This paper explores perspectives about certain individual and social characteristics that may contribute to school shootings
by students. It begins with perspectives on individual/environment fit, arguing first that persons marginalized by their caregivers
during their upbringing, and by their peers, are lacking in the social interactions that help develop ethical behavior. Our
argument contends that lacking such interactions may result in the failure to develop a sound moral philosophy. Further, we
argue that when such persons enter the highly competitive environment found in some suburban and rural schools, some will
be continually and consistently marginalized, finding their means of self-expression and sense of significance subdued. Their
need for self-expression and a sense of significance as persons will surface, but without the benefit of a moral philosophy
to guide that expression, this may result in deviant means of expression, such as violence— even extraordinary violence. We
do not attempt to identify a list of specific traits of school shooters, which might lead to the development of a profile
of school shooters. Rather, we are concerned with the characteristics of the environment in which shootings might occur, and
how students not fully prepared for that environment might react. Thus, this paper is an overview of how seeds of the neglect
of the basic needs of personhood, when sown early in life, and nurtured by peers, might come to fruition in the fertile field
of the competitive school environment.
KEY WORDS: moral philosophy - ethics - school shootings - prevention - adolescent murder