A foiled mass murder is better than a completed one, but it doesn’t make it any less disturbing.

On Saturday, Ryan Schallenberger, an 18-year-old high school senior was arrested for supposedly try to construct several bombs with plans to detonate them.

After his parents discovered that 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate (an ingredient used in creating explosives) that had ben shipped to their home in South Carolina – they contacted the police.

In the CNN story, Schallenberger had planned on exploding a number of bombs in a “Columbine follow up” – a term supposedly used in his journal. Schallenberger stated he had no interest in doing a “copycat” killing, in reference to Columbine High School in Colorado, but felt sympathy for the two high school shooters.

Looking back on events like Virginia Tech, the fact that another horrific killing spree could have taken place yet again – if a clear sign that something really, really needs to be done. But again – the question is how. What can anyone do to detect these sorts of things from taking place? Not every possible teen killer has the stereotypical vibe that the mass media has deemed serial killer worthy.

In fact, the image that Schallenberger presented does not follow up to the same standards that we normally associate with: loner. According to the story, Schallenberger was very social.

Words like – ‘social’, ‘outgoing’ shatter the ideal vocabulary we use to determine who might wake up one morning and go to school with two guns in hand.

At eighteen-years-old it is not surprising that you could be really happy and outgoing to everyone around you, and miserable and angry inside. Granted, I was never a teen boy but I was an eighteen-year-old girl and I’ve known my share of guys that age. None of them decided to commit mass homicide but I know they had moments where they were miserable and hate everything around them. In the end, it all comes down to how you deal with how angry are you. Either you deal with what your feeling or you end up like the Ryan Schallenberger. Eighteen-years old and your life with virtually over before it has even begun.
—Eming Piansay