The Guns of America: On School Shootings and America

The Guns of America

School shootings crop up, on and off, in the sole super power, the United States. The latest incident of this kind has left around 27 people dead in Connecticut. These tragedies keep on recurring in the United States with mentally disturbed young people taking out their ire and warped world view, outlook and bottled up anger onto innocent people.

What does this tell about the country? Nothing except for the fact that the country stands as a metaphor for the human condition. America is the country or more accurately an idea or a philosophy. This idea was incubated in the eighteenth century and reached efflorescence in the 20^th century. The power of this idea is immense; it not only draws diverse peoples to it but also radiates outward. The American firmament is defined by diverse people, making up a mosaic that is wonderful and beautiful. The idea of America attracts, absorbs and is a solvent- a solvent of prejudices, biases and other insalubrious aspects of human nature.

In a way, the country reconciles extremes: the Muslim, the Hindu, the Christian, the Jew and the atheist all form and comprise its mosaic. The nature of the American idea allows and lets them be without any idea or ideology save the idea of America dominating. This idea is composed of liberty, freedom and dignity for all and is a work in progress. Juxtaposed against the idea of America is the country America- a vast space inhabited by diversity and defined by difference.

This is a country in whose capital which is also described as the world’s capital, you can be mugged for a few measly dollars, wander or wade into gunfire exchanges between gangs if you happen to be in the wrong neighbourhood, the hub caps of your car(to cite Thomas Friedman) be stolen by the homeless or harangued by a drug addict. In the same country, you can be a school drop-out but still become Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs or even the president of the country even if you belong to a historically deprived and wounded culture. In this country, you can also be an immigrant with a humble background but yet aspire to the best and be among the best and the privileged. Colour, creed, race or cultural difference does not matter in this country. What matters is the gumption and the oomph that you have and the will and desire to make it big. What has been called the ‘American Dream’ does the rest. There really is no one or nothing to pull you down.

What then explains the school shootings and their recurrence? While some attribute it to lax gun control laws or in some states the permissibility and acceptability of owning and carrying guns, this is a half truth. The reasons are deeper and profounder. And answering this is the domain of the psychologist. I am not one so the explanation that I will venture is an amateur one. The school shootings and other bizarre and abnormal behaviour that some Americans display are a psychological or even psychosocial phenomenon. Troubled childhoods, negative reinforcement, warped thinking and psychopathic tendencies are or may be the main reasons for this aberrant behaviour. The shootings , it could be said, are a form of a perverted and cathartic release for the young killers. They view society as diametrically opposed to them , are in conflict with themselves and the society. By shooting and killing, they are not only killing others but killing themselves in a metaphoric sense. The killers hate themselves and by killing others whom they hold responsible for their condition, they are also killing their own selves which they hate and loathe. This is sad and tragic for both the victims and the perpetrators.

What then can be done to prevent these orgies of murder and rampage? The answer is a grim one. Nothing. Psychopathological behaviour is present in every culture and manifests itself in different permutations and combinations. It is hard to detect and more often than not comes into public gaze and attention only when the deed or the act has been done. The best that can be done is to educate people about the symptoms of this condition and alert them to this. However, a word of caution is in order here. The victim of this condition needs to be dealt with kindness. Isolation, hostility and distance only makes the victim retreat further into himself/herself and then lash out. Kind but vigorous care maybe the only answer if the malady is diagnosed early.

America is a wonderful country. The idea of Americais bold and beautiful. The episodes of psychopathological behaviour do not mean that something is wrong with the country. These are phenomena that are present in every culture and society. Let these episodes be seen for what they are and let vigilance and kindness be the weapons employed to deal with these.