As most students were sitting in their classes, teachers were trying to capture the attention of their students and a high school security guard had another day of watch, an armed sixteen-year-old student entered the Red Lake High School grounds Monday afternoon with deadly intentions.
Jeff Weise took his grandfather's gun and bullet-proof vest and ended the lives of a security guard and a handful of students, as well as shooting his grandparents to death before leaving the house. The incident ended with Weise shooting himself.
Weise was known among his classmates as being into Goth, wearing a black trench coat and listening to heavy metal music, as well as talking about death "all the time," according to MSNBC.com. Other details about the assailant include the fact that he lived with his grandparents, admired Hitler and was "'terrorized a lot' by others who called him names."
Second-year College student Sean Murray gave reasons for why he thought Weise committed the murders.
"It was his way of trying to find a place to fit in," Murray said. "Extremism was the niche he found, although he took it too far."
First-year College student Christopher Robbins blamed society for the violence prevalent in school settings.
"It's a product of society, with kids getting guns in their hands easily," Robbins said. "It's not inevitable, but it happens."
Murray agreed that society affects the behavior of its citizens.
"I blame the exploited nature of capitalism," Murray said. "America has lost its sense of aesthetic value of life. This kid is a product of decadence, wealth and self indulgence."
Robbins said he did not completely agree with this view.
"I don't know," Robbins said. "There are radicals in every society."
Robbins explained that living in a free society ultimately will lead to problems such as the Red Lake shootings.
"It's going to happen," he said. "And although it's always been happening, kids are expected to grow up a lot earlier now in the United States, and the shootings are a product of that."
Robbins said a change cannot be completed overnight to fix the social problems leading to such shootings.
According to Murray, there is not an easy way to prevent the shootings.
"I mean, we could place restrictions, but there are individual rights," Murray said. "We have to find a middle ground to provide safety."
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