He'd spent hours watching TV coverage of the Littleton rampage. The only unique aspect of yesterday's shooting is that it happened in the same county, in the same district as the shooting at Santana High School. Despite their prominence, these shootings are extremely rare. And McGee said that fewer than 60 people have died in all suburban school shootings since 1993. Yet the number of school rampages has risen sharply in the past decade.
Experts call it the contagion effect.
Each act of violence makes the next more likely. The shooters have been depressed, angry young men, Phillips said. However, media coverage only influences those predisposed to such acts, the experts say, and seeing these stories on television will not make an otherwise normal child suddenly snap and turn violent. And a school shooting occurs and fuel is added. Then it ignites.