Let me just first say that I do not wish to talk about this issue at all. But due to unforeseen and recent occurrences, it has become something that cannot and must not be put off any longer.
Born in 1994, one of my favorite pastimes while growing up was to watch the evening news with my parents. Before I reached my middle and high school years, there were a lot of things I didn't understand. So when I watched the news and attempted to absorb something, I didn't fully understand, I would look at my parents' reactions to gauge what kind of news it was. If it was a smile, a neutral expression, or a look of horror, that was enough for me to know just what kind of news it was. One of the things I'll never forget is how my mother would react when a single word was uttered on the evening news. "Columbine."
Said from time to time, usually in reference to acts of violence that were labeled as "mass shootings," it was something that I did not fully understand until the day when one of the most tragic events of the 21st century occurred during the second half of my 7th grade year: the Virginia Tech Shooting. The deadliest school shooting in United States history since the 1966 University of Texas-Austin Shooting that left 16 dead and 31 wounded, 32 people were killed, in addition to 25 being wounded.
Because of the overwhelming amount of lives lost that day, and the fact that yet another mass shooting took place in a school of all places, nothing was reported on the news but the tragedies that transpired that fateful day at Virginia Tech. People had every right to feel shocked, terrified, and depressed that students and faculty alike lost their lives to a madman that day. But to the alarm of some, the killer who caused so many so much grief was oftentimes the center of attention. In countless television news programs, newspapers, and online articles, the killer was present in one way or another. Sending photos and videos of himself posing with weapons, and a copy of his manifesto to news stations before the attack (which would eventually be aired) the killer was successful in his bid to become infamous as a troubled youth who would kill as many as possible in a sick way of taking his anger out on those around him.
While mass shootings, including school shootings, already existed in previous decades, everything changed in 1999 at Columbine High School. Two troubled teens, for reasons that are still not fully understand to this day, decided upon themselves to murder as many as possible in their school before turning the guns on themselves. This shocking event attracted the attention of the nation and the world, as people turned to discussions about gun control, metal health, and substance abuse as they struggled to decipher and understand the killers' motives and background stories. The media, albeit unknowingly and not on purpose, showed to the masses that committing heinous acts of terror would guarantee national and even possible international coverage. Coverage meant attention, and attention meant recognition. Unfortunately, this was something that the Virginia Tech shooter would go on to take full advantage of.
According to Wikipedia, 47 school shootings took place in the 1990s. 48 took place in the 2000s. But in the 2010s, that number more than doubled as it reached 118 with the Umpqua Community College Shooting that happened only a few days ago on October 1st. With five years left until the start of a new decade, this information is absolutely terrifying. With access to firearms and ammunition fairly accessible, and the increasing amount of media coverage that focus more on the killer rather than the victims, many potential killers potentially flirt with the idea of committing a violent act not only to vent their frustrations and pains, but to draw attention to themselves so that everyone can feel their grief and their rage; to understand why they did it; to fear them.
And this needs to stop.
Because gun control laws cannot come soon enough, or even at all, those who hold the most amount of power are not politicians, but the media. If the media were to exercise more restraint, respect, and professionalism, then there would be a drastic drop in sensationalized news where photos of the killers and their motives are plastered all over the front page of the news. What the media does is that it provides potential would-be killers a significant incentive to commit violence in the hopes that they achieve widespread fame. If we, the people, wish to take this matter into our own hands to resolve this issue as quickly as we can and the best we can, we must be vocal in our demands that the media stop the peddling of sensationalized news, thus taking away the potential fame associated with it.
Remember the victims, NOT the killers who took them away too early.
The 16 victims of the University of Texas-Austin Shooting
The 13 victims of the Columbine High School Shooting
The 32 victims of the Virginia Tech Shooting
