Become Famous Overnight!
...just add
bullets.
It seems to me that the latest rash of school shootings (not really a rash, but those occuring in the past three years) springs from a
phenomenon that
police all over the United States are all to familiar with, that of
Copycat Crime.
Kip Kinkel,
Columbine, these became household words overnight due to the saturation of these events by the American
Media. The message that the Columbine shooters were trying to get out were published in every paper from
Maine to
California. What better way to get the message that "you're not happy" to the nation at large than emulating the successes of others.
People like to point fingers a lot, the media shouts against everything from Film Violence, to
Video Games and the high availibility of
firearms. Yet we don't hear about the overnight
celebrity that the media grants these troubled individuals. Why would a
depressed teen quietly overdose on barbituates (an act that might get run in
local papers, only if they're successful), when they can garner national attention by going on a
shooting spree, and strike back at those they percieve made them so
miserable.
This is one case where it could be that the
treatment causes the
disease.