By now, there’s probably not a whole lot I can say about the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that hasn’t already been said, but I feel like I should still weigh in on the subject. It’s not like I’m anybody of any real importance or anything, but when we are faced with a tragedy of this magnitude I feel that we as a country should be talking about it. It gives us a better understanding of how and why it happened, and what we can do to keep something like it from happening again. We’re already having what feels to me like the first serious discussion on gun control in years, a discussion that I think is long overdue. If there can be any positive outcome to this tragedy, that would be it. I can’t think of any good reason in this day and age why military-grade assault weapons should be made available to civilians, and we need to do more to keep them out of the wrong hands.
I definitely think there’s a lot we can learn from discussions about the Sandy Hook massacre or the many other shootings that seem to be in the news these days. Sadly, for every worthwhile observation that is made, there seem to be ten that end up doing more harm than good. They focus too much on horrific details, unsubstantiated rumors and fear mongering in an attempt to present the “truth.”
A couple of days after the Sandy Hook shooting took place, a certain quote went viral on Facebook and other social networking sites. Here’s an excerpt:
"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why. It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody."
Somebody somewhere decided that this was from a statement made by Morgan Freeman. That somebody is wrong. Morgan Freeman didn’t say any of these things, and he isn’t happy that people think he did. The fact that this was going around as a statement made by Mr. Freeman is an example of Internet stupidity at work.
That doesn’t mean that there isn’t some truth to the quote. Whenever a horrific act of violence grabs the nation’s attention, one of the first things that the media likes to do is dig up as much information on the perpetrators as possible. Before long, we know all about what kind of people the killers are, what their methods were, what kinds of weapons they were using and what could’ve driven them to do such horrible things. The victims are mentioned, but they're never given as much attention as the killers who are all but elevated to legendary status by the press. With that in mind, it’s no wonder why certain people are inspired by them instead of horrified.
The Sandy Hook shooting reminds me of when the Columbine massacre happened in more ways than one. In the weeks following that particular tragedy, it seemed like every high school in the country received bomb threats from kids who wanted a "fun" way to disrupt class and stick it to their schools. For the most part, these threats didn't amount to anything; they were tasteless "jokes" meant to capitalize on a tragic event. Not surprisingly, I see the same things happening now. It seems like I can’t turn on the news without hearing about someone threatening to open fire on a school or doing something else to kill lots of people. As with all the threats that went on after Columbine, most of these threats probably aren’t serious, but it's too risky to make that assumption about every one of them. For every ten kids who think they’re being funny by saying how they’re going to shoot up a school on Facebook, there’s at least one who is actually planning a massacre and would carry it out if given the opportunity. These folks might hear about incidents like Sandy Hook and get just a little bit bolder, and the sensationalism that I always see when things like this happen just makes things worse.
I also think sensationalism in the face of tragedy plays up what seems to be another factor in violent crimes: mental illness. It’s been reported that Adam Lanza, the man responsible for the Sandy Hook massacre, had Asperger's syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism. I haven’t done a whole lot of research on Lanza or his mental state, but I haven’t heard a lot about autism driving a person to mass murder. I don’t doubt that an autistic person can kill, but a quick glance at a handful of headlines on the Internet suggest that there are plenty of people who think being on the autism spectrum makes a person a ticking time bomb.
I think this is just the latest example of the notion that mental illness makes a person dangerous. I know the general public is much better informed about mental illness than they used to be, but I still believe that there are people who lump all mentally ill people into the category of “crazy.” “Crazy” people are irrational and dangerous, and at any moment they can snap and commit mass murder for no apparent reason. Since autism is seen by many as a mental illness, those with autism must be “crazy” and therefore dangerous.
Anybody who has known people with mental illness in general and autism in particular should know how wrong the previous statement is. Autism doesn’t turn a person into a violent killer, and neither does chronic depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. There is rarely one single psychological factor that drives a person to want to commit murder, and for anybody in the media to suggest otherwise is irresponsible and immoral.
Like I said before, I think we should talk about tragedies like the Sandy Hook massacre. There’s too much we can learn from these discussions, and turning our backs on what happened would be a huge disservice to the victims and survivors of the shooting. We need to be careful about how we talk about things, though. The sensationalism, fear mongering and misinformation that I see when something like this happens does far more harm than good.
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