The Massacre that Didn't Happen

     The article about John LaDue is extremely disturbing for a large variety of reasons.  It demonstrates the ease with which someone can keep a dangerous mental illness well-hidden, an important part of most massacres. It also presents a massive issue in the American criminal justice system, which, while more applicable to individuals with mental illness, shows an underlying problem with the rest of the convicts as well. Lastly, the article shows a massive problem with the American media, an issue which helped make the article itself exist.

     Firstly, the article shows what an issue mental illness is, and why it's so important that it is studied further. John LaDue was confirmed to be mentally ill, but far too late and with far too little certainty on the specifics of his illness. Had his illness been discovered later, it could have been after another school shooting. Yet had it been found earlier, Mr. LaDue could have been given proper treatment sooner and possibly experienced improved mental health as a whole.
     One of the major points of the article was about the American justice system; the author implied that LaDue should have received a harsher sentence for his planning. However, there's a much bigger problem. John LaDue will be given much less psychological help in prison than he needs, majorly due to the fact that the American justice system is based on punishing criminals instead of reforming them. Revenge certainly feels nice, and makes sense for torts, yet it doesn't help society recover from the damage done to it by criminals. Reforming criminals and helping the mentally ill recover is the only way to prevent criminals from costing prisons more money.
     The author referenced the Columbine killings multiple times because John LaDue was attempting to mimic them himself. This shows a massive issue with the media: had John LaDue not known about the Columbine killings and been inspired by the killers, he couldn't have been inspired by them. The media talked far more about the killers themselves than it did about the families, because that made them more money. Recently, in certain killings, most news sites refused to say the names of the killers. However, this was caused by police officers asking them not to and the knowledge that viewers would be angered by the station for doing so. Even so, this is only certain killings. Many killers receive massive fame because of their killings, and this shows youths that killing other people can get them attention.