School Shootings: What’s On The Mind Of The Killers

School shootings are a sad and unfortunately very frequent phenomenon nowadays. Only in 5% of cases the killer is affected by a mental disorder. In the rest of the profiles, other triggers are observed, such as physical or psychological abuse, family abandonment, school bullying, criminal records in the family and, above all, access to firearms.

Following the shooting

The person responsible for the massacre in Florida, Nikolas Cruz, fell into a profile at risk: an expelled and marginalized pupil, who had repeatedly expressed an interest in weapons. But behind the phenomenon of school shootings  there is something deeper, something dark that goes beyond the issue of mental health and that involves all the social organisms of American society. Let’s see it in detail.

School shootings: the problem of a society

Nikolas Cruz, 19, killed 17 schoolmates. During the massacre, many students were injured. The name of this boy is added to the list of individuals who, armed with frustration, anger and contempt and fascinated by firearms, carried out real massacres, mercilessly killing professors and pupils of the schools they belonged to.

The number of gun-related incidents or massacres in US schools is continuously growing. Since 2012, when Adam Lanza killed 20 people (7-year-old children and their teachers), there have been 239 massacres in schools. More precisely, we are talking about 438 people who were injured and 138 died in the last 6 years.

Senators, politicians and personalities of a certain depth opposed to firearms underline a disconcerting fact: year after year the number of massacres grows more and more. It is no coincidence, it is not about bad luck or mental disorders on the rise. In the United States, these massacres are the result of society’s inaction. The killers not only have the opportunity to act, they also have the necessary means.

It is not just a question of discussing the need to ban, or not regulate, the use of weapons, which in itself is already an important issue. It is  also necessary to understand what reasons lead young people to resort to assault weapons to channel their anger or their problems.

The profile of those responsible for the school shootings

The Columbine High Schoo massacre of April 20, 1999 highlighted a violent reality that until then had not emerged so clearly. It has also led to the adoption of new security measures in schools, the creation of simulations to learn how to act and react in dangerous situations and the intervention of the secret services in the management of this kind of massacres and the underlying motivations.

In 2000 a psychological profile was developed to try to better understand the mental architecture of these young killers. Here are the main features:

• The attacks are meticulously premeditated. They are not random actions nor the result of a moment of mental alienation.

• 80% of killers have experienced school bullying. They have a history of mistreatment, persecution and emotional abuse generated by the school environment.

• A high percentage of killers come from unstructured families, for which one of the two parents has a criminal record.

• 95% of the massacres are the work of people who have no mental problems. In other words, mental illnesses such as schizophrenia are not associated with violence.

• In 100% of cases there is a marked interest in weapons. Generally the killers manifest it openly to their comrades or through social networks.

• Violence in young people and children is not accidental or sudden. In reality, it is a complex and slow but impactful process that takes place in their mind.

• Violent stimuli, together with environmental stress and distorted thoughts, tend to build a dehumanized mental armor in the person. This emotional coldness leads the person to see the slaughter as a rewarding and justifiable escape.

What’s the solution to school shootings?

According to a Republican senator, the solution to the shootings is very simple: arm good men to keep troubled kids at bay who want to hurt their comrades. In reality, giving weapons to (alleged) “good men” would only fuel the cycle of violence and prove that resorting to weapons is the best way to resolve a conflict.

The culture of violence feeds violence itself. And this is the real problem. Another virus is institutional, educational and social neglect, in addition to the fact that we are talking about a country that makes the use of weapons the essence of its identity. Obviously, this is not the right way to go.

The medical and educational community indicates the need to implement psychological attention to students in schools and institutes, in order to be able to intuit, prevent and, if necessary, manage these situations.

With the help of a psychologist and a social worker, it will be possible to take care of the students in the best way. These figures will be able to identify any warning signs and thus avoid shootings and massacres at school. Episodes which, unfortunately, are becoming more and more frequent.