Newbury: Stop glorifying mass shooters
March 10, 2018
There has been a quickly rising trend of violence in society lately, it seems every week there is a new story about an active shooter of some sort.
However, what’s truly frightening is the fact that shootings are becoming more frequent as time goes on. In a study by the FBI it was found that there were 160 active shooter incidents between 2000 and 2013.
One hundred sixty shootings is horrible, yet that wasn’t the most disturbing result of the survey. The first seven years of the study show an average of 6.4 incidents annually, while the last seven years show 16.4 incidents annually.
A different study by the FBI found that in both 2014 and 2015 there was 20 incidents. The average number of active shooter incidents has been steadily rising since 2000 as you can see in the graph by ABC News below.
We’re on a downward spiral, but there are things we can do to prevent it.
There has been a movement lately to enact stricter gun control laws, personally, I understand both sides of the gun control controversy and my position on it lies somewhere in the middle.
However, creating gun control laws are not the only thing we can do.
We need to stop glorifying shooters.
Mass shooters tend to have personality disorders that make them feel shut out by society. What we are doing is giving these people the idea that if the commit horrible acts they will become infamous.
This was exactly the case for 13-year-old Jesse Osborne who killed 6-year-old Jacob Hall and injured at least one other child.
His sole motive was to be remembered.
Although he had only killed one child, it has come out in the aftermath that his goal was 40-50 so that he could set a record.
The media does not have to report the names of shooters. I believe that if there is an incident where people are fired upon in a public place, the media should report it as a terrorist attack.
The name of the shooter withheld and reports on said incidents focused on memorializing victims.
The sad truth about the current way we handle things is that society forgets the victims but focuses instead on the attacker and how severe of damage they inflicted.
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