Posted by
Michael on Saturday, February 16, 2008 12:32:21 PM
I remember there being an explosion in dramatic school shootings at the
end of the 1990s, topping off with the infamous Columbine shootings. It
seems like that trend is on the rise again, with shootings by the young
and unhappy occuring at
college campuses,
shopping malls and, once again, high schools. I don't know if there's
any meaning or relevance to the end of another decade bringing about a
great deal of youth violence, but it's certainly interesting.
Maybe
it's the libertarian in me who always doubts the ability of officials
to be able to do anything, but I really worry about schools only making
things worse and creating new problems while trying to keep violence
from erupting in their schools. I, as just about any public school
student at the time of the last wave of shootings, was indirectly
effected by this by well-meaning but ultimately misguided school
officials cracked down to make sure this didn't happen again. Teenagers
and young people in general are often and almost by definition
emotionally unstable, and it seems like common sense that the last
thing they should have access to is guns. That doesn't, however, make
every teenager who has problems a serial killer. This seems obvious but
it needs some reminding. We should meet them with a level of respect
and high expectation and not as murderers waiting to happen.