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Guns can be both defensive and offensive, used
for war or to protect the peace, automatic or a six shooter, and, definitely a
thing that must be managed safely, for a purpose, and one that should be placed
in the hands of appropriately trained users who understand, respect, and are
mindful of their actions. There is no one fix that will prevent mass killings
and out of control gun violence, but there are multiple simultaneous approaches
that can surround the issue to stop the violence before it starts. First, we
must legislate the rules by which guns can be obtained and used. Second, we
must provide the training to identify predictor issues, and third, we must offer sufficient resources to intervene effectively and early. It must be a multi-pronged,
multidisciplinary solution, with both general mandates and customized
provisions as well.
Besides the enactment of intelligent legislation,
it is imperative to examine all the possible factors that can contribute to
shooting tragedies and that can provide clues to prevent them from happening at
all.
In other words, the answer to the question
"why".
Identifying and examining the root causes of
violence, whether attributed to mental illness, bullying, random circumstances
of nature and nurture, is not enough. We must learn to identify the external
manifestations of such a problem so that they may
be recognized, studied, and dealt with as early as possible.
There are glaring symptoms and tangible early warning signs of future violent
behavior that can be detected now and successfully treated with early
intervention - sometimes as early as pre-school age.
In other words, the answer to the question
"did I miss something"?
According to the FBI, abnormal behaviors such as pyromania, enuresis (excessive bed-wetting), animal cruelty and other acts demonstrating a lack of empathy, have been credited as precursors to committing future violent acts. Isolation, loneliness, radicalization are other factors. Some behaviors such as deriving pleasure from causing an animal pain can be seen even in very young children. As most children are not born violent, (true sociopaths notwithstanding) such behavior towards an animal is abnormal and indicative of a problem, which if not addressed can deepen and escalate until the cry out for attention results in a tragedy that can impact many lives.
In other words "you are not seeing or hearing me".
Both recent mass shooters (the supermarket inBuffalo and the
school in Texas) had instances of animal cruelty in their pasts. I
would never say animal cruelty is the only factor or manifestation of a serious
issue that is the ultimate answer to all the questions. Nor would I suggest
that had this one behavior been addressed and examined early on there would be
no tragedy. I am saying, that the more signals, clues, acting out, or abnormal
behavior that is recognized as problematic, the earlier we can intervene
and hopefully help that individual thereby saving others as well.
Teachers, parents, social workers, friends and
others in contact with our youth must be trained to recognize the symptoms. If
you see something, say something.
In other words, the answer to the question
"could I have done something to stop it"?
I can’t tell you how often I am told by a parent
when informed that their son or daughter committed an act of animal cruelty -
“It’s just a dog. You should be happy it’s not a person.” "Boys will be
boys". "I wish I had known my child was in pain..." I wish my
kids told me."
My response - they just told you. Now let's find help before
it is too late.
Again, the earlier the warning signs are
recognized, the greater the chances of successful intervention, behavior
modification and the abatement of future violent behavior.
In other words, "we did everything we could
to protect our community".
spcaLA (not affiliated with any other spca as there is no national/umbrella spca) has a series of core programs designed to intervene and prevent animal abuse as well as to deter violence towards people. They comprise a court mandated alternative sentencing course for juvenile offenders convicted of bullying, animal abuse or other violent crimes, an internationally acclaimed "at risk" youth program where schools target certain students to participate in the program, and one assisting victims of domestic violence and their pets where immediate help is mandated. Check spcaLA.com for details.
