I'm often asked if I've had the experiences I write about in my novels...car chases, being shot at, getting into fights, confronting psychopaths, seeing dead bodies. Yes I have. In most cases, I've taken a situation from real life, added a dash of imagination and presto! turned it into a scene.
For example, as a deputy sheriff in Kansas in my twenties (note that's in my twenties not the twenties!) there were several times where I had to whip out my trusty .357 magnum and point it at a bad guy, or in their general vicinity. Thank the Lord, I never shot anyone. I have been in many tense, tactical situations and fired many types of weapons, however and, from reading after-action reports, attending autopsies and talking to those who have had to shoot to wound or kill, I have a pretty good idea of the mechanics involved, and how it must feel to put a bullet in someone. Of course, not everyone has the same reaction to taking a life but, by the time I placed my character, Reno McCarthy, into a situation where he had to kill in self-defense (Deader by the Lake), I knew his emotional makeup well enough to figure how he would handle it. Reno is a tough, cynical guy but he's not a super-hero. He took a life to save his own, but feels guilty(throughout Every Secret Crime). I think that's a realistic reaction. At some point, I will have Reno face another kill or be killed scenario. We'll see what happens.
Most of what I've written has the feel of reality because I've drawn it from memory, making a few changes to suit the plot. In Every Secret Crime, for example, I recalled two friends who died in a car crash, mentioned in my last blog post, to write about a young woman who is murdered and dumped, in her Jeep, into a river. Combine that with the fact that, as both cop and reporter, I've either participated in or watched dozens of water rescues/recoveries and you have a scene that seems real.
If you want to write crime fiction and don't have the benefit of a background based in homicide and filled with action sequences, research works wonders. For those of you who haven't the slightest idea how to describe someone recently deceased from violent means, I recommend the detective's bible, Vernon Geberth's Practical Homicide Investigation. The pictures are not pretty but they are real and the investigative techniques drawn from Geberth's many years as a homicide detective and commander with the NYPD are timeless. If diagrams and text are more to your liking, the Death Investigator's Handbook by Louis Eliopulos is excellent. Both books are large, long and not cheap so a visit to your library may be in order. More basic, but just as useful, information can be found in the Writers Digest HowDunnit series of books which are reasonably priced and available at most bookstores or on Amazon. Calling your local police department to talk to an investigator may also help you and any military vet who has seen combat can tell you exactly how it feels to come under fire.
If you want to know what it's like to shoot a gun . . . well, that's a conversation for another post!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Seeing Dead People and Writing Realistic Fiction
My college experience wasn't the usual sort. No keggers, fraternity parties, football tailgate parties or bunches of hookups with co-eds for me. I looked at a lot of dead people and watched more than a few buildings burn, though.
My first year, I started shooting pictures at accidents and fire scenes. I'd take a few shots then call in to a local radio station and they would put me on the air to report the story. I was seventeen. I saw my first headless corpse after responding to the scene of a mid-air collision between two private planes. The propeller of one sliced through the canopy, and the pilot's head, of the other. He ended up... well, no need to go there. But for a teenager it was pretty eye-opening, as you might imagine.
By nineteen, I was working for a TV station as a camera guy and reporter. We called me a "one-man band" because I would do an interview from behind the camera then, later, do a stand-up and report the story. One night, on call, a friend of mine and I met a couple girls at a Pizza Hut and went back to my apartment for a drink. They both had curfew so they took off and we went back to Pizza Hut to see if we could score again. Half an hour later, I got a call on the radio of a head-on crash outside town. On the way, something told me it was the two girls we hung out with. It was. They both were killed. I had to ID them for the Highway Patrol, then shoot the accident for the news the next night.
Shortly after I turned twenty-one, I was a cop doing crime scene photography. One of my victims had been shot nine times and left in an open field for three days in one-hundred degree temperatures. At the scene of an armed robbery at a little mom and pop gas station, the bad guys shot a teenager to death. As we were trying to work the scene, the owner came up and asked how long before we finished, he was losing business and wanted to get the station open again. A couple of years later, I walked up on a car that burst into flames after a crash. Noting the grisly and hard to miss odor (John Sandford, in one of his Lucas Davenport novels, compares it to roast pork. He's obviously been there.), I looked a little more closely at the lump of something in the front seat and realized it was actually two somethings, fused together from the inferno.
Even when I'd enough of being a cop and went back to TV, the corpses were waiting. In the early days there wasn't quite the same concern about protecting crime and other death scenes that there is now. I walked up on quite a few surprises. While dating an assistant district attorney, I drove her to the scene of a DUI accident where we found the head of one driver in the back seat of his car. We continued on to dinner afterward.
I didn't take notes. Didn't save any of the photos I shot. I have no written record of anything from my years as a deputy sheriff or, indeed, the first half of my reporting career. Yet I can still describe the position of the dead pilot, body arched, shoulders fused flat to the ground, the bodies of the two girls at that long-ago fatal crash, and the surprise on the face of the head in the back seat. I can see the fetal curl of the fifteen year old raped and killed in a Forest Preserve on his way home from bowling and the expressions on the faces of a group of parents outside a drive-in restaurant waiting to hear if their children were among the victims found shot to death in a cooler.
The challenge for me isn't to create realistic fiction. It's to tone my memories down enough so they're believeable. Oh, and to be able to sleep after going back there.
My first year, I started shooting pictures at accidents and fire scenes. I'd take a few shots then call in to a local radio station and they would put me on the air to report the story. I was seventeen. I saw my first headless corpse after responding to the scene of a mid-air collision between two private planes. The propeller of one sliced through the canopy, and the pilot's head, of the other. He ended up... well, no need to go there. But for a teenager it was pretty eye-opening, as you might imagine.
By nineteen, I was working for a TV station as a camera guy and reporter. We called me a "one-man band" because I would do an interview from behind the camera then, later, do a stand-up and report the story. One night, on call, a friend of mine and I met a couple girls at a Pizza Hut and went back to my apartment for a drink. They both had curfew so they took off and we went back to Pizza Hut to see if we could score again. Half an hour later, I got a call on the radio of a head-on crash outside town. On the way, something told me it was the two girls we hung out with. It was. They both were killed. I had to ID them for the Highway Patrol, then shoot the accident for the news the next night.
Shortly after I turned twenty-one, I was a cop doing crime scene photography. One of my victims had been shot nine times and left in an open field for three days in one-hundred degree temperatures. At the scene of an armed robbery at a little mom and pop gas station, the bad guys shot a teenager to death. As we were trying to work the scene, the owner came up and asked how long before we finished, he was losing business and wanted to get the station open again. A couple of years later, I walked up on a car that burst into flames after a crash. Noting the grisly and hard to miss odor (John Sandford, in one of his Lucas Davenport novels, compares it to roast pork. He's obviously been there.), I looked a little more closely at the lump of something in the front seat and realized it was actually two somethings, fused together from the inferno.
Even when I'd enough of being a cop and went back to TV, the corpses were waiting. In the early days there wasn't quite the same concern about protecting crime and other death scenes that there is now. I walked up on quite a few surprises. While dating an assistant district attorney, I drove her to the scene of a DUI accident where we found the head of one driver in the back seat of his car. We continued on to dinner afterward.
I didn't take notes. Didn't save any of the photos I shot. I have no written record of anything from my years as a deputy sheriff or, indeed, the first half of my reporting career. Yet I can still describe the position of the dead pilot, body arched, shoulders fused flat to the ground, the bodies of the two girls at that long-ago fatal crash, and the surprise on the face of the head in the back seat. I can see the fetal curl of the fifteen year old raped and killed in a Forest Preserve on his way home from bowling and the expressions on the faces of a group of parents outside a drive-in restaurant waiting to hear if their children were among the victims found shot to death in a cooler.
The challenge for me isn't to create realistic fiction. It's to tone my memories down enough so they're believeable. Oh, and to be able to sleep after going back there.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
I Couldn't Resist
If you'll scroll down, you can see the trailer I referred to in my last post. Click on the YouTube window to begin.
Of Blogs and Websites and Trailers and Other Things Promotional
If you haven't realized it yet, I have a book coming out this year. Specifically, Every Secret Crime which will be published in June. It's the second in a series about a Chicago TV reporter who sticks his nose into all sorts of places where it's not welcome. Sort of like what I did for twenty-five years or so.
What amazes me are all the opportunities available for self-promotion. Much as I detest narcissistic people, I fear I am in danger of becoming one the more I shamelessly talk about myself. But there are so many avenues open for me to do so. And hey, I've got to hawk the darn book don't I?
Take this blog for example. As little as six months ago, I could swear I heard myself say, "I'll never write one of those things. It's so arrogant!" Yet, here I am.
But first came my website at http://www.everysecretcrime.com/ . First time around, with my first book, Deader by the Lake, my friend and fellow author Linda Mickey created the site and did a fine job. She has her own writing and business to worry about so I hired a web designer (the incomparable, feline-loving web-mistress Beth Tindall at cincinnattimedia.com) and she produced a site that amazes me every time I go look at it. We have filled it with magazine articles about me, interviews with me, photos and information and, if I am fortunate enough to be invited to book signings, we will list those, too. Me, me, me it's ALL ABOUT ME!
Another thing I'm excited about is the video trailer. Suggested to me by my friend Anne Brown, it's very similar to the trailer for an upcoming movie. It's also eerie with a great little soundtrack. Anne and her husband Aaron did a magnificent job translating my wishes into pictures and sound.
Like I said. So many opportunities. And as for book signings, I have one scheduled next week at Elmhurst Public Library. If you'd like to join us, it's at 7pm on Weds. In addition to reading my words about me here in this blog, you can hear me talk about myself live and in person.
What fun!
What amazes me are all the opportunities available for self-promotion. Much as I detest narcissistic people, I fear I am in danger of becoming one the more I shamelessly talk about myself. But there are so many avenues open for me to do so. And hey, I've got to hawk the darn book don't I?
Take this blog for example. As little as six months ago, I could swear I heard myself say, "I'll never write one of those things. It's so arrogant!" Yet, here I am.
But first came my website at http://www.everysecretcrime.com/ . First time around, with my first book, Deader by the Lake, my friend and fellow author Linda Mickey created the site and did a fine job. She has her own writing and business to worry about so I hired a web designer (the incomparable, feline-loving web-mistress Beth Tindall at cincinnattimedia.com) and she produced a site that amazes me every time I go look at it. We have filled it with magazine articles about me, interviews with me, photos and information and, if I am fortunate enough to be invited to book signings, we will list those, too. Me, me, me it's ALL ABOUT ME!
Another thing I'm excited about is the video trailer. Suggested to me by my friend Anne Brown, it's very similar to the trailer for an upcoming movie. It's also eerie with a great little soundtrack. Anne and her husband Aaron did a magnificent job translating my wishes into pictures and sound.
Like I said. So many opportunities. And as for book signings, I have one scheduled next week at Elmhurst Public Library. If you'd like to join us, it's at 7pm on Weds. In addition to reading my words about me here in this blog, you can hear me talk about myself live and in person.
What fun!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Veering Away from The Tragic
I can't think of five happier benchmarks in a writer's life:
Signing a book deal. Getting the first copies of the book in actual book form. Reading good reviews that hopefully will result in good sales. Cashing the royalty checks. And finding out someone has been motivated to write, or achieve another life goal, based on reading or hearing something I've said.
Recently, I received the ARCS for my next book, Every Secret Crime.
What's an ARC? It stands for Advance Reader Copy or Advance Review Copy. They are the preview copies of the book that the publisher sends out to reviewers, bookstores and libraries to get the buzz going. With any luck, they'll result in some good reviews. A couple have already been written. Booklist, for example, one of the two magazines libraries use to choose which books to buy, says this about Every Secret Crime:
"The author of Deader by the Lake(2003)returns with his Reno McCarthy series, which begins with a creepy prologue that will suck readers in and keep them guessing as to how it fits into the rest of the story...McCarthy has the makings of a fine series character: he's a sexy, emotionally vulnerable reporter with an active conscience as well as a nose for news, half-truths and lies."
Hey...I can live with that! I wish someone would call me sexy.
Receiving the ARCs is exciting because it's the first time I've seen this book in book format; up to now, I've just looked at the manuscript. It's trade paperback which means it's the size of a hardcover but ...in paperback. The "real" book will come out in hardcover in late June and be available in July.
Finally, it's not really a typical book benchmark, but I'm excited about the video trailer that's been produced for Every Secret Crime. It should be available for posting online in a couple of weeks. It's dark and sinister with a creepy soundtrack. Just like you might see for an upcoming movie. We'll be posting it on my website, http://www.everysecretcrime.com/, and a number of other places on the net, including YouTube and MySpace. I have mixed feelings about using a video trailer because it was not cheap to produce and some book folks feel they aren't worthwhile for the cost. I hope it will reach a different audience than other promotional stuff. I'll announce here when it's available; after you've watched it, feel free to give me your feedback at renomccarthy@gmail.com.
Signing a book deal. Getting the first copies of the book in actual book form. Reading good reviews that hopefully will result in good sales. Cashing the royalty checks. And finding out someone has been motivated to write, or achieve another life goal, based on reading or hearing something I've said.
Recently, I received the ARCS for my next book, Every Secret Crime.
What's an ARC? It stands for Advance Reader Copy or Advance Review Copy. They are the preview copies of the book that the publisher sends out to reviewers, bookstores and libraries to get the buzz going. With any luck, they'll result in some good reviews. A couple have already been written. Booklist, for example, one of the two magazines libraries use to choose which books to buy, says this about Every Secret Crime:
"The author of Deader by the Lake(2003)returns with his Reno McCarthy series, which begins with a creepy prologue that will suck readers in and keep them guessing as to how it fits into the rest of the story...McCarthy has the makings of a fine series character: he's a sexy, emotionally vulnerable reporter with an active conscience as well as a nose for news, half-truths and lies."
Hey...I can live with that! I wish someone would call me sexy.
Receiving the ARCs is exciting because it's the first time I've seen this book in book format; up to now, I've just looked at the manuscript. It's trade paperback which means it's the size of a hardcover but ...in paperback. The "real" book will come out in hardcover in late June and be available in July.
Finally, it's not really a typical book benchmark, but I'm excited about the video trailer that's been produced for Every Secret Crime. It should be available for posting online in a couple of weeks. It's dark and sinister with a creepy soundtrack. Just like you might see for an upcoming movie. We'll be posting it on my website, http://www.everysecretcrime.com/, and a number of other places on the net, including YouTube and MySpace. I have mixed feelings about using a video trailer because it was not cheap to produce and some book folks feel they aren't worthwhile for the cost. I hope it will reach a different audience than other promotional stuff. I'll announce here when it's available; after you've watched it, feel free to give me your feedback at renomccarthy@gmail.com.
How Does Your Mom's Murder Make You Feel?
I was interviewed the other day about media coverage of crime in general, and the NIU shootings in specific.
The question was asked, "What about interviewing victims and their families?"
Early in my broadcasting career, a news director ordered me to go interview the surviving victims of a shooting at a house party that killed seven people. We knew where to find the survivors and, at that moment, no one else did.
They didn't really want to talk to me. My photographer and I convinced them they should.
I made three people cry that morning. Doubtless they'd been crying all night but when I took them through the whole horrible ordeal again, step-by-step, each of them broke down.
My boss literally jumped up and down in his chair ecstatic. Crying on camera, of course, translates to ratings in the minds of some news executives. It's "drama in real life."
I felt like a pig. And I vowed I would never hammer a victim or witness into talking to me again. I never did.
One thing you have to understand. When a reporter shows up at the scene of a major incident, there will always be those who want to talk about what happened. They make themselves available whether to have their fifteen minutes of fame or just to vent feelings of rage or sadness or fear, or just to let the public know what happened. Some actually seek out TV and radio reporters specifically. I have no problem with those sorts of interviews. A case in point occurred after a commuter train rammed into a school bus, killing a handful of teenagers. One of the survivors came back to the scene after being taken to the hospital just to go on television. I don't know why. I didn't think to ask him. I wish I had.
What makes me want to puke are the sensationalists who, in one case, followed a kid on a bike who announced to a media throng that he knew where a murder victim's parents lived so "Come on! Come with me!" Like lemmings, four TV teams ran along behind him and pounded on the parents' door. It was less than an hour after police found his body; in fact detectives had just notified the parents their son had been murdered.
Or the enterprising TV reporter who dropped into a neighborhood hangout for kids to announce that five of their peers had just died in a car crash on the highway. "Did anyone know these guys? How do you feel about what happened?" The reporter got exactly what she was looking for. The brother of one of the victims, unaware of what had happened to his sibling, got the news first with a video camera recording his reaction.
Some argue that by doing the "how does your son/brother/sister/mother/father's murder make you feel?" interviews we're providing an opportunity for the victim/witness to work through their feelings about the tragedy. No, we're not shrinks and that's not our job. What we're doing is intruding on someone's grief in hopes of getting a money shot.
We often cover people on the worst day of their lives, in the midst of the most awful experience they will ever have. Insisting they talk to us is mostly a shameless effort to get tears on tape. In my opinion, most reporters do it with all the subtlety of a hammer to the forehead and it's inappropriate.
Having said that, the media will never back off. And some journalism schools have reacted by attempting to teach students the right way to handle victim/witness interviews. Michigan State University pioneered the Victims and the Media teaching track and it's a great idea. More schools should adopt it. News organizations should offer in-house workshops on the topic.
Sensationalism is painful, and not just for those of us who have to watch it.
The question was asked, "What about interviewing victims and their families?"
Early in my broadcasting career, a news director ordered me to go interview the surviving victims of a shooting at a house party that killed seven people. We knew where to find the survivors and, at that moment, no one else did.
They didn't really want to talk to me. My photographer and I convinced them they should.
I made three people cry that morning. Doubtless they'd been crying all night but when I took them through the whole horrible ordeal again, step-by-step, each of them broke down.
My boss literally jumped up and down in his chair ecstatic. Crying on camera, of course, translates to ratings in the minds of some news executives. It's "drama in real life."
I felt like a pig. And I vowed I would never hammer a victim or witness into talking to me again. I never did.
One thing you have to understand. When a reporter shows up at the scene of a major incident, there will always be those who want to talk about what happened. They make themselves available whether to have their fifteen minutes of fame or just to vent feelings of rage or sadness or fear, or just to let the public know what happened. Some actually seek out TV and radio reporters specifically. I have no problem with those sorts of interviews. A case in point occurred after a commuter train rammed into a school bus, killing a handful of teenagers. One of the survivors came back to the scene after being taken to the hospital just to go on television. I don't know why. I didn't think to ask him. I wish I had.
What makes me want to puke are the sensationalists who, in one case, followed a kid on a bike who announced to a media throng that he knew where a murder victim's parents lived so "Come on! Come with me!" Like lemmings, four TV teams ran along behind him and pounded on the parents' door. It was less than an hour after police found his body; in fact detectives had just notified the parents their son had been murdered.
Or the enterprising TV reporter who dropped into a neighborhood hangout for kids to announce that five of their peers had just died in a car crash on the highway. "Did anyone know these guys? How do you feel about what happened?" The reporter got exactly what she was looking for. The brother of one of the victims, unaware of what had happened to his sibling, got the news first with a video camera recording his reaction.
Some argue that by doing the "how does your son/brother/sister/mother/father's murder make you feel?" interviews we're providing an opportunity for the victim/witness to work through their feelings about the tragedy. No, we're not shrinks and that's not our job. What we're doing is intruding on someone's grief in hopes of getting a money shot.
We often cover people on the worst day of their lives, in the midst of the most awful experience they will ever have. Insisting they talk to us is mostly a shameless effort to get tears on tape. In my opinion, most reporters do it with all the subtlety of a hammer to the forehead and it's inappropriate.
Having said that, the media will never back off. And some journalism schools have reacted by attempting to teach students the right way to handle victim/witness interviews. Michigan State University pioneered the Victims and the Media teaching track and it's a great idea. More schools should adopt it. News organizations should offer in-house workshops on the topic.
Sensationalism is painful, and not just for those of us who have to watch it.
Monday, February 18, 2008
If Only He'd Taken His Meds
What a shocking revelation.
The young man who went on the shooting rampage last week at NIU was off his meds.
I say "shocking" with a cynical and sarcastic twist. Having covered killings and assorted mayhem for about thirty years, I've found a pretty common reason people suddenly explode in violence is their failure to stay on a proscribed drug therapy. The most common explanation is that they began to feel better and think they don't need any more medication. A couple of mental health professionals I spoke to this week have a different take on that, however.
They tell me the medications used to treat bi-polar disorder work well but create a baseline effect for the user. Instead of the intense, energetic highs and depressive lows, the drugs keep them in the middle. And some bi-polars resent that. They like the magic of the manic stage. They miss it. In fact, they crave it.
How the NIU shooter must have gotten off planning his attack. Carefully thinking out and then purchasing the handguns he wanted to use. Gathering the ammunition for handguns and shotgun. Figuring how best to carry the long gun so as not to be noticed. And then, when finished, firing his weapon one last time so as to avoid the judgement he knew would come his way. A coward's way out. A sick coward, but a coward just the same.
All evidence of the sort of twisted, premeditation of which only a true psychotic or psychopath is capable.
The young man who went on the shooting rampage last week at NIU was off his meds.
I say "shocking" with a cynical and sarcastic twist. Having covered killings and assorted mayhem for about thirty years, I've found a pretty common reason people suddenly explode in violence is their failure to stay on a proscribed drug therapy. The most common explanation is that they began to feel better and think they don't need any more medication. A couple of mental health professionals I spoke to this week have a different take on that, however.
They tell me the medications used to treat bi-polar disorder work well but create a baseline effect for the user. Instead of the intense, energetic highs and depressive lows, the drugs keep them in the middle. And some bi-polars resent that. They like the magic of the manic stage. They miss it. In fact, they crave it.
How the NIU shooter must have gotten off planning his attack. Carefully thinking out and then purchasing the handguns he wanted to use. Gathering the ammunition for handguns and shotgun. Figuring how best to carry the long gun so as not to be noticed. And then, when finished, firing his weapon one last time so as to avoid the judgement he knew would come his way. A coward's way out. A sick coward, but a coward just the same.
All evidence of the sort of twisted, premeditation of which only a true psychotic or psychopath is capable.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Prevention Not Possible
Seven more kids killed in a university classroom, this time in our own backyard here in Illinois. "Tragic" doesn't quite describe it.
Could it have been prevented?
Let's review the suggestions I've heard today.
Number one: metal detectors.
It's a wonderful idea but where are you going to put them? At the entrances to every building on campus? And you're going to pay for that . . . how? OK, say we live on Fantasy Island and some wealthy alum goes along with the idea and forks over the cash. Now you have a way to detect if anyone is carrying a weapon into your buildings but...who monitors the detectors? Cops? Security guards armed with guns of their own they barely know how to use? Unarmed students (we call those kinds of guards "targets")?
Number two, better screening of, and help for, students with "problems."
That's a wonderful and very humane idea, Dr. Phil, but what kinds of problems are we talking about, how are we going to identify the students and just exactly what kind of help are we providing? Privacy laws often apply to such cases. Getting around them might be tricky, expensive, and more work than most universities are willing to do. And how do you enforce or maintain the assistance? Lock the troubled student in his dorm room? In the case of the NIU shooter, early reporting suggests he was referred to a psychiatric hospital after one of his instructors felt his creative writing indicated he was suicidal. Good move but not applicable in all cases. And besides, what happens when someone like that is discharged? Who keeps an eye on them then?
Number three, take away all the guns.
We tried that with booze and the Volsted Act back in the Twenties. Remember how well Prohibition worked out? (Hint: it didn't.)
Number four, the opposite of Number three, allow students who have the legal right to posess handguns to carry them on campus.
So, instead of one guy shooting in a crowded classroom, we'll have gunfights. Crossfire. And, no doubt, many instances of alcohol fueled gunfire in dorms, frat houses and bars. Sure, a student or instructor (I know of a high school principal in Minnesota who carries three handguns while at school) skilled in combat shooting might have taken down the offender at NIU but, more than likely would never have had time to draw. Remember, surprise works as a weapon, too, and the NIU shooter had that going for him. It's not like on TV, kids. Timing is everything. To accurately return fire during an unexpected attack requires a mindset and tactical training most college students, even those experienced on the target range, are unlikely to have.
Number five, cameras. I'll buy that the use of surveillance cameras on college campuses deters certain crimes but they're unlikely to stop someone in the grip of homicidal rage. Certainly, if someone in a command center somewhere is watching the right monitor at the right moment, they might see a man carrying a shotgun approaching a building or a classroom but, what then? Situations such as these offer very little reaction time. By the time an armed officer can respond, chances are people will already be dead.
So how do we prevent shootings like this? The answer unfortunately is, we don't. They are random, and the shooters are seldom going to telegraph their intentions in such a way that they can be stopped. Rapid response by law enforcement is the best we can hope for and, by first accounts anyway, that seems to have been the case at NIU.
Reality sucks, doesn't it?
Could it have been prevented?
Let's review the suggestions I've heard today.
Number one: metal detectors.
It's a wonderful idea but where are you going to put them? At the entrances to every building on campus? And you're going to pay for that . . . how? OK, say we live on Fantasy Island and some wealthy alum goes along with the idea and forks over the cash. Now you have a way to detect if anyone is carrying a weapon into your buildings but...who monitors the detectors? Cops? Security guards armed with guns of their own they barely know how to use? Unarmed students (we call those kinds of guards "targets")?
Number two, better screening of, and help for, students with "problems."
That's a wonderful and very humane idea, Dr. Phil, but what kinds of problems are we talking about, how are we going to identify the students and just exactly what kind of help are we providing? Privacy laws often apply to such cases. Getting around them might be tricky, expensive, and more work than most universities are willing to do. And how do you enforce or maintain the assistance? Lock the troubled student in his dorm room? In the case of the NIU shooter, early reporting suggests he was referred to a psychiatric hospital after one of his instructors felt his creative writing indicated he was suicidal. Good move but not applicable in all cases. And besides, what happens when someone like that is discharged? Who keeps an eye on them then?
Number three, take away all the guns.
We tried that with booze and the Volsted Act back in the Twenties. Remember how well Prohibition worked out? (Hint: it didn't.)
Number four, the opposite of Number three, allow students who have the legal right to posess handguns to carry them on campus.
So, instead of one guy shooting in a crowded classroom, we'll have gunfights. Crossfire. And, no doubt, many instances of alcohol fueled gunfire in dorms, frat houses and bars. Sure, a student or instructor (I know of a high school principal in Minnesota who carries three handguns while at school) skilled in combat shooting might have taken down the offender at NIU but, more than likely would never have had time to draw. Remember, surprise works as a weapon, too, and the NIU shooter had that going for him. It's not like on TV, kids. Timing is everything. To accurately return fire during an unexpected attack requires a mindset and tactical training most college students, even those experienced on the target range, are unlikely to have.
Number five, cameras. I'll buy that the use of surveillance cameras on college campuses deters certain crimes but they're unlikely to stop someone in the grip of homicidal rage. Certainly, if someone in a command center somewhere is watching the right monitor at the right moment, they might see a man carrying a shotgun approaching a building or a classroom but, what then? Situations such as these offer very little reaction time. By the time an armed officer can respond, chances are people will already be dead.
So how do we prevent shootings like this? The answer unfortunately is, we don't. They are random, and the shooters are seldom going to telegraph their intentions in such a way that they can be stopped. Rapid response by law enforcement is the best we can hope for and, by first accounts anyway, that seems to have been the case at NIU.
Reality sucks, doesn't it?
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