Opinion: School shootings and firearm violence: It's time to stop simplifying a complex issue
It’s inevitable that after every school shooting media headlines and social media posts emerge about what caused the perpetrator(s) to engage in such violence. In many cases, people are quick to say a school shooting was the result of the perpetrator(s) being bullied or having mental health issues. Additionally, we often see articles where the blame is pointed at the parents of the perpetrator(s), either for ignoring warning signs or for allowing access to firearms.
While it may be easiest to suggest school shootings are caused by bullying, mental health problems or parenting practices, it is important to recognize that these are only a few pieces to a large puzzle that has yet to be fully realized. When we reduce it down and insinuate that such violence is the result of one or two factors, we end up simplifying an incredibly complex issue. Firearm violence and school shootings are not caused by a single factor, but are the result of the interaction between several factors.
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Scholars have identified risk factors for school shootings and youth firearm violence at many levels:
individual (age, sex, psychological disorders including depression and suicidal ideation);
family (family violence or child abuse/neglect, improper firearm storage within the home); peer (bullying, delinquent peers); school (school engagement and attainment, school connectedness);
community (relative poverty, engagement in community activities, accessibility of firearms); and
societal (firearm-related policies and their implementation, cultural beliefs surrounding firearm ownership, gender role expectations).
This is not to say that individual issues of mental health, bullying, and parenting practices are not important to consider when school shootings occur, but these are often merely the symptoms of larger problems. Therefore, we need to dig deeper and look at factors across levels of influence to prevent school shootings and other acts of firearm violence.
What leads to mental health issues among youth in the first place? What contributes to parents or other family members not storing firearms safely?
Those of us who study firearm violence need to continue identifying risk factors across multiple levels of influence, particularly focusing on factors beyond the individual level and exploring how these risk factors interplay.
After a school shooting takes place, we often see school districts consider the implementation of a new policy or intervention (e.g., adding metal detectors, increasing mental health support) with the hopes of preventing firearm violence in their schools. Making changes to prevent firearm violence is needed, however, it’s important to keep in mind that a single policy or intervention cannot and will not solve such a complex issue.
Short-term solutions, like adding metal detectors, will have minimal effect if not implemented in tandem with other, more long-term solutions that address risk factors beyond the individual, such as increasing school connectedness and student resources, shifting beliefs around firearm ownership and responsibility, and ensuring firearm policies are being implemented as intended in our communities. We need to utilize a multi-pronged approach to prevent school shootings and other acts of firearm violence.
So, as we continue to think about those affected by the shooting at Oxford High School last week as well as the countless other acts of firearm violence in our country, we caution against reducing these tragedies to a single issue. We urge others to consider the multiple factors that are at play when an event like this occurs, and we recommend steps be taken to address the multitude of factors that contribute to this complex problem. We must and can do better; firearm violence is preventable.
Carissa J Schmidt is an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and has her PhD in health behavior and health education from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Karissa R. Pelletier is a postdoctoral research fellow at U-M's Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and has her PhD in criminology from Arizona State University. Leigh Rauk is a postdoctoral research fellow at the U-M's Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and has her PhD in community psychology from the University of Miami. The opinions presented in this piece are solely those of the authors and do not represent the views of our employer.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Opinion: How to stop school shootings: stop simplifying complex issue
