Ethics and Morals of Shooting of School Children

 Few would hold Audrey Hale's shooting and killing of school children and their caretakers morally acceptable and our society certainly doesn't find it ethically acceptable either. Indeed, societies evolves out of the desire to protect the lives of those in society. And modern societies create laws reflecting what is an acceptable defense and what is not. Killing of the enemies of the society in war, yes. Killing another individual in self defense, yes. Killing of another individual for any other purpose, no. Killing one's self, no.

Yet a few, like Audrey Hale, find premeditated killing others for their own purposes -- murder -- morally acceptable or at least so in their actions while doing so. It is certainly not what we would consider normal behavior. And it is what 99.99375% of the individuals in our society do not do in any given year.

But it is the very coming together in communities for protection against enemies that exacerbates murders in our midst. Indeed, murder rates in our largest cities is 5 times that in small town and rural areas.

So what are we to do to make murder morally unacceptable to the 0.00625% who do commit murder? Societal ethics alone is not fully successful in that regards.

The answer lies in the culture of the society.  The society will the lowest homicide rate is that of Japan. The Singapore live even closer together than we do in the US yet their homicide rate is 31 times lower than in the US. On the other extreme, the homicide rate in El Salvador is 10 times higher than in the US and 325 times higher than in Singapore. And, in all three locations, all the citizens are the same humans beings. Therefore, it we wish to lower the murder rate in the US we must undergo a societal change which makes murder a greater ethical standard. Laws alone will be effective if the culture does not change. Indeed, the gun laws in El Salvador are stricter than those in the United States.

And then we come to the mass murders in our society like Audrey Hale who don't abide by the ethical standards of our society and shoot school children.What are we do about about them? Identifiying them before that kill is like finding a needle in a haystack.

First we look at who is doing the school shootings:

THE COVENANT SCHOOL, March 2023, 6 dead

A 28-year-old transsexual shooter (and former student) killed three students and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville. He was killed by police while committing the killings but had left of dying during the event.

ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, May 2022, 21 dead

An 18-year-old gunman (and former student) opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two adults. Killed by police.

OXFORD HIGH SCHOOL, November 2021, 4 dead

A sophomore student killed four people and wounding others at his school in Oxford, Michigan. Surrendered to police.

SANTA FE HIGH SCHOOL, May 2018, 10 dead

A 17-year-old shooter (and student at the school), opened fire at a Houston-area high school, killing 10 people, most of them students. Surrendered to police.

MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL, February 2018, 17 dead

The shooter (a former student at the school) left 14 students and three staff members dead at the school in Parkland, Florida, and injured many others. Weapon jammed and was apprehended attempting to escape.

UMPQUA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, October 2015, 9 dead

A a 26-year-old student killed nine people at the school in Roseburg, Oregon, and wounded nine others. Committed suicide.

MARYSVILLE-PILCHUCK HIGH SCHOOL, October 2014, 4 dead

A 15-year-old student used text messages to draw several cousins and friends to his cafeteria where he fatally shot four of them. Committed suicide.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA, May 2014, 6 dead

A 22-year-old college student frustrated over sexual rejections fatally stabbed or shot six students near the school in Isla Vista, California, and injured several others. Committed suicide.

SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, December 2012, 27 dead

A 19-year-old man (and former student) killed his mother at their home in Newtown, Connecticut, then went to the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 first graders and six educators. Committed suicide.

OIKOS UNIVERSITY, April 2012, 7 dead

A former nursing student fatally shot seven people at the small private college in East Oakland, California. Die in prison.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY, February 2008, 5 dead

A 27-year-old former student shot and killed five people and wounded more than 20 others at the school in DeKalb, Illinois. Committed suicide.

VIRGINIA TECH, April 2007, 32 dead

A 23-year-old student killed 32 people on the campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, in April 2007; more than two dozen others were wounded. Committed suicide.

WEST NICKEL MINES AMISH SCHOOL, October 2006, 5 dead

A mentally disturbed 32-year-old man entered an Amish schoolhouse near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and fatally shot five girls and wounding five others. He committed suicide afterwards.

RED LAKE HIGH SCHOOL, March 2005, 9 dead

A 16-year-old former student of the school killed his grandfather and the man’s companion at their Minnesota home, then went to nearby Red Lake High School, where he killed five students, a teacher and a security guard. He committed suicide afterwards.

COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL, April 1999, 13 dead

Two students killed 12 of their peers and one teacher at the school in Littleton, Colorado, and injured many others. They committed suicide afterwards.

Four statistics stand out: 

1.  Of the 15 mass shooters of school children, 14 of the shooters were either a current student or former student of the schools at which they killed.
   
2. Of the 15 shooters, 8 committed suicide before they could be apprehended. Two were shot by police before suicide could be attempted. The remaining 6 were apprehended before suicide could be attempted. How many of the 5 who did not commit suicide had intended to so is unknown. 
3. All but 1 of the killers was under the age of 30 and most were adolescents.
4. All the killers were white, Hispanic or Asian. None of the killers were black.

So what has changed in our society students these days are killing students in their own schools? 

• A proliferation of firearms? Nope. Guns have been around all along. Nope. The percentage of households owning guns in unchanged since 1972.
• The ease of legally obtaining firearms? Nope. That has never been more restrictive than it is today. 
• The availability of assault rifles? Nope. That only increases the number killed in a mass school shooting, not the number of mass shootings. 

So what has changed?  

• Poorer parenting. How can parents not know that their children have possession of or access to of these firearms? 
• Degradation of the nuclear family through divorces and unwed mothers.
• Working mothers offloading child care during the critical years when social conscious is being developed.
• Lower valuation of the lives of the children by parents relative to their self interests. The child comes second or third, not first in importance, in their lives.
• Lack of disciple.

And when it comes to mass shootings a school, lack of attention to the mental health of their children. A mass shooter does not come to fruition overnight.

All parents have amoral and ethical obligation to ensure that their children develop and adopt moral and ethical standards that do not foster mass shootings of school children. Even Plato and Aristotle were skeptical of the possibility of radical human change after childhood. If the parent fails, the child is also likely to fail.

And as for guns, that is only the instrument of mass shooting, not the cause. If not guns, then bombs. If not bombs, then knives. If not knives ...