THE LITTLETON SHOOTINGS
A week ago as I write these words, 2 boys opened fire in their high school in Littleton, Colorado. What followed was the deadliest school shooting in this nation's short history of school shootings. Already this event has become a political issue. Coverage and politicians have moved beyond the tragedy to suggesting fixes to prevent it from happening again. This, however, means that many people think they know why Littleton happened and how it could have been prevented. An examination of the facts of the case reveals that almost all of them are completely missing the point: the question is not what made the Littleton shooters able to kill, but why they wanted to kill in the first place.
Initial reports of the incident on 21 April were somewhat inaccurate due to the confusion surrounding the scene. The New York Times said the shooters killed "as many as 23 students and teachersin a five-hour siege" before revising this to the official count of fifteen (twelve students, one teacher, and the two killers) in subsequent editions. The names of the killers were correct: "Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, students at Columbine High School." Littleton was reported to be a suburb of Denver, but there was some debate as to whether it was a small town or an extension of the city proper. The two killers were seniors. These, along with the names of the victims, were the facts.
"We don't know yet all the hows or whys of this tragedy; perhaps we may never fully understand it," President Clinton said in a televised address the night of the 21st. That didn't stop anyone from trying. Most of the discussion that followed involved where to place the blame. This can be broken down into three categories: the "trenchcoat mafia" element; the "pop culture made them do it" element; and the gun control element.
The first element was also the first to come out, which is understandable given the need for personalization of the perpetrators. The Times' initial coverage from the 21st prominently featured the group's nickname at the school--the "trench coat mafia"--as well as their affinity for Goth music and fashion, their supposed racism, and their targeting of jocks and other people who had picked on them. The main story on 22 April also said that "[t]hey talked about Hitler and wore clothes with German insignia".
This story also brought in the second element, that of pop culture, noting that the killers were "good with computers and apparently maintained a Web site on America Online" and were "avid player[s] of Doom and Quake, two popular computer games in which players stalk their opponents through dungeonlike environments and try to kill them with high-powered weapons." Finally, it noted the influence of Goth music, specifically Marilyn Manson and KMFDM, whose former spokeswoman "said emphatically that the band did not subscribe to racist or neo-Nazi views. Ms. Blackman said the band's message was 'rip the system,' but added: 'I can't understand how a couple of kids in Colorado in black trench coats could think that KMFDM's message is to go out and shoot people.' " This brought in three of the four centers of blame: music, video games, and the Internet.
Neglected in this was a culprit common to later coverage: violent movies. The Littleton incident was tied in, most notably in a 60 minutes story, to a lawsuit brought against movie, music, and video game producers blaming them for inciting murder. A clip often shown was of Leonardo DiCaprio in The Basketball Diaries opening fire in a school while wearing a trenchcoat. In the context of the movie, this scene was a dream sequence; a diversion in the larger story of a boy overcoming his violent impulses and drug addiction and ultimately becoming a success. This detail, however, was often lost in the shuffle.
The third element, gun control, has become, as Time put it, "a clear leader in the scapegoat derby".
In a different article, Time noted that "Newspapers all over the world published sanctimonious editorials about the 'American gun culture' " and that the NRA had canceled the festivities, but not the meeting itself, scheduled to take place this week in Denver. President Clinton, responding to a girl's question on what the government is doing to prevent violence at schools, said "Every little thing I've tried to do, from the passing of the Brady Bill to the passing of the assault weapons ban -- all these things have met with violent opposition, as if I were trying to destroy the American way of life. And all I'm trying to do is keep more people alive." Gun control opponents did not take this lying down (see the Reid Collins article below) but they were largely shouted down by the indignation of those who saw the violence in Colorado as a direct outgrowth of the availability of firearms.
...............page 2