Monday will mark the ten year anniversary of the infamous Columbine High School tragedy in Littleton, CO, and the gunfire hasn’t stopped. Young American students continue to be murdered in class rooms and cafeterias across the country and no person or government has been able to stop it.

What was once the most vicious and deadly school shooting in American history has faded in our memory as we continue to hear about newer and more horrific school shootings. The death toll for the Columbine shooting was 14 including the shooters, which is less than half of the 32 people murdered eight years later by a student at Virginia Tech University. If it was some type of disgusting competition, the Virginia Tech killer won.

Whatever talk of extra funding, or actual funding, that has been made available for school security, after-school programs, and counseling, nothing much has changed. Since the shots rang out at Columbine in 1999 there have about 34 more school shootings in America from California to Delaware. Teachers’ and students’ lives have ended in bloody deaths on their own campuses, and the many more who have survived school shootings will live with the memories and scars for the rest of their lives.

Honestly, I wouldn’t expect extra money thrown at some of these schools and after-school programs to make any difference in most of these instances. In poorer neighborhoods where kids are dealing with life and death situations on a daily basis and have no outlets or positive options in life, these programs are definitely a blessing. And more funding is always needed. But that is obviously not the case with the most horrific of these school shootings like those at Virginia Tech and Columbine.

These mass murders are done mostly by privileged kids. They are angry and depressed for whatever reason. Often times it is reported that they were having social problems i.e. getting along with their peers and teachers. But wait a minute. I didn’t get along with anybody until 7th grade, and I have no elementary or middle school murders under my belt. It’s true that everybody goes through those tough patches in life and what one person considers hard is unique to that individual and circumstance.

I think Teen killers like the ones at Columbine don’t really need afterschool programs; they need serious psychiatric counseling and a little self-esteem. These gunmen aren’t the kind of kids who utilize and depend on afterschool programs. In fact they might view an afterschool program as just another place they can find victims.