Since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December of 2012 there have been 74 more school shootings across the country and there appears to be nothing that anybody is willing to do to stop these senseless killings. Note that I did not say can do, I said willing to do.
Some sociologists say the media plays a critical role in enabling school shooters -- media outlets' relentless and often irresponsible coverage validates the shooters' need for attention and social validation, and also inspires copycats.
Please sign this petition to ask the media to be more responsible with coverage of shootings. Demand ABC and other media outlets stop showing school shooters' names and photos, giving them the attention they crave, and inspiring copycats.
"The notion of school shooters as troubled lone wolves is a misconception. Their daily experience is not one of being alone, but of being enmeshed in social friction, Newman said. They experience rejection all the time, but that doesn't stop them from trying to join groups. They just fail, all the time."
At first, a shooter-to-be might just be prone to clowning around and being obnoxious. "Shooting is the last act in a very long drama in which all the other attempts to gain attention have failed. And sadly, shooting works," she said. "It works because when these kids start to talk about shooting and sometimes they talk about it for as long as nine months in advance of their actions, they start getting the attention they're looking for, sometimes from other boys who are egging them on, sometimes because they have a sixth sense that they're dealing with someone who is psychologically vulnerable." (Posted on the Science of Us website)
Shooters are seeking attention, fame and recognition and I contend that their violent flames of rejection and/or non-acceptance, which results in their desperate need for recognition are being fueled by one, and only one, enabling source -- the mass media.
When a would-be shooter sees the picture and name of an actual shooter plastered throughout the media it cannot possibly do anything other than convince him that this is his ticket to fame and recognition. Therefore, his intended actions have been confirmed as being the right path to take to achieve not local or even regional, but national recognition.
Can anyone of us name any of the past 74 shooters or pick them out of a photo collage, which regrettably continues to grow? I am absolutely certain none of us can with the exception of the families of the victims and those of the shooter. Let the media cover the story, but tell them you want them to stop glorifying and inciting this carnage by no longer providing these totally unnecessary details: the shooter's name and picture. They serve absolutely no meaningful purpose and add nothing to the story other than serve as an incentive for the next shooter to get his fifteen minutes of fame.
