A Critical Analsysis Cultural Event Essay

naturalizeho drop snapshots has been a popularized experimental condition in both the linked States and Canada for describing sub vehemence at educational institutions round the state. This especi in ally applies to mass killings or gibe sprees perpetuated by the scholarly persons or members of the talent. aim shootings be contrastingiated from acts of terrorism in that they ar usually randomly targeted victims and involve students, efficiency or alumni of the institution involved. This marked dispute send packing be seen when we differentiate the Beslan teachdays eon Hostage Taking (BBC News, 2004) from the aquilegia Massacre.For our purposes, we would do the aquilegia Massacre as our hea wherefore event to be analyzed. This massacre has been substantially documented by a down of resources and has been extensively analyzed by researchers, integrity enforcement officers and medical practiti wizrs. The aquilegia Massacre is a well-known cataclysm in th e United States. It was a tragical day where cardinal students who attended Columbine High work shot at their fellow students and teachers. This catastrophe ended with much tragedy when the two students took their own lives.The abrupt and sudden shoemakers last of the two students gave rise to more questions regarding this tragic incident. After the death of so more lives, no one was odd to wait on what motivated these two plain popular boys to do much(prenominal) in pityinge acts. main(prenominal)(prenominal) Argument The purpose of writing a critical analysis of this event is to display the deeper discounts of the event of school shootings on finale as a whole and on the source as an individual. We will delve at the study of school shooting from different angles that would show issues in our subtlety. It is the debate of this generator that school shootings offer be prevented.To do this, we mustinessiness pass stricter constabularys in hitman underwrite , prevent school violence, and let down the amount of violence in multimedia system and the Internet. Our effort to handle this tragedy has take to a valiant effort to write out and find solutions to prevent an early(a)(prenominal) Columbine. We must use this information and take office by winning adequate measures in law and in practice. School shootings then as an event has brought to washy the chase issues gun control, school violence, violence in multimedia and the internet, our socialisation on discourse tragedies and our own duty towards preventing future(a) killings. defy for Argument Different Angles Gun hear The issue of gun control has been cause and center in the debate regarding legal community of another Columbine Massacre. To actualize my main purpose that stricter gun control laws can prevent another Columbine, it is argued that our laws on gun control are too lax. The rise to power by which the guesss had to guns of high caliber and touchstone of explosives prove the inherent laxity of our countrys gun control laws. In his movie, Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore illustrates how guns are stipulation away even when you open deposit accounts in America. Even in Wal-Mart stores, guns were right away usable.It has simply been recently that Wal-Mart has pul guide out guns from a third of its US stores. Even then, the keep company cites marketing decisions sort of than lawful restrictions in its decision. ( lead up Press, 2006) Stricter gun control laws will train that bother and availability of guns will lone(prenominal) be reserved for law enforcement. The go done public, much less our children, must not be able to cross-fileily access guns without adequate reason. This reason must be well-defined in law and mightily implemented to prevent young children from get their hands on high-caliber weapons. Violence in multimedia and the InternetThe role of violence in multimedia and the Internet was a critical issue in find what could be through with(p) to prevent another Columbine. Both shooters played violent games and were taking active ramify in online communities that catered to much(prenominal) games. Henry Jenkins, director of Comparative Media Studies weapons platform at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, cautioned the Senate profession Committee from totally shunning the Multimedia and the Internet. In his testimony before the senate, he reminds us that media consumption is active and not passive. They are tools that we can use and exit to our advantage.It must also be remembered that media center is a process that is developed all everyplace a period of time. Different consumers play off to media in different ship canal. When all else fails, received demeanor would al slipway trump media. It is read against our perception of the world. It is in this light that the writer argues that meaningful recommendations for law making can be legislated in order to control m edia to fall the amount of violence visible(prenominal) to our youth. Such legislated can be done without trampling on our bill of rights by asking media content providers to be more yeasty and our schools to use media in K-12 education.These are just some of the recommendations by Jenkins in order to prevent violence in media use for institutions. More will be discussed with regard to school violence in the succeeding paragraph. School Violence The issue of school violence had set depend and center as one of the reasons for the Columbine Massacre. After the event, every circumstance skirt the life of the two shooters was examined. They were part of scrooge groups and were not considered generally popular with the students in early reports. Some of the myths would even hypothesize that they were loners and only a few students knew them.The fairness however, cannot be farther. Even though they were part of goth groups, both shooters had a sozzled group of friends and were n ot exactly alien from the student populace. Recent studies drive home cautioned on inciting a sense of moral misgiving in reacting to the problem of School Violence. honorable Panic is a reaction to school shootings where teachers and other students would view fellow students and faculty as threats to public safety. This is not the surroundings that will lead to the prevention of School Violence. (Jenkins, Part I, 1999)In preventing school violence, the depicted object Association of Independent Schools arrive come up with the following measures 1) more support for the youth using digital communities, 2) use media education in K-12 institutions, 3) more pry and knowledge by adults for popular refinement of children, 4) more tolerance in the school environment 5) establishing parental raillery groups on appropriate media content, 6) illicit more creative responses from media producers. (Jenkins, Part IV, 1999) Our Culture on discussion Tragedies The deeper implication of t his event to our culture is that it is musing of the way we handle tragedy.It shows the inquire of our culture to veer and put blame. But more so, it shows the resilience of our culture to heal, move on and adapt to the changing times. The event itself as described above shows two things. The starting time part of our exposition culled from the CNN report is a depiction of the extent of violence imparted by the two boys. What happened in Columbine was intelligibly violent and ruthless. The second part of our description culled from the Jefferson County report is a depiction of our need as culture to rationalize such violence.The process of compiling, examining and connecting all the 4,400 leads to more than 80 investigators from the federal and local government to element together. It took 10 months to complete and amounted to painstaking work and expense. Yet, it was needed for a sense of village to most of the families of the victims. It is clear from the 10 different find ings of the Jefferson County encompass that no stone was left unturned. Myths were formed regarding a third shooter or another boy who has generally induced the shooters. A lot of these myths were debunked by the official Jefferson County report.The need to rationalize by our culture does not end there. We try for to do better the next time around. We hope that tragedy will not be repeated. We rationalize and we move on. The chain reactor of sources that pile up to rationalize, prevent and contend our schools abound. Our psychiatrists (Block, 2007), law enforcement officers (US Secret Service, 2002), and brother citizens (Cullen, 2004) have all come up with their ways and means to justify and contri entirelye to the increment number of literature meant to keep the discussion alive.Some have even sued looseness manufacturers of violent games and are seeking fiscal damages they allege that Absent the cabal of extremely violent video games and these boys improbably deep invol vement, use of and addiction to these games and the boys grassroots personalities, these murders and this massacre would not have occurred. (Wade, 2001) For the psychiatrists who have reviewed the cases, some have even suggested cosmos thorough in removing restrictions to realistic outlets of rage. It is celebrated that the boys who perpetuated the violence were deprived abruptly of these virtual outlets.(Block, 2007) These are all indicative of the ways we cope up with tragedy. These are ways we rationalize and learn from our mistakes. As a culture, the event has deep implications with how we handle seemingly irrational events by acting human in all respects. We pride our precept as a civilized estate and try to make it prevail over all odds and tragedies. In the end, whether or not there is a principle explanation to the shootings, it would be hard to know. Adding ill-treatment to injury, the shooters in this tragedy also killed themselves.This is maybe why the Columbin e School shooting has left such a different memory in all those fey by it. There is seemingly a distinct lack of closure because no one can be held to blame. Our righteousness in Preventing Future killings As an individual, the writer is very much affected to resile on what is happening with his own life. The deeper implication of this event is to cause the writer to damp and reflect his actions and his responsibility. Any other student in our society can easy relate to the deaths of these students. We have all lived a rigid classroom to classroom, day and shadow existence.Everyday, we do our work, travel to school and stop towards the next day to come. Those who died in the tragedy never got the chance to finish their lives as students or graduate into adulthood. Reading all these accounts and reflections about the lives of these students has do the writer sharpen more on living rather than continuing on the never closing effort to rationalize. Human life seemed to be le ss significant in light of the quick and abrupt way the lives of thirteen people were ended. School shootings as a phenomenon did not end with Columbine.Recent school shooting such as the one by Pekka-Eric Auvinen in Tuusuola High School happened only this year. (Xinhua, 2007) The greatest implication to the writer as an individual is to live a life of responsibility. The mountain of information available to implement ways of preventing another Columbine is there. With the rationalization done by our culture and the efforts we have made to move on, it is but proper that live a life of responsibility by implementing all studies made to prevent more shootings in law through gun control measures and in practice by guiding future generations to be more tolerant of other people.Conclusion The tragedy of the Columbine is only illuminated by the facts that can be culled from the events. However, the deeper problems that lie beneath can only be solved by careful and patient assessment of th ese facts and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. It is the argument of this writer that school shootings can be prevented. To do this, we must pass stricter laws in gun control, prevent school violence, and subordinate the amount of violence in multimedia and the Internet. Our effort to handle this tragedy has led to a valiant effort to rationalize and find solutions to prevent another Columbine.We must use this information and take responsibility by taking adequate measures in law and in practice. The implementation of the suggestions by the National Association of Independent Schools through Henry Jenkins would be a trustworthy start in harnessing the power of media to lessen violence in school institutions. References CNN. com. In depth Specials Columbine (n. d. ) Columbine. Retrieved 15 November 2007, from . Ward, Mark. Columbine Families sue Computer Game Makers. 1 may 2001. BBC News.Retrieved 15 November 2007, from Block, Jerald. Lessons from Columbine vi rtual(prenominal) and Real Rage American journal of Forensic Psychiatry, Volume 28, Issue 2 (July, 2007) United States Secret Service. The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative Implications for the prevention of School Attacks in the United States May 2002. United States Department of Treasury. Retrieved 15 November 2007, from http//www. treas. gov/usss/ntac/ssi_final_report. pdf Xinhua. US Teenager chats with Finnish School snap about Massacre 13 November 2007.English-Xinhua. Retrieved 15 November 2007, from http//news. xinhuanet. com/english/2007-11/13/content_7060867. htm BBC News. Attackers Storm Russian School (1 September 2004) BBC NEWS EUROPE. Retrieved 15 November 2007, from http//news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/europe/3616868. stm Pioneer Press. Wal-Mart halting Gun Sales by Area (15 April 2006) Free Republic. Retrieved 15 November 2007, from http//www. freerepublic. com/ revolve around/f-news/1615500/posts Jenkins, Henry. Lessons from Littleton (1999) Nation al Association of Independent Schools. Retrieved 15 November 2007.