Increase in school shootings

To the Editor:

How many more school shootings have to happen until we wake up and do something effective? Trying to rush a new gun-control law through Congress is not the answer. This is just another distortion which is dragging on until we address the actual cause of the problem.

Guns are not the cause; rather, human behavior of the individual is. A shooting doesn’t happen out of the blue! In almost every case, there is a history behind it. There are all kinds of alarming signals before somebody pulls the trigger.

Facts and Features:

·         The shooters are usually young males whose upbringings show all kinds of flaws and shortcomings:

• They are often intimidated, bored, mocked and bullied by their peers, feel lonely, and lack close friends.
• They see violence on TV and in video games.
• They satisfy themselves with alcohol and drugs.

Ultimately, the aforementioned factors result in mental problems.  As stated by Alfred University, “The hurt, shame and anger of this victimization boils over into the taking of lives.”

All of the above needs the attention of parents and school personnel. Many of the kids who show such problems see school counselors/psychologists who determine whether they are mentally not stable.

To become proactive, two measures need to be introduced:

1) Install tougher security systems in and around the schools:

    a) only one entrance door with screening and/or facial recognition technology;

    b) only one exit door supervised by school personnel;

    c) all other doors ought to be locked from inside all day long;

    d) presence of one retired police officer during school hours with ability to contact the police department.

2) Establish a national central file of all people recognized by doctors/psychiatrists as mentally not stable. Same will be a secret file only accessible by doctors, police and gun suppliers by using a secret code.  This requires, however, that those doctors/psychiatrists are forced to feed the file by law!

These suggestions would allow police and gun dealers to detect a problem before it could turn deadly.

Heinz Mayer