By Manny Fernandez, Julie Turkewitz and Jess Bidgood
Santa Fe — The exact reasons (click here) why a teenage gunman shot his fellow students and teachers here at Santa Fe High School remain a mystery. His model for carrying it out is more clear.
The 17-year-old junior wore a black trench coat and fired a sawed-off shotgun, the same attire and weaponry used by the two gunmen who killed a dozen students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.
He wore a T-shirt with the phrase “Born to Kill” on it in bold, similar in design to those worn by the Columbine attackers, which read “Wrath” and “Natural Selection.”
His crude arsenal included canisters of carbon-dioxide gas and Molotov cocktails, two types of explosives used by the Columbine gunmen.
The picture he had posted of his trench coat on Facebook showed a small red-star medallion with the Communist hammer-and-sickle on the collar, the same type of button a Columbine gunman attached to his boot....
Parenting matters. Separation - Individuation issues continue throughout the life of a child, including teens into young adulthood.
What no one wants to admit is that the killers of the late teens and early twenties are a product of our society, not just parenting, that values violence and hatred over any other emotion.
When a young mind sees nothing but violence as a means of entertainment a SINGULAR EMOTION takes over and the definition of that life becomes clear to them. A person needs a wide range of emotions and experience in their life otherwise they are deprived of a quality life. A late teen and early 20 something that has been teethed on violence only knows a few emotions and never experience compassion, kindness or empathy.
It is also a gun issue. There has been a change in the gun culture in the USA. The gun as a culture icon represents power and for those without power, it represents an answer to that problem.
...But after the September 11 attacks, (click here) I spent several years at war and then lived abroad as a civilian for another several years. And when I finally returned to the United States in late 2008, I noticed something different about the gun culture in the country to which I was so eager to return. For one, driving with my mother from our home in East Tennessee to Nashville, I noticed how many billboards on the side of the highway advertised guns. And not just any guns—these were not .30-06 hunting rifles or shotguns, but rather, the kind of tactical firearms, including assault rifles, that I had carried in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why in the world, I thought then, would anyone have a need for such weapons?...
No person in the USA feels more defeated by society than a poor achiever in school. I think there is a perfect storm with these young men when they define their adulthood as someone who can shoot a gun. It is a culture issue and it is serious.
Adolescence, 1990 Spring; 25(97): 105-116; JA Daniels; "Adolescent separation-individuation and family transitions,"
This paper (click here) discusses the relationship between family structure and the achievement of the adolescent developmental task of separation-individuation. Adolescent separation-individuation is viewed as a continuum. At the right end of the continuum, adolescents reach successful therapeutic separation-individuation--a sense of self--while remaining connected to the family as a functional member. At the other end of the continuum is nontherapeutic dysfunctional separation-individuation. These adolescents are characterized by disruptive behaviors, rejection of societal and family norms, and potential suicide. Successful accomplishment of separation-individuation appears to be affected by a number of factors (e.g., conflict, parental relationship, accomplishment of previous developmental tasks). Adolescents from nontraditional families may have more barriers to overcome in order to therapeutically complete this task. Interventions to promote therapeutic separation-individuation need to incorporate all members of the family and support from the community. Through anticipatory guidance, dissemination of information, affiliating behaviors, and support groups, practitioners can help equip families with the skills needed for successful accomplishment of this task.
