Conflict at school is a universal phenomenon, but school shootings are a uniquely chronic illness in America. Teenagers experiencing bullying, peer conflict, and alienation exist in every country. What is it that turns the anger of domestic teenagers into mass shooting disasters?
Recently in the Corona area of Southern California, two 15-year-old female high school students were arrested on charges of plotting a school shooting. They had spent months investigating past school shootings, drawing school maps, and even writing up a list of targets.
The two female girls failed to secure actual firearms for their crime. Even though they planned the crime in detail and harbored murderous intent, no shooting occurred. The notable part of this case is the fact that anger and criminal motive alone do not cause a shooting to happen. Accessibility to firearms is the core condition that determines whether that intent can lead to actual mass casualties.
Every time a school shooting occurs domestically, the media puts the perpetrator’s upbringing on the chopping block. Countless analyses pour out, such as whether they were bullied at school, had mental health issues, or how their relationship with family was. They are all important questions. However, focusing solely on the perpetrator’s emotions and background makes it easy to miss the most realistic question: Where did the student get the gun?
According to research introduced by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) under the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 80% of school shooting perpetrators stole firearms from family members to use in their crimes. In fact, there was also an incident in Virginia where a 6-year-old elementary school student brought a mother’s firearm from home and shot a teacher. Even if teenagers are prevented from purchasing guns directly from gun stores, loopholes remain if they can access firearms stored inside the home.
Criminology’s ‘Routine Activity Theory’ explains that the likelihood of a crime increases when a person with a motive and a suitable target meet, without a capable guardian to prevent it. School is a space where teenagers spend most of their day and also a place where conflicts with friends or teachers arise. It is also a place where hundreds of students gather at designated times. In such an environment, when anger toward a specific target, criminal intent, and firearm accessibility mesh together, the danger can grow even larger.
It is impossible to completely eliminate the conflicts teenagers experience, nor can anyone accurately predict who will plan an extreme crime. Mental health counseling and in-school conflict resolution are absolutely necessary, but these efforts alone are not enough to prevent every shooting incident. Whether it is momentary anger or long-held revenge, the moment a firearm falls into someone’s hands, a personal crisis can turn into a tragedy claiming multiple lives.
This does not mean schools are inherently dangerous places. It means that if someone with aggressive intent has access to firearms, any space can become the stage for a deadly crime.
Firearm ownership has long been considered a constitutional right and a means of self-defense. This is also why the debate surrounding gun control is so sharp. Protecting the rights of legal gun owners and preventing minors from accessing firearms in the home are separate issues. Even while recognizing the right to own firearms, safe storage and cutting off minors’ access cannot be neglected. Safely storing firearms at home and taking measures to ensure that individuals identified as risk signals cannot access weapons are the starting points for preventing school shootings.
Fortunately, no gunshots rang out in the Corona High School case. The criminal plots of the two students were discovered in advance, and above all, firearms were not secured. This incident shows that even if anger and revenge exist, if one cannot access firearms, crimes can be stopped at the execution stage.
The tragedy of domestic school shootings cannot be explained solely by the fact that angry teenagers exist. Anger exists everywhere, but the environment where that anger meets firearms should not exist anywhere.
