Jessica Pellegrino – General Assignment Reporter
A 14-year-old, high school student opened fire on his classmates in a lunchroom in the most recent school shooting in a series of shooting over the last two years.
But this one doesn’t fit the mold.
Usually, in school shooting situations, the shooter is a loner, struggling socially. Adults will mumble well after the fact about how “the signs were all there.” These shooters fire at anyone and everyone. The shootings are usually random and full of anger.
Jaylen Fryberg, the shooter behind the recent Washington school shooting, was the homecoming prince at his high school. He played football and was popular. By all means, he appeared to be happy.
The shooting was not random either. Fryberg sent out five text messages to his friends to meet him for lunch. His intentions were to shoot them. Two of the friends were even Fryberg’s cousins. He even sent a gun “selfie” to his girlfriend.
Fryberg ended up killing two students and injuring three others before ultimately taking his own life.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4DdQwOpgVU&w=560&h=315]
But this is just the last shooting in a long history of school shootings. After each one, the debate over gun control explodes. Suddenly, new regulations are demanded. Individuals argue that background checks should occur before a person can own a gun. Yet, it seems as if gun control is irrelevant in this situation.
Is that the message we should be sending? Like the saying preached, guns don’t kill people. People kill people.
Fryberg had a plan of attack which he executed. He planned to shoot only the people he knew, those being his friends and family members.
As for the gun, it isn’t as though the 14-year-old walked into the gun store and purchased a handgun. Fryberg did not have a gun permit. He was only a child. So, how would controlling who buy guns been of any help to this situation? Or to any school shooting related situation?
The real discussion needs to be on mental health. We first need to establish what would cause a child to open fire on his classmates and friends. There must have been some sort of mental instability not only in Fryberg, but in most incidents of school shooting. The reason there is no real discussion about this, is because mental illness is still, to this day, stigmatized.
But there are always warning signs. Individuals who have been violent in the past are more likely to be violent now. Quiet, outcast children are also known to become violent. These are signs that need to be taken seriously by parents and adults. A child’s mental health needs to be taken seriously.
In most cases, these tragedies are avoidable. Children need to be given the attention they require and they need to be given professional help when it is necessary. A child in his right mind would not bring a gun to school. A child in his right mind would not open fire on his closest friends. Is it not our responsibility to make sure that children are in their right mind?
More counselling is necessary in schools. More programs are required to let children know that mental illness does not make them “weird” or less than anybody else, but it still important to recognize. We need to remove the stigma around mental illness so that honest discussions can be had.
Making the guns harder to get isn’t going to stop gun violence in school. Honesty and attention, however, can make a world of difference.
Photo Credit: MV Maverick
