Sabrina Murray

Recently in the news there has been lots of talk about the Florida school shooting in which 17 people were killed and many lives were affected. The young man responsible for this was Nikolas Cruz who was expelled from that same school and came back with an assault rifle that he legally obtained. This has sparked many discussions from the family and friends of the deceased about stricter gun control. In an article by BBC news called “Florida school shooting: Trump links FBI's missteps to Russia investigation,” they talked about all the factors that lead up to the shooting as well as what is the aftermath. Many of the students who spoke out at a rally are upset and call for more action by the president.

This debate over gun control has been happening for many years. It is sad to see that the conversation is only brought into the headlines when there is another mass shooting. In class, we have discussed what makes people in the age range of 16-18 want to commit these crimes and the logic behind mainly targeting high schools. There are no concrete answers that we had come up with, but probably that target stems from the negative experiences a person had with that place. I think the age range is interesting to analyze because the shooters are mainly teenagers. There are many factors that can play into how these mass shooters were created. I know that violent movies and video games have been a worldwide phenomenon but only America is having this issue. Despite this, I think the main factor that causes shootings from teenagers in America is social media. This new generation is known for technology and having this huge influence from the mass media. Since everyone has iPhones and a platform to share instantly anything with everyone it is easier to become noticed. I think that these teenagers that are seeing ways to become famous are expounding on it as well as they are hearing about these shootings. The want to be famous as well as show to everyone their anger. There are definitely other factors that shape these shooters motives and with further analysis and research there would be more conclusive data about this topic.