Are today’s violent teens different from teens of the past?

I'm going to ask myself a question. Out loud. I think the question is really important. I have no answer for the question, but read on and you can listen to me cast about, looking for answers. Perhaps you'll join me in the looking.

Put me in a time machine. Take me back to my 16th year. I'm an entering junior in high school. Here's the question: What's the difference between me and Gerald Q. Davison, the 16-year-old who, according to news reports, has confessed to trying to "scare" one or more Palo Verde High School students and, in the process, put a bullet through the heart of freshman Christopher Privett?

Did I possess more ego-strength than Gerald? I doubt it. I was a pretty normal teen, wielding about my share of immaturity, grandiosity, ego frailty, fear, self-consciousness, peer idolatry and insecurity. Kids are cruel, and I was just as vulnerable as any teen to slights and injustices, real and imagined.

I once took a raw egg to the back before the first-period bell. Once was "pants'd" in gym class, and some girls saw my butt. I was humiliated by bullies at a dance in front of my girlfriend. I walked away to the mimicking sound of clucking chickens. Make no mistake, I was chicken, essentially adopting the stance of a favorite George Carlin quote: "Do what you want to the girl, but leave me alone!"

Does Gerald have more access to guns? Hardly. My father kept not one but two .22s in his nightstand, complete with ammo. I was shooting those guns at my dad's beer cans by the time I was 9. If I had a mind to "scare" the guy who threw the egg, I could have done it easily.

Is being on the receiving end of a thrown gang sign more damaging to an adolescent psyche than a raw egg dripping into your underwear while your peers laugh their booties off? If it is, I'm not "getting" it.

Did I have a more competent social structure, providing me the needed surrogate ego-strength until such time as real manhood would develop within me? Maybe. I don't know about Gerald's life in this regard. I do know I was independently wealthy in competent adults when I was a teen -- coaches, teachers, clergy, youth leaders, etc.

Did Gerald have a more damaging childhood? Again, I don't know, but I'm beginning to doubt it matters much. I do indeed have a fair number of harrowing tales I could tell about my childhood, but tons of kids with traumatic childhoods worse than mine don't respond to aggressive hand gestures with gunfire. Tons.

Is Gerald a sociopath, or suffering from some other severe mental illness? Oddly enough, I would find some perverse comfort in this being the case. But I doubt this is the case, which is what makes my question even creepier and more important.

Is this generation of teens experiencing more despair, that is, less access to meaning? I'm leaning toward a big yes! I often wonder if our current culture is without precedent in marginalizing and disrespecting adolescents, mostly by expecting so little from them. Drug/alcohol use, empty, precocious sexuality, apathy toward education/vocation, defiance in principle to authority -- these behaviors speak to me of despair.

Is Gerald's culture, compared with mine at age 16, speeding toward metaphorical bankruptcy? Read the question again. I didn't say black culture (caught you, didn't I?), I said culture. Modern American youth culture. Do modern young people think they are writing and starring in their own sitcom? A video game? Can they take death seriously?

When in my life did I ever consider shooting someone? Answer: twice. President Nixon yanked us out of Vietnam about three weeks before my 18th birthday. I had spent five years watching American soldiers die on the nightly news. Soon it would be my turn.

Or, when I imagine a home invasion threatening my children. Yep. Then, if given the chance, I'm pretty sure I'm capable of violence. But it would change my life forever, remembering the noises some dying loser made sprawled on my living room carpet. And not changed for the better. It would kill me to do it.

Batman, Superman, the Lone Ranger, Kwai Chang Caine, Billy Jack -- even my beloved heroes usually saved the day without killing anyone.

Like I said, I don't know the answer to my question.

Steven Kalas is a behavioral health consultant and counselor at Clear View Counseling Wellness Center in Las Vegas and the author of "Human Matters: Wise and Witty Counsel on Relationships, Parenting, Grief and Doing the Right Thing" (Stephens Press). His columns appear on Tuesdays and Sundays. Questions for the Asking Human Matters column or comments can be e-mailed to skalas@reviewjournal.com.