Copycat Shootings
Another week, another mass shooting in a US school or college.
Indeed the 142nd since Sandy Hook. The 45th such incident this year.
And the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention own data suggest that between 2001 and 2013 some 406000 individuals died of firearms wounds on US soil (compared to a total loss to terrorism home AND abroad of 3380.
What’s shocking to many of us outside the US is how unwilling some still remain to accepting the role of availability of weapons to make this kind of thing possible. I know this isn’t popular in some circles – some will describe it as a constitutional right (actually an amended constitutional right – as prohibition of alcohol once was, thought that has change) to carry arms. But reducing availability of guns has worked to reduce everywhere else it has been tried. Like the UK and Australia for example.
It’s not the only thing but it is an essential piece of the picture. Not just for the big incidents but also for use in domestic violence (currently 4 times the UK level).
The other bit is to do with people – not the crazed lone gunman, the “bad guy” or “terrorist” but the way individuals who carry out these kinds of shooting can see what others have done and model themselves on the example (a weird kind of I’ll Have What She’s Having). Media control of stories of this sort is a fine ambition – hard in the digital era but important nonetheless to think how we can stop providing examples to copy.
Having ready access to guns and to a long stream of examples of how to use them to make a name for yourself – now there’s the problem.
Comments