6:07PM, May 22, 2009
The BBC’s ‘Violence Season’ continues with this look into high school, campus and workplace shootings in the US.
Ten years on from the Columbine massacre, a number of experts analyse why and exactly how these tragic events occurred.
Since the late eighties, America has been subjected to a steady succession of public shootings, and a decade on from the high-school attack that shocked the world, the regularity of these senseless and traumatising assaults has, if anything, seemed to increase.
Going Postal examines five of these horrific shootings before consulting experts in the field and relatives close to the victims and attackers in a bid to ascertain what caused them in the first place.
Foremost amongst these is journalist Mark Ames, the author of the book Going Postal, which deconstructs these attacks in the context of Reaganomics.
Essentially, Ames argues that the US’ economic depression during the eighties caused many pensions and jobs to be lost, widening the gap between the well-paid and average worker, and contributing to societal fracturing and widespread, repressed discontent.
Most terrifying of all is Ames’ damning and spine-chilling assertion that although mental instability and regimes of medication certainly play a part in what makes a shooter, they are more often than not medically ‘sane’ and practically impossible to profile.
Heartbreaking, disconcerting and yet essential viewing.
Find out when Going Postal is next on TV.
