Montreal School Shootings

[foghlaim]

HI david... maybe it's time to split this thread. It really has moved away from the original topic.. Maybe call it... do movies, games desensitize ppl to violence or violent behaviour.

anyway.. for my tuppence worth... I am begining to think.. that we as adults arne't desensitized because simply we are adults and our generation wasn't as exposed as todays generation to all of the above... the movies, games, t.v shows.. even cartoons these days feature killings and blood being spilt.
I do think that for some vunerable young ppl... they will believe what they see on the box and copy it in real life.

 

[Retired]

I wonder again about whether that is just desensitizing us to violence in movies rather than violence in real life.

An interesting thought, and I suppose for most people whose values are in order, that would be the case.

Which brings us back to what causes a young person to fall into the patterns we have seen in school shootings.

It was reported yesterday two other young men were arrested in Green Bay, Wisconsin for planning an attack on a school in their community.

They were equipped with several weapons and the plan was to fire bomb the school exits to block students' escape, while they shot the students.

It seems their intention was to die in the process.

Some analysts talk about these people as having been rejected, and ridiculed by their peers and this is their revenge.

What in the world goes wrong in one's thinking process to get to a point like this?

 

[foghlaim]

Hi TSOW...
Maybe for these young men... the thought of having their names all over the media, all over the world!! was enough.. ????????

 

[Retired]

Maybe for these young men... the thought of having their names all over the media, all over the world!! was enough

You may be onto something, NSA, that perhaps these people are trying to impress someone.

Now that's where my understanding of the behaviour breaks down...me I like to get the glory while I can see and hear it .

All the accolades and glory won't do me much good when the grim reaper takes me to my great laptop in the sky

What puzzles me about this behaviour is the desire for attention along with a bizarre link to a death wish

 

[foghlaim]

What puzzles me about this behaviour is the desire for attention along with a bizarre link to a death wish

to me it's not really puzzling, if u add being depressed, or under the influence of drugs or drink.. and then add (maybe) peer pressure.. feelings of rebellion against parents and\or the authorities... a mind set of " i'll show 'em ".. could take over.

 

[Halo]

Sort of like going down in a blaze of glory. That is the way that I see it. I'll show all of you and I will leave my mark on this world and you will all never forget me after this.

 

[ThatLady]

I find myself wondering if the knowledge that the frontal lobes (those dealing with sensitivity to the feelings of others) are still developing in teenagers might lend a clue to some of this behavior. Perhaps, they're more susceptible to desensitizing of real-life events by those events experienced in video games and movies because of this developmental delay period?

 

[David Baxter PhD]

My understanding is that this particular individual was in his mid-20s.

 

[Retired]

In a suburb of Montreal a young man was arrested for posting threats to "finish the job" begun by the first guy we're discussion. The police discovered his rants on the same website used by the first guy.

Does this seem like a copy cat seeking attantion or is there an epidemic of this kind of behaviour among some trouble youths?

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Likely a copycat. The day after the killings, some genius took a pellet gun to one of the Ottawa universities and got himself arrested. I think he thought it would be a good gag. I guess he's about to find out why it wasn't.

 

[AVC]

Did this guy have a problem with the school or is he just a obsessed individual with the scenario and wanted to duplicate it

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Do you mean the individual at Dawson College? If so, I'm not sure if that's yet been determined. He was not a student at the school and I don't believe he had any prior connection with the school.

 

[Retired]

And the second one has no connection with Dawson either. His threats were made on a website frequented by the first guy, but werre directed at a high school in the suburban community of Hudson.

Today's news reported that this fifteen year old appeared in court to determine his future, but needed his parents to be present. Apparently his parents were not in attendance because they were too busy at work

 

[Halo]

Apparently his parents were not in attendance because they were too busy at work

Makes you wonder where their care and concern is

 

[ThatLady]

My understanding is that this particular individual was in his mid-20s.

As an administrator on a gamers' board, consisting of a lot of young people (mostly in their late teens to early 30's), I notice a number of people on those boards who seem unable to discern when their words will be particularly hurtful to another individual. When confronted by that individual in an off-the-boards (chatroom) environment, these people are often surprised that their words were hurtful.

Is it possible that, in some people, there is delayed development of the frontal lobe areas responsible for providing the ability to analyze the possible effects one's words (or deeds) might have on others?

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Is it possible that, in some people, there is delayed development of the frontal lobe areas responsible for providing the ability to analyze the possible effects one's words (or deeds) might have on others?

That's actually one theory about the basis of psychopathy.

In Elizabethan England (or was it Victorian?), one was not deemed to be sufficiently mature to occupy a position of responsibility in business or politics until the age of 30 -- roughly about the time (mid- to late 20s) when maturation of the frontal lobes is completed.