guns.

on tuesday morning, a 19 year old math student walked to the sixth floor of the library i work at and shot himself in the head with an ak47.

this was not a virginia tech school shooting.

this was a (very public, very dramatic) suicide.

we should not be discussing gun control, we should not be discussing legalizing guns on campus, we SHOULD be discussing why the hell so many kids are choosing to off themselves instead of reaching out for help. we SHOULD be discussing why the internet has become a means of validation for our countries youth, and why the desire to be famous has trumped the desire to be alive. we SHOULD be discussing how a campus of 50,000 students can't get mental health support, despite an entire building seemingly devoted to health services.

we SHOULD be discussing why the media is calling this a school shooting, instead of acknowledging his obvious intention to only harm himself.

instead, we've been talking about guns.

guns, and how legal it is to tote them around, is so beside the point it makes me want to scream.

kids are killing themselves all over the place and no one has stopped for a second to ask WHY.

it's a widely known fact that college aged students that havent had any noted emotional problems can, and do, develop severe issues triggered by stressors they previously never had to cope with. many students are on thier own for the first time, some dont have friends on campus, some are leaving boyfriends, some have never had a beer. the sheer amount of freedom, and lack of supervision is exciting and overwhelming. the dichotomy of being around seas of people, yet knowing no one, is overwhelming as well. college can be a really hard adjustment for most teens.

so what, they kill themselves?

no, not all the time...but they do: binge drink, have unprotected sex, try drugs, develop eating disorders, isolate themselves, become over-anxious, depressed, i could go on and on. but honestly, that isnt anything new and many dismiss all that normal "coming of age" as just that, normal. and to a certain extent it is.

but what about when it isnt? what about the girl so worried about the freshman 15 that she spends her days at the gym excersizing into anorexia? or the dude so freaked out and alienated by the 300 people in his intro lit class he just stops going out because "no one will miss him anyway" and eventually cant leave his room?

what do they do? shoot themselves? or want to? and why dont they even know something's wrong and get help? how'd they even get so fucked up in the first place? does it even matter?

does anyone even give a shit or care to ask about what is really going on beyond the headline?

there is some sick shit in our culture, and kids arent coping well with it.

we SHOULD be discussing that.