 School Shootings
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As we all know, a few days ago one took place in Finland, which came as a surprise, since this country has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world. Typical perpetrators are usually described as alienated youths taking revenge against society. But is that really the case?
A term copycat effect has been created to describe murders that reenact other, widely publicized murders. An American forensic psychologist proposed a theory that all school shootings in the Western world have their origin in one single incident during the 1970's, arguably the first school shooting. This is an interesting idea, since most school killing sprees indeed appear to immitate this one incident to at least some extent.
I did a little research on this subject and came up with the following conclusions:
most of the perpetrators attempted suicide after the spree (with mixed success)
all of them would excuse their actions with alienation and hatred for society
most of them failed to kill a significant number of people
most of them were reported to take interest in similar cases of school killings
This leads me to think that they somehow deliberately or subconsciously chose to immitate previously commited crimes rather than think up an original plan of their own.
A typical scenario: the killer arrives at the location and locates a random place to start with, usually a group of people. He/she hastily opens fire, usually without properly aiming (the case in Finland seems to be an exception), killing and injuring the majority of the victim toll. After that, the killer moves on, firing at random targets, who are now alert of the attack and take proper steps to avoid the attacker. The spree continues until the police arrives, ending with a suicide after a brief standoff.
Contrary to media reports of well-planned attacks, this seems a rather sloppy, impulsive planning to me. A properly prepared attack would lead to much greater death tolls than is usual, for example, if the attack took place during a school sports event or a graduation ceremony. Detonating a pipebomb in a crowded sports hall could have devastating consequences, both from blast and fragmentation, and the resulting crowd rushing to the exits, which could be even better a target for small arms fire or additional pipebomb attacks.
Those of you who attend schools in US are probably familiar with the invader drill. Some procedures seem rather ridiculous and would actually help a rationally-minded killer to increase the body count - for example, the practice of locking and silently hiding in the classrooms instead of immediately using random exits like windows (many US schools are one-story buildings to ease evacuation in case of a disaster). Imagine yourself as the maniac, armed to teeth and walking around the site looking for easy prey. You would probably check the doors of classrooms that look suspicious. Finding them locked when they shouldn't be is obviously going to get your attention. And, although these doors tend to be well-crafted, they still are no obstacle to a properly equipped maniac bent on killing everyone inside - a hand grenade/pipebomb applied to the lock should do the trick. Most of the youths involved in these killings were both informed and stocked to make pipebombs, which some of them indeed did (not that they did a sloppy job making them).
Similarly weird seems the cattlish mentality of the victims, who could have easily swarmed and overpowered the attackers in the early stage by sustaining little to no casualties. Instead, they chose to be slaughtered like cattle, screaming for mercy. Obviously, the killer is going to take advantage of this unfortunately natural aspect of human behaviour. The crowd's tendency to rush away from a threatening individual instead of attempting to neutralize it makes it an excellent target.
So, a perfect school killing would:
take place in a confined space with limited exit possibilities during a mass event (like a grad party)
involve a pre-planned use of strategically-placed explosives (for example, leaving a backpack full of explosives at one's seat in the middle of the hall while excusing oneself to bathroom with the intent of obtaining weapons hidden in a location outside)
involve ACCURATE use of firearms and additional explosives on the fleeing masses
would require a thorough, methodic search & destroy sweep for survivors
could possibly involve arson to hamper rescue attempts and/or increase the damage
if suicide is a must, then explosive belt would be the best solution for additional damage
Currently known preventive mesures are only moderately effective. "Profiling" the potential offenders is ineffectual, since these crimes have often been perpetrated by youths without previous history of violence and/or alienation. Besides, the humiliation of being "profiled" can very well add an incentive to commit violence to an otherwise harmless kid. Neither are zero-tolerance policies effective, as they usually end up degrading into zero-sense policies (for example, an 8-year-old being busted after aiming a chicken drumstick at a classmate).
Your thoughts on this?
ONCE AGAIN, FOR STUPID IDIOTS THAT DID NOT READ THE DISCLAIMER AT THE BEGINNING - THIS THREAD IS AIMED AT THE DISCUSSION OF EXISTING SCHOOL SECURITY MEASURES AND POSSIBILITIES OF IMPROVING THEM, NOT INSPIRING SOME RETARD TO ENACT THE PLAN PROPOSED HERE AS AN EXAMPLE.  |