The Shooter

We have seen an explosion in the frequency of "mass shootings", especially in the school setting. This article considers some psychological causes and proposes some ways to fight back.

 THE SHOOTER   by John D Baver

 In one form or another I have lived with mental illness my whole life and I think I have thereby gained some insight into why the so called “school shootings” happen.    Of course, these instances of violence are not limited to schools.   They occur on a routine basis in the United States in shopping malls, movie theaters and crowded sporting events.   The shooter knows that he is likely to find a relatively large gathering of people in and around these places providing the backdrop for perhaps the only remarkable event in the shooter’s life.   

    After the violence is over,  the media descends upon the grief stricken victims of these incidents   seeking answers to two questions:    1.   Who did this?;   and  2.  Why did he do this?     The first question is easy because the Shooter is the guy in the corner with the self-inflicted (or police inflicted) gunshot wound with multiple weapons and ammo clips strapped to him.     The second question is elusive and open to debate,   seemingly endless debate.   And, I use the male pronoun not because women are not capable of carrying out these acts, but by and large, they just don’t.    It always seems to be a white male in his twenties who is struggling to find his place.    He may be out of school, but living with his parents or parent.   He may be in school, with little to no social contact with anyone in the school setting.      Typically, he is failing to meet the expectations (or at least the perceived expectations)  of his parents, teachers, siblings and friends, but he is the one most frustrated by this failure.   To the outside world, he may appear to not have a care in the world, but the exact opposite is true.   He is often  sullen, withdrawn and he may retreat into himself and avoid school, homework,  and friends.     While playing violent video games, a glazed look comes over his eyes and it is difficult to tell what thoughts lurk behind those eyes.     

    His High School announced loud and clear that he was underachieving when they placed him in the remedial class despite his above-average IQ .     He does not participate in class, he does not do  homework, he does not study for quizzes or tests given by his teacher.   In fact, in a very real sense, that is , in the largely neglected realm of “emotional existence”, he is not even there.  His body is in the seat, but he is elsewhere.   In response to these signs of trouble, the school essentially demotes him justified by the idea that making the subject matter easier will improve his performance.      Obviously, this ignores the root of the problem.   But, is the root of the problem the school’s job to figure out?   If he comes into the school one day with a Bushmaster and a 9mm handgun looking to kill anyone he sees, will that change the school’s position on whether the school should take a proactive approach with these lost kids?     But, the school is also a victim of the parent or parents’ unwillingness to address the problem. 

   More than ever,  parents live vicariously through their children such that the child’s great success on the football field is the parents’ crowning achievement.      Conversely, the child’s failure to meet expectations represents the parents’ failure;  and many, many parents have trouble living with their own failures and simply cannot face those of their child.   Such a failure would be the last straw on the camel’s back.    This weakness of the parent empowers the child to continue to fail without consequence.    These parents are aware, on some cognitive level, that their child needs help.     It is these parents who we must  lift up and provide a non-judgmental forum  to come clean about the time bomb they have raised and which they previously have been  satisfied to keep hidden in the basement.    These parents live in fear of taking any action one way or another.  Their fear is palpable.    They fear not only the “system” that sends mixed messages about wanting to help their son, but they fear the son himself.  

      The child is now 19 years old and although he lives with his parents, he is an adult for many purposes important in US society.   Like his parents, he has likely never been seen by a psychologist or psychiatrist.   Although his pediatrician may have prescribed Ritalin to sharpen his focus and concentration, he has never received any mental health diagnosis so there is no legal basis upon which his rights as an adult can be abridged.     It is often lamented in the wake of these shootings that there is a breakdown between the apparent “mental health” issues of the shooter and his ability to arm himself.   But, there is no history of treatment or hospitalization.   There is no one with the appropriate letters behind their name who has issued an opinion stating that the child has any sort of mental illness.    As a result, he is held to the same standard as the proverbial  star quarterback who is going to attend Yale in the fall.    Despite attending the same school  as the quarterback, and being exposed to much the same  program,  they are far different people.     The star quarterback is self confident, excels at most everything sometimes even without appearing to make an effort.    Alphabetically, the shooter’s last name may fall directly before or after the star quarterback’s and together they may stroll down the aisle of the auditorium to get their High School diplomas.    They all wear caps and gowns, they all get the same diploma and they have known each other for 12 years, but for all intents and purposes,  the shooter may as well be an alien from another galaxy in comparison to the quarterback.   In public, the parents blame the school for this inequality.    The shooter blames himself.      The real culprit is an unseen injury the shooter carries with him at all times implanted from the parents’ DNA and cultivated by our institutions’ failure to allow for individual differences.   To continue to ignore these differences only increases the divide and the danger.    

    There is an old saying in psychology that Depression is  anger turned inward.   The person who suffers from clinical depression harbors a great deal of anger, but that anger is unrelentingly directed at himself.   This person’s mind tells him he is of no value.  He has very low self-esteem.    After hearing these messages long enough, the person believes them and loses hope.  After that occurs, the person will not truly enjoy any activity,  he will not be able to maintain existing important relationships and will not be able to form healthy new important relationships with others.  This person goes through the motions and will often try to fake his concern for others  because he knows he is supposed to care, but cannot.   The end result of these factors is isolation.   First, the person is isolated from his family, then from friends he may have met along the way.    If a long enough period of time goes by the person will become isolated even from themselves.   The part of the mind which keeps one getting up in the morning, and which engages one in the daily routine of work or school and which keeps the gears of society spinning, becomes poisoned by the unseen injury.  After awhile without treatment or intervention, this person will totally withdraw from their own lives and see themselves as a separate entity.      Once that occurs, the person has essentially given himself permission to kill the offending entity.  

   But, why does the shooter kill others?      As harsh as this may sound, the truth is that the people he ends up shooting are merely collateral damage.    Now that he has given himself permission to end his life, he starts to put a plan in place.   But, there is a new problem.    He fears that if he takes the handgun from his drawer and shoots himself,  he will leave no footprint.    He will never be more than that extremely shy  troubled underachiever  in remedial English class.    Our society demands more, especially from its men.   It is simply unseemly as a man to fall victim to an unseen injury that is “all in your head”.   For the first time, he realizes that by killing himself no one will ever know who he was nor acknowledge any achievement of his.  This realization fuels the anger he has always directed inward.    Now, he is literally “mad at the world”.     And, he vows that they will be sorry.    He may adopt and espouse  some radical philosophy  to give his anger and hatred the cloak of fighting a cause, but his cause is lost.     Although he may hate the star quarterback, he does not care enough about him to kill him.   His  primary mission is to end the pain of his existence.     If the quarterback has the bad luck of going to the movies the day the shooter takes action, so be it, but he does not generally  set out to kill any one person in particular.     Thus, when he sets out with his guns and ammunition,  in his mind,  he is using the only tools he has available to himself to make a mark in the world.    

 

    The enduring stigma of mental illness is such that parents will now allow their child to see a psychologist or psychiatrist until the parents are absolutely convinced it is necessary; unfortunately, for many parents and for some total strangers, the only time they  get there is after their child has killed a handful of people and died in the process.       Schools mandate and in some cases provide physicals, vaccinations, hearing and vision tests to all children.   These tests measure the child in physical terms.   Is measuring the child in psychological terms as a matter of routine all that much different?   If schools were allowed or mandated to administer objective psychological tests to the children, many of these future shooters could be identified,  rescued and their devastating  violence  avoided altogether.       

   

Author's Note

Too many topics?