That is a person’s lifestyle changes his mindset either in a positive or negative way. What I do throughout the day, what kind of friends I have, and what places I go to lead the bright future, or the darkest illusion that one could make up for himself. At the end of the day it matters how long you fought the battle with your mind and not just separate circumstances. From a psychological point of view, any person can become a mass shooter and everyone has an equal chance. This might be shocking and to some pure nonsense, but I believe that those people who actually went out and started killing all these innocent people; if you can call them actually innocent. What if a big percentage of these victims actually deserved this end? What if these victims were worse than the actual shooter? What I just showed you (the reader), is how even I can have unordinary thoughts flying through my brain. Didn’t expect that coming huh? This was just a small example of a what if scenario, and I actually strongly am against all this violence because I myself am Christian and I was taught that any sort of violence is unacceptable.
Now from all this how would you know that what I told you about myself is true? You just can’t! Only you yourself can know what is happening in your thoughts and processes, and whoever believes in a God would accept that he also sees everyone’s mind. The reason I think why us ordinary people don’t go off and shooting random people is that we are still in control of our mind and have a sense that this is not ok. Maybe even work out a coping mechanism when experiencing too much stress. Working out or doing sports might be one example of how one can run away from bad thoughts. Patients plays also a key role in our humanist actions. Patience is acquired over a long period of time and hardship, if we hold on tight and survive this, the better days will definitely come as a reward for our hard effort. A famous saying,” there are white and black keys on a piano- you just need to know how to play them all”. I actually experienced these days as did so many people in this world, and I got to say they aren’t the most pleasant ones. But when you come out as a winner from this mental war, the feelings you have are just priceless, and mostly unexplainable. Every person goes through hard times and this doesn’t give him a reason to go start shooting everyone, or make some sick fame out of it. I can’t fully explain why or to what level a person has to downgrade to think that killing people he doesn’t even know will get him fame. Its rather the opposite, this will get them a life sentence as a minimum!
One little thing that I don’t really agree with the writer of this article is that she says that the news is at fault mainly for this mass killing. I think the public media and news have nothing to do with their actions. When a person already started to have these thoughts in his brain, it will lead him to the feeds, like news in this case. It is not the news that make up a serial killer, but the serial killer that uses the news as a source of tools for his evil plans. I hear nowadays from elderly people that,” back in my day, there was less violence and everyone was peaceful”. I’m sorry but looking back at history, it just purely repeats itself. To say that in the past there wasn’t any killings or death, is just total illusion lies! The only difference there is in my opinion, is that these shootings changed their image, for example: mass killings if you went catholic in the middle ages was thought as good things, but that is pure insanity! There is no difference with these shooters and those people who killed enormous amounts of innocent lives. I think right now it’s actually better that everyone knows what is going on in this world, which means the people can at least take some kind of measures from being informed of the danger. Back then the government hid everything and sometimes it even brain-washed the public into thinking that this is done for the prosperity of the people. Although there is still a lot to improve on, I would say our world today is getting more informed than ever, and is becoming more psychologically challenged then ever with all these newly developing technologies. All we have to do is start caring more for people and be more positive about life, then the shooter problem will disappear