Proper framing of "gun violence" as "stochastic terrorism". An important distinction.

[crickets]

1. Well said. It's past time to make the point loudly and repeatedly. (eta)

Thread unroll: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1594792750154661888.html

Edited to add:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/1/10/934890/-

The stochastic terrorist is the person who uses mass media to broadcast memes that incite unstable people to commit violent acts.

One or more unstable people responds to the incitement by becoming a lone wolf and committing a violent act. While their action may have been statistically predictable (e.g. "given the provocation, someone will probably do such-and-such" ), the specific person and the specific act are not predictable (yet).

The stochastic terrorist then has plausible deniability: "Oh, it was just a lone nut, nobody could have predicted he would do that, and I'm not responsible for what people in my audience do."

The lone wolf who was the "missile" gets captured and sentenced to life in prison, while the stochastic terrorist keeps his prime time slot and goes on to incite more lone wolves.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/25/1807187/-DailyKos-member-s-term-stochastic-terrorism-enters-the-Mainstream-Lexicon-in-timely-fashion

Wired, no paywall: https://archive.ph/PgsPp - Jargon Watch: The Rising Danger of Stochastic Terrorism, Aug 2019

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/23/2112153/-If-Words-have-Power-then-the-Words-of-Stochastic-Terrorism-have-the-Power-to-Burn-it-all-Down

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/cpac-2022-ted-cruz-militant-rhetoric-1393449/