School Shootings and the “glamour” Behind Them

Sara Zollo, Writer
March 19, 2018

In this year alone, there have been seventeen school shootings. SEVENTEEN! Overall, since 2013, there have been three hundred and five school shootings. What’s up with this? Like seriously. Students should be going to school with the mindset of getting an education (and maybe dreadfulness) but not the mindset fear of a school shooting. So, what’s causing this?

There could be many reasons and/or explanations for the school shootings. One of the main reasons, I personally feel now in 2018, school shootings in a way are being “glamorized.” Since there is so much mass media coverage of current school shootings, people see the opportunity.

A quote from Josh Blackman’s blog,

“Call him the gunman. Call him the killer or the perpetrator, the defendant or the assailant. Only, the survivors urge, do not say his name.”

Josh then continues to say,

“This is an important point I have made several times. The nonstop media coverage of mass shootings does little to help the situation, and likely hurts others through the copycat effect.”

The problem is, is that the news sources and other sources hype the situation so much. It it the talk of the town, a city, and a nation. Another thing that I see that annoys me is that after every shooting everyone is saying, #Prayfor_______ or my hopes and prayers are in _____. Why does everyone say that?! Like, do you actually mean it? Is that a filler? I mean yes, it is nice to care for the people affected by a tragic event but like ……..why????? It’s a trend with some people. They scroll around on Instagram or social media and see these “Pray for ____” and then they’re like Oh, well I need to post one too (without having an emotion to the actual event that took place). Now I know not everyone is like that and people are very genuine about their intentions but some people don’t care and do/post a filler just because and it’s so popularized.

American Magazine nicely quotes,

“Prayer has become the patsy of politicians and others, a way of suggesting concern without actually having to do anything of substance.”

“And yet the real problem is not the offering of prayers in the face of tragedy but the interpretation of what prayer entails.”