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by Chris Corde

I remember the shootings at Columbine High School quite vividly. It was April 20th, 1999, and I actually just had surgery on a broken left leg, so I was glued in front of the television in my hospital bed watching the news. I remember the first thing I thought after watching the newscast, “Now everybody is going to do this.”

It was a natural reaction. I was only 21 years old, 3 years removed from high school. I remembered all too well the kinds of kids we would laugh about and mock because they were a little strange. And quite frankly, I bet just about all of them were strange because their parents were strange, so it was really no fault of theirs at all. Yet they still caught all the blame. And I also could easily picture every one of those tortured high school kids around the country treating these Colorado kids as heroes and getting the urge to do the exact same thing they did.

Now, it’s eight years later, and the country has seen a streak of copycat shootings. Recently we’ve seen Virginia Tech, the Amish school shootings, and the Omaha mall shootings, to name a few. Now, none of these shootings, including Columbine, would have been possible if there was no such thing as a legal firearm in this country. Each and every one of these events used guns that were purchased legally (at least initially), and in the case of the recent Omaha mall shootings the killer used an AK47 that was owned by his stepfather (now why would anyone need an AK47 sitting around the house?). So, it seems to me that if you remove the guns you remove the killings, but that’s really a topic that should be tackled at a later time.

The purpose of this diatribe is really to take a much simpler approach to avoid these events. I’m not psychologist, but it seems to be these shooters carry through with these events through some sick obsession with going down in infamy. This is why they plan on leaving calling cards behind to describe their events. The V-Tech shooter had an entire video detailing his plan that he knew would get played over and over again describing it. The Omaha mall shooter left suicide notes describing how he would now be famous. They feel the need to punish the world for its perceived wrongdoings, but they also want everyone to give them the attention they have been lacking throughout their lives.

My plan to solve this is simply not to show the individual. Don’t say their name. This is a pretty easy thing to do. Back in the ‘70s a woman used to run onto the field at baseball games and kiss players. She was on TV constantly. This caused a slew of other drunk fans streaking the field in the hope of being seen on TV. Do you know what the answer was? Arrest them, for one. But the other answer was simply not to show them on TV. Now everyone knows they can streak the field, but it really won’t get them anything. They won’t be shown on television.

Why can’t the networks and news media take the same approach with these mass murderers? Why can’t we simply report the events, but not mention the name or show the picture of the shooter? It seems like a simple plan until we can finally get decent gun control laws, and it would certainly make the world a safer place.

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Publisher's Note: We at Undependent Media agree with Chris's implication that automatic and semi-automatic guns have no business in the hands of America's general population. We do not, however, feel that guns should be completely removed from the common man and woman, at least not until the world forgets how to make them.

We also whole heartedly support Chris's notion that the media glorifies murderers and that this is a bad thing. Unfortunately, when money decides the media's agenda rather than a duty to do "what is right," the tabloidization of America is precisely what you get.

We would also like to mention that we are extremely pleased to feature Chris's thoughts as part of our eternal quest to understand all aspects of an issue. If you are interested in submitting your own thoughts, rants, or other general observations, please shoot us an Email.

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Let the writer know what you think: chriscorde@gmail.com

Shoot the publisher an Email, but please make sure your gun isn't loaded: scottmuoio@undependentmedia.com

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