December 15, 2017
It almost seems formulaic now: A shooting happens, followed by either the suicide or capture of the perpetrator. A motive is announced (mental illness, radicalization) and a call for more gun control is made. The politicians send their condolences and prayers to the families of the victims. The dead are mourned and then it is all forgotten. Nothing ever changes until it happens again, and the cycle begins once more.
Many students wonder: What has happened to this country where these kinds of attacks are now accepted as part of life? Where one must be fearful of being attacked at concerts or movie theaters or even in school? For the past 20 years, mass shootings have grown in deadliness and frequency. The increase in attacks can be traced to many different factors, but the two most common ones are mental illness and terrorism.
In 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris perpetrated a massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. They killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives. This event catapulted the previously small town high school into the global spotlight, leading politicians to call for restrictions on everything ranging from guns to video games (violent video games were listed as a possible reasoning for the teens deciding to kill
their classmates).
MENTAL ILLNESS
However, one facet of Columbine that became a recurring theme was the idea of mental illness causing the shootings.
Eric Harris, the apparent mastermind behind the attack, was rumored to have a psychotic personality, which is signified by a lack of empathy for others and an antisocial attitude, as mentioned in a 2016 Feb. report from 20/20 with Diane Sawyer. Nevertheless, today, mental illness is still not thoroughly addressed in America and many with mental illness are not given the help that they need.
Two years later, on Sept. 11, a different kind of mass attack emerged. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in 9/11, and the event unleashed a wave of similar terror attacks while also inciting the current War on Terror. The war itself has changed the nation since its inception, keeping America in a constant state of war and also giving rise to other terrorist groups such as ISIS, which has dominated the headlines for the last several years.
History teacher Caroline Blanchard said that historical prevalence of these mass attacks and how the reasoning behind the attacks have changed in recent years.
“Yes, there is a time where there has been mass attacks, but they have not been as visible,” Ms. Blanchard said. “The majority of domestic attacks have been directed towards African Americans…so they were ignored.”
These two major causes: terrorism and mental illness (sometimes overlapping) have caused many different mass attacks to occur in the country. In October 2002, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo killed 17 people in two separate attacks, weeks apart, in an apparent act of terrorism as reported by ABC News.
The two used sniper rifles to terrorize people from high up throughout Maryland and Virginia, firing at bystanders. In Muhammad’s own words they were furthering “Jihad across America” as confirmed by the FBI.
However, the accomplices are where the true interest lies. In Columbine, Klebold was the accomplice, described by his mother as a gentle child in a TED Talk in early 2017, slowly warped by Harris. He was directly influenced by Harris through Klebold’s mental illness, apparently suffering from depression as seen in his diary, similar to Malvo in the Beltway shootings.
Both suffered from some form of mental illness with Boyd even suggesting sexual harassment by Muhammad as a reason he committed the crimes during his criminal trial in 2003 according to May NY Times report. With regards to terrorism, mental illness plays a role in these mass attacks.
TIES TO MENTAL HEALTH
Indeed, in recent years, many lone wolf attacks have been linked to both mental illness, but also radicalization through the internet. The San Bernardino attack in December 2015 involved a husband and wife attacking a work complex where they killed 14 people.
In a 2016 Dec. report by The Washington Post, it was later revealed that the couple had been radicalized online and had declared their attack for Islam.
This raises an interesting thought: How does the Internet affect mental health when it comes to terrorism? It has been shown that several of the perpetrators of lone wolf terror attacks, such as Dylann Roof who perpetrated the Charleston Church shooting in 2015, have suffered from different mental illnesses that could explain their radicalization.
According to a report written in 2016 by the Queen Mary University of London, people with violent mental illnesses sometimes use political or religious beliefs (such as what fuels terrorism) to “justify” their attacks.
Furthermore, many of these lone wolf attackers, suffer from different illnesses such as schizophrenia, delusional disorder and many others which makes it difficult to determine why self-radicalization happens faster for them than others.
However, it seems that mental illness can lead to people being radicalized thereby making mental illness and terrorism far more linked than one would think. It should be noted that the reasoning behind terror attacks have changed over time. Lone wolf attacks used to be more focused on the government than religious ideas, but nevertheless, these attacks have always happened as Blanchard explains.
“Up until the 1980s were anti-government or economic justification…” Ms. Blanchard said, “and it shows how the government go through certain phases.”
Mass attacks will not end anytime soon. They have grown deadlier as the years have gone on, with the recent Las Vegas attack being the deadliest in history of the country, but as science learns more about mental illness and more people undergo treatment, perhaps the self-radicalization of American citizens will lessen and with it, the threat of domestic terrorism will be eradicated.
