General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThoughts On Stopping Rampage Shootings Before They Happen
Both the Left and the Right are appalled by the recent rampage shootings and want to end them, but offer radically different solutions to the problem.
The Left, in general, proposes to limit access to weapons, increase access to mental health care, and increase mental screening.
The Right, in general, wants to increase the level of armament of law-abiding people and eliminate gun-free zones, and have official armed guards at schools.
Neither set of solutions will solve the problem.
Limiting access to weapons will merely be circumvented. Rampage shooters are not impulse shooters. They reach their decision to commit their deeds and then take weeks, sometimes months, to plan and prepare to strike. Since they are preparing for mass murder, they wont care about any other laws they may break along the way. They will have the time to find the desired weapons. They often commit suicide as the final part of their act, so what have they to fear of punishment for breaking any other laws?
While improved access to any form of health care is a worthy goal in its own right it will not catch all those who will go on such a rampage. In a nation of over 310 million some will always slip through any system.
There arent enough mental health care professionals to be able to screen all who some would want to be screened. Besides, who screens the screeners? The Ft. Hood shooter was himself a psychiatrist.
The Rights solutions dont work either. There arent enough armed guards to be at every school, day care, shopping mall, or other potential target. CCW classes are oriented towards self-defense, not towards being a wannabe cop. The idea of having some teachers with concealed firearms among junior high school boys should be enough to send shivers down ones spine.
BUT THERE IS A DIFFERENT SOLUTION THAT I THINK WILL WORK.
Almost all of the rampage shootings seem to have a common link. They are all a form of performance theater. The shooter wants the spotlight of history on them. They want their name, their full name, to be remembered for decades. They know that by committing such a horrible atrocity that they will have pages in books dedicated to them. I read somewhere that the Columbine killers speculated on which Hollywood stars would play them in the movie that was certain to be made about them. (I have no idea how that was known.)
Deny them that spotlight. I think it would be able to pass legislation that would also pass SCOTUS strict scrutiny Constitutional examination that would ban the publishing, in any media, of the name of a rampage killer. The legislation would need to be fairly simple so that any media could easily understand the difference between a rampage killer and an ordinary murderer. There would be penalties for violating such a law. Let such a killer be known as killer number xx. Let him become, in the language of Orwell, an unperson. Let the spotlight be entirely upon the victims, but let the killer be in deepest darkness.
If he knows that he wont get the attention that he craves, even posthumously, then he will have to seek other means to that spotlight.
Such legislation could be quickly drawn up. I think that both left and right would support it.
MightyMopar
(735 posts)GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)You can't ban pictures of a legal product.
MightyMopar
(735 posts)Why not ban all pictures of people shooting guns including in movies?
hack89
(39,171 posts)you were thinking of advertising - different issue altogether.
GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)Amazing how many here are so ready to throw away the Constitution.
meow2u3
(24,764 posts)such as the Movie Theater Killer, the Public Square Killer, etc.
GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)warrprayer
(4,734 posts)GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)warrprayer
(4,734 posts)GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)warrprayer
(4,734 posts)there are pro big pharma people patrolling the threads who will tell you you are demonizing the mentally ill if you call for more regulation for big pharma as well as the gun nuts.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Call them something like: Poor dumb ill person who did this should have been locked up before this happened # 42
The idea is to shame them ahead of time, right? Get it in their heads that they will not ever be famous. Take away any idea that they will be known as anything but a poor dumb person that society has no use for.
warrprayer
(4,734 posts)FarCenter
(19,429 posts)This would also stop terrorism.
Mass murderers are media events; they do not result in a statistically significant number of deaths.