Before the Gun Rights Hacktavists come for my server, let me be clear: I respect and support the second amendment right to bear arms. I fear the document is being used as the focal point of the conversation when the conversation should be about the people who use guns and a culture that often glamorizes mass shootings. Today another High School shooting unfolded–this time in Oregon. This is at a time when schools are investing in bulletproof whiteboards instead of books; when people are more concerned with arming teachers for a horrific confrontation than creating an environment where guns are both understood and excluded.
When I was a kid we had fights all the time. Twice was there a concern about someone bringing a gun to escalate the situation. Today escalation is the norm. Nobody knows how to lose a fight or to deal with being picked on. Worse still, we have moved towards ‘understanding’ the killers as if to remind the world that these are isolated incidents carried out by crazies when the reality is that there are more than enough crazies to go around, but only a handful get their hands on guns or have the ‘courage’ to carry out their acts of violence.
We have a policy in place in sports to never show the streakers who slip on to the field in order to create havoc. The camera’s turn away and the announcers talk about how much of a disappointment and a waste the act of streaking is. How easy would it be to avoid the senseless media coverage of the shooter, instead giving coverage to the victims?