School shootings seem to be really common in the United States in particular. Since 2015 to the time of writing this, there have been 82 school shootings in that country. 36 of them during 2018 alone. Most of them have resulted in no fatalities, or just one or two. However, there have been several much deadlier ones.
In contrast, only three school shootings have happened in Europe between 2015 and 2018, one per year, resulting in only one fatality in total. (Interestingly, only one of those instances involved firearms. One of them was perpetrated with a crossbow, which still counts as a "school shooting" in statistics. The other was perpetrated with a gas-operated pistol, and resulted in no fatalities, only bruises. Also still counted as a "school shooting" in statistics, though.)
The United States is indeed the "school shooting capital" of the world, with an amount of shootings that exceeds the entirety of the rest of the world by a country mile, typically with more school shootings per year than any other country has had during its entire history.
What makes the United States in particular such a hot spot for such events?
I would argue that both the easy availability of firearms, and the overall gun culture.
Pro-gun conservatives will quickly defend their gun culture, and ferociously present counter-arguments. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Guns don't make a teenager suddenly one morning decide to go to school to shoot people." The gist is that guns themselves don't cause school shootings. Mental illness, and a lack of help for troubled people does. (An argument that's highly ironic given how much they oppose affordable/free universal healthcare...)
However, I would argue that yes, guns do cause school shootings.
Not all by themselves, of course. Not in a vacuum. It of course also necessitates a person with a severe mental problem. However, I would argue that the guns, and the gun culture, make these people commit the act.
Firearms are "cool". They give a person an immense amount of power. It makes other people run scared, screaming for their lives. A person wielding a gun, and shooting at people, is like a superhuman: It bestows the person with an amazing amount of power, both physically and psychologically. A gun can be used to make people do almost anything you want, and it can be used to easily hurt and kill people, to "punish" them for whatever slight they may have committed.
It doesn't take much for a person who is suffering a complete mental breakdown, a psychotic episode, or is otherwise completely mentally disturbed, who has easy access to guns, to use those guns for such a power trip. Perhaps they do it for some kind of sense of "revenge" against a society, or people, they feel have been unfair or hurtful to them. Or perhaps they are completely tired of living, and want to go out with a bang (quite literally). Or perhaps something just snaps inside their brains, and makes them commit such an act for whatever reason their troubled and delusional mind concocts.
Whatever the reason, guns are not only an enabler of this, but a big motivator. Guns are what gives them this power that their deranged mind desires. It's perfectly possible, even probable, that if they had no guns, they wouldn't even go on a murdering rampage at all, for the simple reason that they can't get "high" on such a "power trip" that guns give them. Other possible weapon, like knives, don't have even nearly as much power, nor feel so powerful, as guns.
It doesn't exactly help that their surrounding culture idolizes and glorifies guns, and gun violence. It only exacerbates the problem.
So yes, I would say that it's precisely guns that are a primary cause of school shootings. As said, not in a vacuum, but without guns the number of such murderous rampages in schools in particular, and the number of casualties, would probably be but a tiny fraction of the current numbers.
We only have to look at most other countries where gun ownership is significantly rarer, and there isn't such a gun culture. There aren't many school shootings there. In most such countries there have never been any sort of school shooting (with a firearm or anything else for that matter.) I doubt that the amount and severity of mental illness and mental problems in those countries is significantly less than in the United States.
In contrast, only three school shootings have happened in Europe between 2015 and 2018, one per year, resulting in only one fatality in total. (Interestingly, only one of those instances involved firearms. One of them was perpetrated with a crossbow, which still counts as a "school shooting" in statistics. The other was perpetrated with a gas-operated pistol, and resulted in no fatalities, only bruises. Also still counted as a "school shooting" in statistics, though.)
The United States is indeed the "school shooting capital" of the world, with an amount of shootings that exceeds the entirety of the rest of the world by a country mile, typically with more school shootings per year than any other country has had during its entire history.
What makes the United States in particular such a hot spot for such events?
I would argue that both the easy availability of firearms, and the overall gun culture.
Pro-gun conservatives will quickly defend their gun culture, and ferociously present counter-arguments. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Guns don't make a teenager suddenly one morning decide to go to school to shoot people." The gist is that guns themselves don't cause school shootings. Mental illness, and a lack of help for troubled people does. (An argument that's highly ironic given how much they oppose affordable/free universal healthcare...)
However, I would argue that yes, guns do cause school shootings.
Not all by themselves, of course. Not in a vacuum. It of course also necessitates a person with a severe mental problem. However, I would argue that the guns, and the gun culture, make these people commit the act.
Firearms are "cool". They give a person an immense amount of power. It makes other people run scared, screaming for their lives. A person wielding a gun, and shooting at people, is like a superhuman: It bestows the person with an amazing amount of power, both physically and psychologically. A gun can be used to make people do almost anything you want, and it can be used to easily hurt and kill people, to "punish" them for whatever slight they may have committed.
It doesn't take much for a person who is suffering a complete mental breakdown, a psychotic episode, or is otherwise completely mentally disturbed, who has easy access to guns, to use those guns for such a power trip. Perhaps they do it for some kind of sense of "revenge" against a society, or people, they feel have been unfair or hurtful to them. Or perhaps they are completely tired of living, and want to go out with a bang (quite literally). Or perhaps something just snaps inside their brains, and makes them commit such an act for whatever reason their troubled and delusional mind concocts.
Whatever the reason, guns are not only an enabler of this, but a big motivator. Guns are what gives them this power that their deranged mind desires. It's perfectly possible, even probable, that if they had no guns, they wouldn't even go on a murdering rampage at all, for the simple reason that they can't get "high" on such a "power trip" that guns give them. Other possible weapon, like knives, don't have even nearly as much power, nor feel so powerful, as guns.
It doesn't exactly help that their surrounding culture idolizes and glorifies guns, and gun violence. It only exacerbates the problem.
So yes, I would say that it's precisely guns that are a primary cause of school shootings. As said, not in a vacuum, but without guns the number of such murderous rampages in schools in particular, and the number of casualties, would probably be but a tiny fraction of the current numbers.
We only have to look at most other countries where gun ownership is significantly rarer, and there isn't such a gun culture. There aren't many school shootings there. In most such countries there have never been any sort of school shooting (with a firearm or anything else for that matter.) I doubt that the amount and severity of mental illness and mental problems in those countries is significantly less than in the United States.
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