Page 19 - Spring2013

Violent Behavior:

A Solution in Plain Sight

By Sylvia Onusic, PhD, CNS, LDN

e live in violent times. Americans are seven
times more likely to die of homicide and twenty
Wtimes more likely to die from shooting than

people in other developed countries. Between 1984 and
1
1994, the number of young murderers under age eighteen
in the U.S. increased threefold. 2-4
In the 1990s, a new form of deadly violence raised its head in
America. The first mass school slaying occurred in 1992 when Wayne Lo
killed a student and a professor at a remote school in Massachusetts. This
act set the stage for an escalating pattern of chilling destruction aimed at
students and carried out by students, violence that increases every year.
From the 1999 Columbine shootings in Colorado to the recent shootings in
Newtown, Connecticut, Americans are desperately searching for answers.
In his book Confronting Violence: Answers to Questions About the
Epidemic Destroying America’s Homes and Communities, George Gellert,
MD, discusses “tested strategies to prevent violent crime” without provid-
ing any evidence that any of these strategies—electronic tracking, hot-
lines, education and training―have actually worked. In fact, it is obvious
that they have not. 5

Wise Traditions SPRING 2013 SPRING 2013 Wise Traditions 19