School Shootings and American Youth: Desensitization in its Extreme

Lucy Iselin

New York City, New York

(From the exhibition "The Nineties: A Glossary of Migrations" https://www.muzej-jugoslavije.org/en/exhibition/devedesete-recnik-migracija/)

Will there ever be an end to the perpetual school shootings in America? After reading each tragic headline of yet another school shooting, Americans inevitably ask themselves this question, yet after that initial spike of empathy, people revert back to their emotional numbness on the issue. For those not directly affected, it is easier to move on, swallowing the hard fact that school shootings have become an inescapable blight of American life. But if America wants to break this cycle, it should examine how gun violence permeates nearly every aspect of young Americans’ lives and how this might be a contributor to the crisis.  

In today’s digital age, video games are a fixture of teen boys’ lives. In fact, according to Pew Research, 97% of teen boys play video games regularly. While online gaming can produce friendships and be an outlet for this demographic, it is not without serious repercussions. Notably, 98% of school shooting assailants are male, as claimed by the NPR. The University of Michigan’s Youth Violence Protection Center found that, while playing violent video games does not directly cause violent behavior, it can still “increase precursors to violent behavior” – that is, attitudes or impulses that can lead to violence. 

It would be false to say that a boy who plays video games will become a school shooter. Nevertheless, the overwhelming prevalence of violent video games, with 85% of popular video games featuring violence and guns, raises serious concerns. Moreover, it is concerning that, according to a Pew study, “65% of adults believed video games contribute a great deal or a fair amount to gun violence.” If adults can readily identify this issue, why is there not more being done to address it?

Alongside the violent, gun-riddled video games, American teens are also inundated with violent media in all forms. From newspaper articles to social media posts, many begin to view school shootings as just a sad but inevitable part of American life, or with no thought at all. With this normalization comes a sense of hopelessness and helplessness: people feel they cannot change such a deeply ingrained part of American life. 

Beyond news coverage, there is a subset of American media that actively undermines the reality of these harrowing events. On his far-right platform Infowars, Alex Jones propagated the claim that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax. There is no evidence to support this claim: 26 people were killed by a gunman, 20 of whom were young children. Therefore, what is particularly disturbing about Jones’ conspiracy is that there is often a sense of entertainment or excited engagement around similar claims; however, these conspiracies pertain to the deaths of innocent children and school workers. Though Jones lost the defamation lawsuits brought on by the victims’ families, the impact he caused is indelible. 

Many Americans cling to their Second Amendment rights and even venerate politicians who champion the protection of gun deregulation, making the gun issue a highly divisive and, thus, extremely difficult issue to tackle. Therefore, one must look beyond the home and into schools to determine how to enact programs that will create a culture committed to fighting the plague of school shootings. In his essay on the Parkland shootings, Thiselton-Dyer wrote about “student indifference towards drills implemented to stop school shooters” and how it conveys “the implications of violence have little to no emotional impact on younger generations.” To counter this issue in schools, Sarah Sparks of Education Weekly suggests that schools focus on empathy-building and anti-bullying intervention. Students should be trained to avoid being active bystanders and instead intervene when necessary. She hopes that this approach of positivity can only have helpful effects on how students fight the cultural desensitization around gun violence in school.

Ultimately, the 338,000 students who have experienced gun violence at school since 1999 deserved better. The students of Apalachee High School deserved better, the children of Sandy Hook deserve better, and every victim’s family deserves better. As a society, we must commit ourselves to breaking the cycle of desensitization and inaction that allows this tragedy to continue.