Natalie Brooks, 12, Brittheny Varner, 11, Stephanie Johnson, 12, Paige Ann Herring, 12. They died on March 24th 1998, shot to death by two of their classmates. Shannon Wright also died on March 24th 1998, while trying to save her pupils from getting killed by two other students.
Introduction
On March 24th 1998, a Tuesday, two boys, 11 and 13 years old, opened fire towards their classmates in Jonesboro, Arkansas, killing five and wounding ten. Sadly enough it is all true. Even more terrifying is the fact, that this was not an isolated case. The violence among kids is increasing, as the knowledge about how to use a weapon. So, why did they do it? Are there any other well-known cases? Who is to blame, if not the kids themselves? Well, this is not pleasant reading, but it is true. There should be more attention attracted to this subject, so that people perhaps discover signs of violent behaviour, before something happens, like in Jonesboro.
Some well-known cases
The Jonesboro case
That morning, March 24th 1998, Mitchell Johnson, 13, and his friend Andrew Golden, 11, did not go to school. Instead they tried to break into Andrew's father's gun safe, without success. They only found three handguns and drove to Andrew's grandparents' house in Mitchell's parents van. They got into the house through a basement door an in the house the got hold of four handguns and three rifles. All included they had eleven firearms, along with some army-knifes. They were both dressed in camouflage.
What happened before the shooting, noone really knows, but how the attack was carried out, we know. At 12:35 Andrew pulled the fire-alarm and then ran to join Mitchell in the woods. Students and their teachers ran out from the school and the doors were automatically locked behind them. Andrew and Mitchell opened fire at their classmates and teachers, about 90 m away. In four minutes they fired 22 shots, hitting fifteen of the running people and killing five of them. Some workmen had seen Andrew and Mitchell, so the police could capture them within 15 minutes of the shooting. They gave up without struggle.
The only explanation there is to this terrible incident, is that Mitchell had a relation with a girl in the class, Candace Porter. She had though ceased to be friend with him, she stated that he was too violent. Candace was one of the ten wounded survivors. Among the five, who were killed, one was a teacher. Her heroic acting before she died, has almost made her a saint. She saved some of her pupils, by standing in the way of the bullets. After this shooting, the debate is about how Andrew and Mitchell should be punished. If they should change the law, or not. In Arkansas you are convicted as an adult when you are 14 years old. Both Andrew and Mitchell are younger than that, so they will be free when they turn 18. Then they are also allowed to own firearms, something that adults that have committed such a crime never will be allowed to. Maybe the lawmakers should not think so much about the age of the convict and how he should be punished. The laws about the possession of guns should maybe be more thoroughly looked into.
Michael Carneal
Michael Carneal killed three girls and wounded five, December 1st 1997 in West Paducah, Kentucky. He was 14 years old. Afterwards he told the police that he had been inspired by the movie "Basketball diaries" (1994). He also said that he wanted to be a familiar story and how he became one he did not care. He just wanted to be the headline on TV the next evening. Another thing he said to the police afterwards is that he felt "unreal".
James Bulger
James Bulger did only get two years old. A spring-day in 1993, he was kidnapped by two ten-year-old boys outside a shopping centre in Liverpool. He was found two days later on a railway track, dead. He had been maltreated to death by stones and kicks. November the same year, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were sentenced to 15 years each. They were Britains youngest murderers ever. This was five years ago, so they still have ten years left. James Bulger only got two years old.
Kip Kinkel
May 20th 1998 Kip Kinkel shot his father and a couple of hours later his mother when she came home after work. After this he went to bed and the next morning he ate breakfast as usual. The only "abnormal" thing, was that his parents lay dead in the living-room. Then he went to school and through a side-door he got into the dining-room. The clock was 07:56 and there were about 400 pupils in the dining-room. Kip climbed up on a table, armed with a half-automatic rifle, two handguns and several army-knifes. He just mowed them down. He hit 24 of them. One died immediately and one died after a couple of hours. The schools best wrestler overpowered Kip and got help from four other pupils to hold him down until the police arrived. During that time Kip screamed: "Kill me, kill me! Shoot me, please!" A couple of hours later, he was left alone in the interrogation-room at the police-station. What the police had not seen, was that he had a knife taped on the inside of his lower shin. When a policeman came into the room he attacked him with the knife, but the policeman managed to throw himself out of the way. Later the police found self-made bombs and a hand-grenade in Kip's room.
Surrounding facts
How often do these things happen?
I am sad to say, but this kind of things is increasing. This is most common in the USA (of course), where in the last 15 months 19 people have been shot to death by children:
Feb. 19th 1997 Bethel, Alaska. Evan Ramsey, 16, kills the headmaster and a classmate, wounding two other pupils. He is sentenced to two times 99 years.
Oct. 1st 1997. A 16-year-old killed his mother and then went to school and shot 9 students, two dies. One of the victims was the boy's ex-girlfriend.
Dec. 1st 1997. A 14-year-old opens fire in a hallway, killing three and wounding five.
Mar. 24th 1998. Andrew Golden, 11, and Mitchell Johnson, 13, four girls and a teacher were killed, eleven other were wounded.
Apr. 24th 1998. A teacher is shot and killed by a 14-year-old student on a school-dance.
Apr. 28th 1998. Two boys were killed and one wounded. They were shot at while they were playing basketball. Rivalry between different gangs was probably the cause. A boy, 14 years old, is is belived to be the murderer.
May 19th 1998. An 18 year old shot his former girlfriends new boyfriend to death.
May 21st 1998. Two students were killed and at least 23 were wounded, when their 15 year old classmate opened fire at them. The evening prior to this event he shot his parents to death in the living-room.
In Sweden
Swedish experts in forensic psychiatry do not think that incidents, like those here above, could happen in Sweden. They think it is the weapon-culture in the States, that causes these tragedies. As we in Sweden do not have the same laws and values, Anders Forsman states that the possibility of a similar incident in Sweden is very small. Though, it has happened.
November 20th 1994, a Sunday, two brothers in Bjuv, 16 and 17 years old, told their friend Thomas, 15, that they were about to go to their old school and "revive old memories". They asked if he wanted to go with them. The two brothers had though for months planned this, and when they got there they started hitting him with a heavy stone. Afterwards they went and ate a pizza. One of them has later stated that "I got such a kick when I dropped the stone, that I never wanted to stop.". They each got six years imprisonment.
Causes
Psychologists are quite unanimous about what makes certain boys kill. Boys, yes boys, not girls. This is a boy-problem. Girls have other ways of handling aggressions and depressions, like anorexia for instance. It is harder to see the signs when a boy is going to "erupt". Some children have been left alone night-time, from the time they were able to go to bed themselves actually. They have often stayed up late and watched video, TV and played video-games with violent plots. Seeing blood is the same thing as scoring on the video-game. They eventually can not part reality from fiction. Gil Noam states that "Many boys have impulse-control problems.". If they get angry, they can no longer control what they are doing.
That this really is a boy-problem the statistics prove. During the past five years there has been 11 multiple killings in schools in USA, all of them committed by boys. It seems to be easy for them to get hold of a gun, even if they are so young. Their parents have one hidden in a drawer, or they have been trained to shot as Andrew Golden.
Punishment
Children can not be punished by the same laws as adults, but still they are. Some states in USA have a minimum age, under which children can not be tried as an adult, some has not. The other states have no minimum age. Therefor all children there can go to prison, or if they are unlucky they can perhaps have capital punishment. You can be punished with capital punishment when you are 12 in Montana, 13 in Mississippi and at the age of 14,15,16,17 or 18 in some other states.
1987 there were 33 prisoners in the USA's prisons, that were sentenced to death for crimes they made before they were 18 years old.
Conclusions
I just hope that we will not have to hear about these tragedies in the future. Not that I do not want them to be talked about, I do not want them to happen at all. In USA, 19 has been killed by children, most of the victims just children themselves. Adults have to try harder to detect violent behaviour among kids, especially boys. If they had done that in Jonesboro, West Paducah, Liverpool, Springfield, Bjuv and all the other places, maybe they could have prevented the terrible murders there. Is it really necessary with video-games where they shot eachothers brains out? The same thing goes with movies, where the hero always survives. How badly hurt he should have been, if it was for real! "The bad guys" should have been dead a long time ago, but still they are trying to hit the "hero". Adults make those movies, therefor they should have the blame for murders committed by children who watch their movies? Or the parents, who let their children watch the movies and play the video-games? Or the children, who should be able to handle things civilized, should they not? Many questions, few answers. Let us just hope, that it does not happen again.