“ Pointing the Emotional Finger” is the name that I have produced for the story “ There Are No Lessons To Be Learned From Littleton”, by Gary Kleck. The author is a U.S born Criminologist with a thirst to design an action plan for gun control in the USA. Kleck has had many articles published that focus on gun control, gun trafficking, gun accidents and he has also written articles for the Criminal justice ethics magazine. In addition to his work on guns and violence, Kleck has also conducted hours of research for Criminal codes regarding guns.
As I clip into the first paragraph, the author explains the statistics of a violent massacre and then compares this act to other mass shootings with the same variables. Reading further into the tale it was clear through the authors discussion of statistical hints, media frenzy and the emotional diagnosis helped me identify the story. The thesis through the authors discussion of the paper, is the belief that quick fixes, based on emotions stirred up by wall to wall media coverage of a massacre are rarely, if ever, legitimate solutions. When something awful happens, our first response is who did this, why did they do this and what was their motive. We usually base the diagnosis on raw feelings and not on evidence.
The purpose of this essay was to show the consumer that the violent acts carried out in schools are not the trend, but violent acts as a whole are. In addition the author states how incorrect it is to get a verifiable answer during immediate aftermath of such an event when emotions and opinions are strong. Klecks intended audience is the everyday person that watches the news on a regular basis. He helps shed light on small and large issues regarding increasing patterns of violence.
“ Thus, long-term or significant social trends may be irrelevant to these murders, however relevant some of them may be more commonplace forms of violence”. This quote helps verify the fact that these murders are not a direct result of school violence, but are just a form of violence in general and even though these acts of violence seem to be taking shape at schools they could happen anywhere. Another passage that was rich with facts was, “ recognize the fame, importance, and sort of immortality have been rewards for previous mass killers”. The author is speaking about young adults who see the news coverage detailing these mass murderers and how these individuals crave fame that comes from their gruesome actions. Perhaps if the media covered the heartache of these tragedies and put less emphasis on the killer young minds might not be so easily persuaded into the wrong direction. However the quote “ consequently, regulation of gun shows was totally irrelevant to preventing any of these massacres”. Even though gun exhibitions might not be as important to this particular case, in the big picture it is better to be part of the solution than part of the problem.
“ There Are No Lessons To Be Learned From Littleton” is an interesting description of how emotionally charged decisions are not always the right ones. In addition, maybe finger pointing during the aftermath of a traumatic event is not the best approach to find the right answer.
Why is school violence more prevalent in the USA rather than Canada?
Although, there are many factors that leads a person to commit a crime, mass school killings would be none existent without guns. It is very difficult to enter a school with a knife and kill a bunch of teachers and kids, therefore, I believe these mass killings are more prevalent in the USA because adolescents have more access to guns then they do in Canada. I do believe the USA should reexamine their gun regulations in efforts to control the war on gun violence.
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