School Shootings and

Mental Illness: Is There a

Connection?Piper Virva

Issue & Claim

There has been an increase in the number of mass school shootings since the

infamous Columbine shooting in 1999.

There is an undeniable connection between mass school shootings and

mental illness.

Large-Scale School Shootings

Columbine High School Shooting

• Littleton, CO.

• April 20, 1999

• 12 students and one teacher killed; 20 others wounded

Virginia Tech Shooting

• Blacksburg, VA.

• April 16, 2007

• 33 people dead (including shooter)

Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting

• Newtown, CT.

• December 14, 2012

• 26 people at the school were shot (20 first-graders and 6 teachers); shooter’s mother and shooter both dead

The Shooters

Columbine mastermind (18) (current student at the time)

Columbine accomplice (17) (current student at the time)

Virginia Tech shooter (23) (former student at the time)

Sandy Hook shooter (20) (former student at the time)

***All of these individuals committed suicide after they shot their victims.

School Rampage Shootings

Criteria: (1) Public, (2) shooter attended or formerly attended the school, (3)

multiple victims either shot at random or specifically targeted

Statistically rare

Common misconceptions

• Video games or movies cause violence in adolescents

• Bullying causes students to lash out or seek revenge

Mental Illness

A study on School Rampage Shootings in 2009 defined the Columbine

accomplice and Virginia Tech shooters as psychotic; Columbine mastermind

was defined as psychopathic

Disorders & symptoms seen in the shooters: Schizophrenia, Schizotypal

Personality Disorder, affective flattening, poverty of speech, delusions,

paranoia, narcissism, sadism, and anger

It is important to note that mental illness is not the cause of the shootings,

rather a factor in which influenced and motivated the shooters.

So What’s the Connection?

Angry, vengeful, not emotionally stable individuals who turn to violence in attempt to solve their problems

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivators such as internal struggles, harassment, past shootings, and “infamous” mass killers

Undiagnosed or untreated mental illness, or in some cases, diagnosed but ignored or not taken seriously

These rare, but deadly mix of factors = a recipe for disaster

Could These Shootings Have been

Prevented?

If the shooters received “proper” treatment, would they have killed all those

people?

• Most likely, yes, because they were beyond the point of being helped

Popular questions are centered around the shooters’ family and many people place

the blame on them

Steps taken: Seattle Social Development Program, Mental Health First Aid USA,

Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), and Florida SelfDirected Care program

Registry has been proposed, but it was concluded as being ineffective

Notoriety often motivates shooters

The Counterargument

Contrary to popular beliefs and stereotypes, research shows that those

diagnosed with a mental illness are rarely dangerous.

Quite the opposite is found to hold true: mentally ill individuals are more likely

to be hurt themselves than to hurt others.

There is some truth to the stereotype, however, because there are extreme cases

in which schizophrenics whom have stopped taking their medications or

bipolar individuals in a manic state exhibit violent behavior.

Sources

Langman, Peter. "Rampage School Shooters: A Typology." Comp. Mary Ann

Swaitek. Aggression and Violent Behavior 14.1 (2009): 79-86. Science Direct. Elsevier B.V.,

06 Dec. 2008. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.

"Media Coverage and Mass Shootings Connected?" Mass Media and Public Shootings. WorldNow, 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.

Newman, Katherine, and Cybelle Fox. "Repeat Tragedy Rampage Shootings in American High School and College Settings, 2002-20." American Behavioral Scientist 52.9 (2009): 1286-308. Sage Journal. Sage Publications, 5 Mar. 2009. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

Passer, Michael W., and Ronald Smith E. Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2011. Print.

Shern, David, and Wayne Lindstrom. "After Newtown: Mental Illness and Violence." Health Affairs: At the Intersection of Health, Health Care, and Policy 32.3 (2013): 447-50. Health Affairs. Project HOPE: The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc., Mar. 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

"Timeline: Deadly School Shootings since Columbine." USA Today. Gannett, 19 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.