LOL. I posted this yesterday. It was promptly closed.... Props to rbernie this time for at least aknowleging this IS relevant....
People should all remain alert.
However there has been a trend lately for people to post every single shooting that happens, often resulting in the same one even being posted several times.
Highlighting all such incidents is not in the spirit of promoting firearm ownership or safe use as the site aims to do.
Half of the problem with the shootings is the media coverage. Resulting in copycats. By highlighting such incidents, giving them a lot of airtime and attention they plant a seed in susceptible minds.
They let people know options they otherwise would not have considered are available. Options like shooting up various places or people.
Often times if those people had not seen or heard about such things done through the media they would not have done them themselves because the availability of that option and carrying it through would not have dawned on them or been realisticly considered.
We saw that after the Columbine incident, where previously rare school shootings became more common, with a small percentage of upset kids more likely to consider that a solution whether they carried it out or not. Shooting up a school for being bullied or picked on became seen as an available "solution". Where previously it was not considered an option to choose from.
The massacre in Australia that the government exploited to severely restrict and ban many guns and gun types and do thier mandatory buyback was a result of a mentaly ill person watching the massacre in England in the media.
The media covered the killings commited by one man in England for weeks, and the mentaly ill Australian suddenly became aware doing such a thing was an option. He promptly went out and murdered many people.
The media essentialy told him that was an option.
In a world where many people practicly worship celebrities, keeping up on what they do, how they do it etc such things are dangerous. When people create sites that are often a shrine to themselves, like many of the social networking sites, when people want to be the next American Idol or get thier fame etc etc
There is a lot of people that for some reason want attention just for the sake of having it. A small percentage of those people are disturbed.
Everyone has ups and downs in life, and the less stable are worse during the downs. The current economic situation has a lot of the population in one of those down cycles.
The worst thing anyone could be doing right now is highlighting a destructive "solution" for unstable people. Resulting in copycats.
Unfortunately the media is irresponsible. That does not mean we should be equaly irresponsible.
People good and bad come along and visit threads and read things when they do a search and find this and similar boards. We don't need to be bombarding everyone interested in firearms with mass killings or intentional misuse. They shouldn't see multiple threads on the main page about different massacres or selfish people like this mother, or suicides, and all the gory details. It may in fact contribute to some misuse.
