I think it has more to do with the curriculum in the school. The attitudes of the faculty and the situation at home.
If we're going to cite music as the cause, then blame it on that violent rap crap.

As for the emotional development... kids coming out of high school today are five years short of where their development should be. Not exactly the best education government money can buy. It's focused too much on the core subjects and not enough on how to deal with the real world on the outside. My stepson graduated from high school and he didn't know how to write a check to pay his bills.
High school is supposed to prep a student for college. Today they are prepped for either college or prison.:-?

All schools should have metal detectors. My daughters school has a police officer present all day. Full fledged. Metal detectors are used at sporting events, amusement parks and the like. Not much in the way of gun/knife play at these placed. Last year a student left my daughters school and returned later. There is only one way in when school starts. The school secretary questioned the student when he returned. His answers were sketchy at best. They searched his bag as a result. Gun found. Student was taken into custody. For me, metal detectors are a must. We continually play Russian roulette pretending things like this just don't happen in my neighborhood school. We are fools......

If we're going to constantly expect the worst from these kids, sooner than later they will oblige.
This state already requires that book bags be made of a see through material. Everything else is prohibited.

There weren't metal detectors or cops hanging around the HS I went to. We all carried knives. We didn't use them against each other, we used them as tools.
I got caught in machine shop (which I went to class after my regular classes), I had made a beautiful (in my eyes) set of brass knuckles, complete with razor sharp edges. The instructor/teacher confiscated them. I still got the marks for the work, but did not get to keep the product. He told me they were illegal.
It is a good thing I never got searched while I went there, I always carried a switchblade in my pocket. The Town of Whitby Police got that. I didn't get charged, but I lost the knife.

Rough neighborhood, Swamprat?:huh:
Brass knuckles?
And to think, all I made in metal shop was an aluminum meat tenderizer and tempered nickels for pitching. (no bounce just a flat slide):cool:

Farming. Need a good sharp knife for cutting baling string and whatever, including whittling.
The knuckles I had a purpose for, but I ended up using the side of a locker and the wall to my advantage instead. It worked better as I didn't use a weapon to attain the damage to the trouble makers' head.

My preferred weapon for the unreasonable peer was a cafeteria chair across the teeth. Slapped a guy with the blade of my T-square in drafting class for constantly poking me in the ribs with his.

None of our high schools have metal detectors, nor should any school need them. How about parents taking responsibility for teaching their children respect and proper responses to social interaction. Guns and knives and even chairs to the teeth should not be part of a child's social repertoire.

A wall in the head works good tho.

True, but a peer who doesn't get the message to leave you be or else, gets a chair in the teeth. Telling a faculty member or a parent was usually met with disbelief and an accusation that you were the cause of the altercation when in reality it was just a bully suffering from newly acquired testosterone and an evil mind. Once blood was drawn, respect followed. Being a tattle tell only escalated the abuse. So, I took it to the court of chair only as a last resort. I taught the same philosophy to my own kids. I refused to be a constant victim to those who would try to abuse me. I got damned mad and wasn't going to take it anymore. I wouldn't expect any kid to just suck it up and take it.
This kid in Pissburgh just snapped from what has been reported so far. Even that must be taken with a grain of salt.:yep:

These shouldn't be part of the repertoire but we see reality is something entirely different. There is a pattern of this behavior seen around the world. Schools, malls, etc.

Sad but true.

I blame the parents.

The music thing was a joke. :arrgh!: I listen to just about everything...from Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong to Metallica and Marilyn Manson.

I also play all kind of violent video games.

I haven't killed anybody. :O:

That ain't no joke.

Everybody stresses all the core subjects too much.

No real world skills are taught in normal classes....now like a Career and Tech center that will? "That's for dumb kids who won't go to college"

Heh. Mine's not a switchblade but I NEVER leave the house without it.

Not as a weapon, but like you say, as a tool.

Me too. Parents are becoming dumber as generations go on.

Just wait. When the generation that has legalized weed becomes parents EVERYBODY will be schizophrenic and have no brain cells. :yeah:

Perfect. :shifty:

I'm wondering why this stuff happens in the US more than any other place. I mean, in Australia, our high schools don't have any metal detectors or stuff, and I've only heard of one case of a student killing another student. And I don't think the killer was insane, apparently when he found out he'd killed the guy he broke down in tears.

So why America? Is it the culture? Is it the media? Is it the government? What the hell is going on?!