PA School Shooting (Springfield Twp)

[m0ntels]

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=4844659

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. - December 12, 2006 - Officials holding a news conference announced an 11th grade student shot and killed himself inside Springfield Township School High School in Montgomery County this morning. Dogs called to the scene responded to some of the student's gear, and theThe Sheriff Department bomb disposal unit is now set up at the high school.

The incident happened at Springfield Township High School. According to the district's website, a student brought a rifle to the school and shot himself. No other students were injured.
Officials said the student pulled a rifle out of a large gym bag or duffle bag, fired a number of shots into the ceiling and then walked several hundred feet down a hallway. Investigators found the 11th grader dead from a gunshot wound. Nobody else was injured.

Bomb sniffing dogs marked "a hit" on the duffle bag that the student had. Officials have called in the bomb squad and are trying to determine what exactly triggered the dog's respones.

The school was placed under lockdown. The view from Chopper 6 shortly after 10 a.m. showed students being sent out of the building with police and other security close by. The students were being sent to the nearby Middle School, according to the district's website.

Officials tell Action News there are about 2,200 students who attend Springfield Township High School.

 

[Manedwolf]

If they want to off themselves, far better than hurting innocent people. It's just selfish when they want to make a show of it and traumatize other people.

 

[Stickjockey]

Is my tinfoil hat on too tightly or has there been an increase in this type of thing since November?

 

[carlrodd]

i say it's more than far better. this person will never have the chance to harm anyone else.

 

[Zoogster]

School shootings happen, period. Much of our sheep society frown on children being included in the gun culture that teaches safe responsible firearm use, yet they play video games shooting people, and watch movies and tv where guns are killing machines. Firearms or any weapons period whatsoever are banned from schools making them ideal locations for instable people to bring a weapon and have 'power' over others. Now if responsible adults had firearms at school and it was a well known fact that might discourage schools from being such a prefered location to throw a tantrum with a gun. Otherwise where there is a will there is a way, whether it is bringing them through the door, or burying them in the field after hours to use the next day or storming through the front.

Is my tinfoil hat on too tightly or has there been an increase in this type of thing since November?

Yes I think your going to see a dramatic increase in the level of reported violence involving firearms, and the length of the stories describing such (notice I said length and not detail) because it is well known most media is controlled by a handful of large companies with agendas. Most people in high positions of society are secure with body gaurds and special weapon exemptions, yet naturaly already being on top they want mere peasants unable to pose a threat, whether or not it is in the peasant's best interest is irrelevant.
Police being a main aspect of society that sees the importance of firearms yet are not economicly at the top in society would be the biggest voice of reason in defense of this right, yet since they are often exempt from most firearm laws they are effectively silenced and view thier own interests seperately from those of the common man. Why join a fight that does not effect them? In fact since it does not effect them they can even take the perspective of more disarmed people being easier to police, and thus support illogical gun control. For even though it won't disarm many of the criminals, it will cause them to run across less firearms while dealing with the public making thier job less stressful.

My solution for most of this nonsense to be put to rest is to stop making peace officers exempt from the laws of the common man. I understand they put themselves in danger more often, but if it is not good enough for police to effectively deal with one or a couple criminals at a time (most situations) then why is it good enough for others? Holding police to the laws of the land would quickly lead to common sense gun laws.

 

[SSN Vet]

interesting clip on the radio....

apparently there's been a couple big name medical research studies done recently (don't ask me who...I don't take notes while I'm driving) that show video games fuel obsessive compulsive behavior.....priming little tykes (and not so little ones) for more obsessive compulsive behaviors down the road.

Back in the "arcade" days....teen agers that were into video games played in the realm of an hour of video games a week (pumping quarters).

Now there saying the ones who are into it play several hours a day.

 

[Lonestar]

Is my tinfoil hat on too tightly or has there been an increase in this type of thing since November?

Maybe its the holidays or maybe its S.A.D. (depression due to winter's longer nights and shorter days).

Its a real shame when a teen commits suicide. They still have their whole life ahead of them. Their world is filled with raging hormones, intense peer pressures, and a lot of other factors that we never deal with as adults or as young children. Ironically if this kid would have just sought some help or just held on for another few years, his outlook on life would most likely have completely changed. My High School years completely stunk, and honestly the thought did cross my mind a few times, however my post High School years were the best years of my life, and with the exception of some minor bumps in the road, life has been good since.

 

[DirtyBrad]

Aren't lockdown and evacuating students opposites?

 

[Zoogster]

apparently there's been a couple big name medical research studies done recently (don't ask me who...I don't take notes while I'm driving) that show video games fuel obsessive compulsive behavior

Oh it is a fact. The military did studies to increase soldiers willingness to kill the enemy as they had a decent % that would not be willing to take another human life. Thier research concluded that simulating the killing of others over and over helped to precondition thier response when faced with this decision in the future. They also found making the killing less personal and more structured and formal increased thier willingness to kill the enemy (regardless if they pose a threat or not.)

Translation: Video games simulating the killing of people help to detach empathy or emotion from the choice to kill and precondition the response when faced with similar choices in real life. This is not to say they cause a person to do things, merely that they blur the boundries and remove the hesitancy. So you could interpret that as making them more impulsive.

This has been known for generations. Back in the American 'Civil War' the military was having almost as high as a reported 50% of soldiers intentionaly missing or not trying to kill the enemy, unwilling to take life. The military undertook many well funded studies to decrease the number of these useless troops. These studies led to my above reported conclusion.

That said I enjoy video games sometimes, and war games are some of the most fun. Are they detrimental to children, especialy if it is thier sole exposure to firearms (or percieved exposure) absent of proper training and responsibility? Certainly.

 

[Whatsit]

FWIW - This is not a "school shooting". It is a suicide at a school. Ah, semantics.

 

[Dorryn]

I dont want to hijack this thread, but *dont* claim that violent video games promote violent gun behavior. Ive been playing "violent" video games most of my life and blowing both terrorists and counter-terrorists away with a variety of firearms since 1999. I also played World of Warcraft for a time... but nobody claims that im about to go hack someone apart with a sword. Neither am I about to take the variety of firearms I have and use them in any way unsafe nor illegal.

Its choice and self-control. Simple as that. Video games are just an excuse.

 

[carterbeauford]

Apparently there is more than one Springfield Township in PA, and this was not the one just down the road from me.

 

[Zoogster]

I dont want to hijack this thread, but *dont* claim that violent video games promote violent gun behavior. Ive been playing "violent" video games most of my life and blowing both terrorists and counter-terrorists away with a variety of firearms since 1999. I also played World of Warcraft for a time... but nobody claims that im about to go hack someone apart with a sword. Neither am I about to take the variety of firearms I have and use them in any way unsafe nor illegal.

It does not cause people to do anything. The cause is from elsewhere, it merely preconditions it as a routine acceptable outcome. The military spent millions studying it. The desire or cause for someone to do something is not the game, but the impulsive acceptance of pulling the trigger when the firearm is pointing at a percieved threat (or offensive target) and ending a life is preconditioned, meaning it takes less thought in the moment (which in these cases is a bad thing, in the military can be a good thing.)

 

[Handgun Midas]

Much of our sheep society frown on children being included in the gun culture that teaches safe responsible firearm use, yet they play video games shooting people

My sister refused to allow my father and I to take her twin 8 year-old boys out
to the same land where our dad had taught me to shoot to teach them how to handle a .22.
And in her defense, these two are immature even for 8 year-olds.

But last time I was over the twins proudly showed me that their father was
allowing them to play the old 007 Nightfire on PS2 (they broke the Gamecube that I bought them).

So they're not mature enough to learn how to handle a gun without killing themselves or each other,
but they kill as many VG BGs as they want.
These two know full well that there are guns in their house and grandpa's house.
It's only a matter of time before their curiousity becomes dangerous; and I'm not allowed to instill the proper knowledge first.

 

[torpid]

Back in the "arcade" days....teen agers that were into video games played in the realm of an hour of video games a week (pumping quarters).

Now there saying the ones who are into it play several hours a day.

Huh?
Between the arcade and my Atari, I could easily average over an hour a day in the late 1970's.

Oh yeah, even with real life guns at hand, I haven't harmed a fly after all these years of (gasp) video gaming.

What do I win?

 

[Lonestar]

Zoogster is correct. I think the point is that violent video games does detach empathy or emotion on those that are likely to commit violent acts. Simply put the simulation break their "cherry" so to speak. So a soldier or a homicidal kid would be less likely to stop killing something or someone, because it has been done before in simulation. Kind of like a pilot who flew nothing but simulations then gets in the seat of a real plane, or a virgin who watches porn before having sex with a real person. It will not compel a good person to kill, but it shows the person what the experience may be like.

Originally Posted by SSN Vet
Back in the "arcade" days....teen agers that were into video games played in the realm of an hour of video games a week (pumping quarters).

Now there saying the ones who are into it play several hours a day.

The games improved but the time spent playing stayed the same or may haveincreased slightly due to the availability of video games today.

In the 70's, I would play Atari for hours a day, until my wrist hurt and I had black stains on my hand from the rubber pads on the bottom of the joysticks. I never went on a killing spree, but then again I was playing hours of Missile Command, and Yars Revenge, not Hitman and Doom.

 

[benEzra]

Actually, I believe most of Dave Grossman's claims on that topic (the ultimate source of much of the above discussion) have NOT been substantiated, and a great number of them have been thoroughly debunked. I actually have read Mr. Grossman's book, Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill. It's convincing at first glance, but if you look into his claims a bit deeper--and look more closely at the source documents he cites--it tends to fall apart.

More on the controversy:
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/05/06/game_violence/print.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_controversy

FWIW, the youth violence rate is trending down, not up:

 

[SSN Vet]

the article didn't say violent behavior....

it said obsessive compulsive behavior.....

geez people...try read and think vs. skim and jump on the attack because you think someone stepped on your pet peeve...

if you could pump $20 into asteroids and play for 4 hours.....more power to ya.....I only had my own money (earned at one of my many jobs) to spend back then, and wanted something more permanent (like a motorcycle or a stereo) to show for my efforts.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

So, About This Kid . . .

I'd be interested to know

1) what kind of counseling this kid has had, how recently, and to what degree he's been exposed to squishy psych methods,
2) what medication he was on or has been on, when he started that, and if/when he stopped.​

I've noticed an oddly high correlation in "school shooting" events with the kids having been in "care or treatment" of some flavor.

Somehow, this never appears in the initial articles, if ever, and requires research to dig it up.

The blame is often/usually directed at the (inanimate) machinery used. The framing is such that one is led to believe that firearms are a kind of evil talisman: stare at them too long and you become possessed.

I wonder if actual "counseling" and "treatments" have more to do with the state of mind of these kids. If anything is likely to make one "possessed" it's tinkering with his mind.