The United States has experienced several mass shootings in the past few years. It has been averaging one shooting every week in 2015, and something must be done about it. This problem appears to be limited to the United States since several other nations have been able to minimize, and almost eliminate the number of mass shootings. By taking an analysis of the gun laws of the United States with those of Australia and Canada it can be concluded that some aspects of strict gun control can reduce the number of mass shootings. Further, the United States should look at what other common law nations have done to reduce the number of mass shootings. The United States is also the only nation that recognizes a fundamental right to keep and bear arms, and any legislation must address that right. Some ways to address strict gun control in the United States is to strengthen the background check system, add a liability insurance requirement, and strictly enforce culpable negligent statutes. Adding some elements of strict gun control will help minimize the amount, and impact of the shootings. Canada, and Australia both have active hunting communities that require the need for some legal firearms. A night at the movies, a day at school, or attending a church event should not bring about worry that an individual may get shot and killed by a deranged individual. Other similar nations have shown that rampage shootings do not have to be a side effect of living in a free society.

Targeted school violence (TSV) in the United States is increasing, causing a loss of innocent lives and challenges for teachers and students in building rapport. In addition, TSV increases levels of anxiety and makes it difficult for parents and community members to believe students are safe while at school. Several studies have highlighted the fact that age may be a factor in school shootings, calling for future research to determine if age is indeed influential. The problem is to date age has not been established as a predictive factor, even though the extant research is beginning to identify possible variances. Guided by general strain theory and ceremonial violence, this study determined statistical significance between age and select variables in the personal, event, and ecological categories. This information could be illuminating to educators, mental health professionals, and law enforcement for threat assessment purposes. The information was gathered on all TSV members within the United States from 1966 to 2015 through archival data, and the data were analyzed using logistic regression, Pearson's correlation, and Spearman's correlation. Results indicated that, as age increases, the offenders are more likely to have a higher social status, have a mental health and criminal history, carry out their act in the afternoon, and choose a knife as a weapon. In addition, older offenders are less likely to be students and less likely to have been bullied. Implications for social change include modifications to current threat assessment protocol regarding weapon choice and previous mental health or criminal history, which could be utilized to change public policy for mandatory reporting of students identified as at risk. Also, younger offenders are being bullied more often than older offenders and this could add more awareness to antibullying program procedure and earlier mental health intervention.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [382]-301).

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Liberty University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed September 11, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-150). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

The purpose of this work was to investigate experiencing death and loss through school shootings from a developmental time period and theory-based perspective. This topic was chosen based on recent media coverage and controversy surrounding school shootings. This research looks at school shootings from the perspective of the Structural Functionalism Theory and applies the theory to recent situations of school shootings around the United States. From this theory, the developmental timing of loss following a school shooting was taken into account by observing the stages of development in which loss may have occurred and how each child may react to a school shooting based on their development. This research concluded that school shootings can extremely disruptive to the structure and the functioning of individuals in many roles within the school and community.

This paper examines the impact of confirmed shootings on the attractiveness of a neighborhood, measured through local housing prices, in Sweden’s major metropolitan areas during 2016-2019. A novel difference-in-differences approach is proposed where control groups are selected from areas that will be exposed to shootings in the near future but have not yet been so, thus mitigating the problem from previous studies that shootings might be a result of underlying unobserved factors for the neighborhood. The results are inconclusive overall apart from Uppsala, where the estimate is negative and significant, indicating a 4.8 percent drop in nearby housing prices after a shooting. Multiple alternative specifications are used to test the robustness of the results. Overall, the negative estimate for Uppsala seems quite stable, whereas the estimated impact in other regions remains insignificant. One potential explanation could be that gun-violence is a rather new phenomena in Uppsala relative to the other regions, which could make the effect of a shooting in Uppsala more pronounced. A consideration for policy makers may then be that programs aiming to reduce gun-violence will have a larger economic impact in areas where shootings are a relatively new and arising problem.

Gun-free zones have the potential to increase or decrease the risk of gun crime and active shootings that occur within their borders. People who assume that gun-free zones increase gun related outcomes believe that the lack of the ability for law-abiding citizens to carry a firearm, and thus an inability to engage in defensive gun use if a threat presented itself, makes gun-free zones a soft target for crime. Those that assume gun-free zones decrease gun related outcomes believe the absence of firearms eliminates the risk of an escalation of violence to gunfire. Up until this point, there has been no quantitative research on the effectiveness of gun-free zones, despite the topic being highly controversial. This dissertation was therefore the first to: create and describe a dataset of active shootings in the United States, and assess the extent to which defensive gun use occurs during these events (Aim 1); conduct a cross-sectional ecological analysis for the in St. Louis, Missouri (2019), both city and county, comparing the proportion of crimes committed with a firearm that occur in gun-free school zones compared to gun-allowing zones immediately surrounding the gun-free zone to quantify the effectiveness of gun-free school zones and (Aim 2); conduct a spatial ecological case-control study in the United States where cases are the locations or establishments of active shootings between 2014 and 2020, to quantify the impact of gun-free zones on active shootings, and assess if active shooters target gun-free zones (Aim 3). The results of Aim 1 of this study suggested that defensive gun use during active shootings was rare, usually does not stop the attack, and does not decrease the number of casualties compared to active shootings without defensive use. Aim 1 also thoroughly described the novel active shooting dataset. I found in Aim 2 that gun-free school zones had fewer crimes committed with a firearm than corresponding gun-allowing zones in St. Louis, MO in 2019. There were 13.4% fewer crimes involving a firearm in gun-free school zones, with a confidence interval ranging from 23.6% fewer to 1.8% fewer (p-value: 0.025). Aim 3 determined that the conditional odds of an active shooting in an establishment that was gun-free were 0.375 times the odds of an active shooting in a gun-allowing establishment with a confidence interval ranging from 0.193 to 0.728 (p-value<0.01), suggesting that gun-free zones did not attract active shooters, and may even be preventative. In conclusion, gun-free zones did not appear to increase gun related outcomes and may even be protective against active shootings. Efforts across the United States to repeal laws related to gun-free zones, due to the belief that gun-free zones are targeted for violence, are therefore not backed by data. However, these are the first quantitative studies ever conducted on the effectiveness of gun-free zones, so more research is needed to build on the results of this dissertation.

In 2022, there were forty-two mass school shootings, a record that surpassed the previous years. As of April 2023, there have already been fourteen school shootings that have resulted in injury or death. Each year, the frequency of mass school shootings and the number of victims continue to rise. Regarding the shooters' characteristics, some have reported a history of mental illness, instability within the home, poor academic performance, and more. In the United States (U.S.), one out of five children and adolescents are diagnosed with mental health disorders (Brookman, 2017). This study will examine four significant perpetrators that committed mass school shootings in the U.S. between 1991 and 2022. Through a systematic review, it will attempt to inspect common characteristics and warning signs relating to poor mental health. In addition, this study will discuss the importance of utilizing Mental Health Screenings (MHS) to assist in prevention and interventions within schools. Many adults with mental illness were once children and adolescents with emerging poor mental health. When detected early, treatment can be administered to prevent lifelong suffering and dangerous outcomes. With the implementation of MHS, schoolteachers and counselors can refer and provide necessary psychological services to promote positive mental health and early intervention, two key variables that may play a crucial role in reducing the frequency of mass school shootings in America.