This, and let teachers and school staff, who want to, be armed.
\nPrivate business will have to decide what each one wants to do.<\/p>\n
There is something we can all do about mass shootings<\/a><\/p>\n Over the last two weeks, we\u2019ve seen two mass shootings. Much as I\u2019d like to say it, this isn\u2019t unusual. Such horrible events seem to happen in clusters, where we\u2019ll go months with relative quiet, only to see a number of shootings in fairly quick succession.<\/p>\n Such incidents always spark debate. We simply have to find some way to address the problem.<\/p>\n The thing is, we kind of already have a plan, and it\u2019s one that doesn\u2019t require us to trip over ourselves passing new laws.<\/p>\n All it takes is for people to decide to do something. We just stop making these people famous.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a take from my friend, Brad Polumbo,\u00a0from a couple of years ago<\/a>:<\/p>\n What if there was a way we could significantly reduce the number of mass shootings without either side having to sacrifice their policy principles?\u2026<\/p>\n We could meaningfully decrease gun violence if both sides were simply willing to give up their cheap rhetoric. How do I know this? Because according to the American Psychological Association, the individuals who become mass shooters are often\u00a0directly seeking the media infamy<\/a>\u00a0we continue to grant them.<\/p>\n Western New Mexico University Psychologist Jennifer B. Johnston has found in her research that mass shooters tend to be in the midst of rampant depression, social isolation, and pathological narcissism; they are in part driven to such heinous crime by their desire for national attention.<\/p>\n And it is undeniable that the wall-to-wall coverage in the wake of these mass shootings\u2014coverage that is amplified and jacked up by partisan political attacks that instrumentalize the shooters\u2019 names and identities\u2014makes the crime all the more tantalizing for these mass murderers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe find that a cross-cutting trait among many profiles of mass shooters is desire for fame in correspondence to the emergence of widespread 24-hour news coverage on cable news programs, and the rise of the internet,\u201d Johnston has\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cIf the mass media and social media enthusiasts make a pact to no longer share, reproduce or retweet the names, faces, detailed histories or long-winded statements of killers, we could see a dramatic reduction in mass shootings in one to two years.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In other words, we just stop making these schmucks famous.<\/p>\n Following both Nashville and Louisville, I\u2019ve seen almost puff-piece-like articles describing the shooters. They give names, where they went to school, positive sentiments about the eventual killers, and everything else one would expect to see in a report on a new celebrity.<\/p>\n Their names get thrown around by the media with reckless abandon.<\/p>\n Even in death, they become celebrities of a sort. As Brad notes above, that\u2019s what they want.<\/p>\n When you reward behavior, you get more of that behavior. From dogs to kids to grown adults, the truth is that if you give someone what they\u2019re seeking when they perform a given action, you\u2019re going to get more of that action. This is basic psychology.<\/p>\n Potential mass shooters see this and remember it. They want to be famous. They want to show the world.<\/p>\n And the media gives them exactly what they want.<\/p>\n No one is saying not to report on the shootings. We can and should cover them as well as details about the killers that might be relevant. We don\u2019t need their names, though.<\/p>\n By letting these tools fall into obscurity, many of these shootings simply wouldn\u2019t happen. The narcissistic need to seek fame would be sought out some other way, some way less fatal to innocent people.<\/p>\n And we don\u2019t need laws to do this. We just need media outlets to stop naming names.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t do it here. However, we often rely on news from places with no such efforts in place, and that bothers me.<\/p>\n We can take a big step with regard to mass shootings if the media would just step up for a change and do the right thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This, and let teachers and school staff, who want to, be armed. Private business will have to decide what each one wants to do. There is something we can all do about mass shootings Over the last two weeks, we\u2019ve seen two mass shootings. Much as I\u2019d like to say it, this isn\u2019t unusual. 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