Are Mass-Murderers a
Failure of Soft Technology?

Protecting our children at school sounds simple. Maybe it is the influence of Hollywood entertainment on our culture, but some people assume the first thing you do is hand out guns to teachers in order to protect students. While that fits the Hollywood script, I don't think that is where you start. If you want to make your children safer at home, then there are lots of things you do well before you run to the gun shop. The same is true as we protect schools and churches.

Technology includes both hardware and software. We tend to ignore the training, practices, and procedures as we focus on the hardware. As was said thousands of years ago, the best solution to win a battle is a solution that avoids the conflict in the first place.

One of the best pieces of "technology" is to look at what stopped mass-murderers in the past. Most celebrity seeking narcissists are furious that society hasn't showered them with the attention and honor they think they deserve. That bizarre attitude is almost impossible to hide over the long term. One of the most effective ways to stop the crazy people from attacking our kids is to look for them and listen to them.

We've looked at the personal histories of mass-murderers. Time and again, we saw that someone knew there was a problem. The parents of mass murderers were often missing, and it was often a grandparent or foster parent who saw problems coming. Teachers knew, and so did school counselors as well as other students. The first piece of technology to put in place is a program to listen to the people who are telling us there is a problem child or problem adult in our community. .....