Two students walked into Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, armed with shotguns and explosives. The incident ended with tragic results. 15 families lost a brother, a sister, a child, a niece, or a nephew. From this incident many questions were left unanswered. How did the children get the guns? Why did they do it? And most importantly, if a school like Columbine could be the target of such a violent rampage, how protected are we the youth from random acts of violence? In this paper I will try to answer some of these questions.
             The first question i would like to address is why. Youth violence in america has had quite an extensive history. This problem has plagued the ghettos and hoods of large cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston for the last 20 years. In fact about 2300 homicides are recorded a year by 18 or younger children. However, until recently it has been overlooked. America was horrified as they watched the live coverage of Columbine students running scared from the overtaken school. This shocked the american public. Never before had such horror taken place in the suburbs of America.
             This forced people to ask why, to face the problem. Right away the parents and the public blamed music television. This is an easy scapegoat for the people to use. But the fact is that music and television play a very small role in teen violence. The most significant and outstanding quality of a violent teen is that of the impact their parents had on them. Child abuse, sexual abuse, and parents exhibiting violence towards each other are the 3 main factors in developing a violent teen.
             When brought up in homes, children learn from what they see and how their parents act. Often a child brought up in a violent family will learn that violence is "ok" and will become violent in nature during their early adolescence years. This can result with the child at n increased risk of joining gangs. Yet through all the domesti...