Not only had society begun the stereotype of school shooter but students began to fear other students who fit this profile put out by the media. .
Michael Carneal who was 14, shot 3 students to death and wounded several more on December 1st, 1997 as they joined hands in a prayer circle (Torr 8). As soon as the fact that the victims were Christian's came out, fingers got pointed. The media began to emphasize the fact that the shooter didn't believe in God and it was implied he choose to kill those students for their religious beliefs. Soon after it became obvious this was not at all his reasoning. Before the shootings Carneal had been teased about his sexual preference and was called names like "fag" and "gay" (Torr 15). Although he insisted that he had no intentions to kill people that day he did succeed in doing so. "The more I thought about it, (the) more I wanted to do it to them," he told the psychologists (Torr 5). He hoped, he said, that firing on the prayer group would teach them to "leave me alone (Torr 7)." He was tired, he said, "of people making fun" of him and said he "couldn't stand it anymore (Torr 8)." Carneal's psychological evaluation report states that he suffers dysthymia, chronic depression that results in feelings of low-self-esteem and a general worthlessness (Torr 8). He also suffers from a schizotypal personality disorder, which caused problems in perception that result in socializing and communication difficulties. With these factors he was found guilty by mental default but this didn't stop the media or society from now starting to target atheists as potential shooters. .
One of the next main shootings and one that I could not easily forget was that of Kip Kinkel. Kinkel murdered both his parents then went to school and opened fire on the high school cafeteria. The day before he had been arrested and released for bringing a gun to school. Kip's parents recognized that he was becoming more violent and tried to get him help.