A Message for Mass Shooters

Another week, another shooting. The media reports, we grieve. We pray for the families and wonder why. One has to ask herself if this isn’t some form of what Einstein would call insanity, because as government and law enforcement, we keep doing the same thing and getting the same results:

Shooter walks in, kills people, is allowed to go down in a blaze of glory, whether that means dying while doing something he deems worth his life, or whether that means being known by the world and living to enjoy the attention – who cares if it is from a prison cell?

Better to be known and locked up than to never be known at all.

These guys are exhibitionists. And we are granting them their wish to be known.

In the Lafayette shooting, the only info I am privy to at this point is that a 58 year old male is the guilty party. And that’s good enough. All I truly need to know is that the authorities are on it and he is captured or dead. I don’t need to know what he looked like, what his hobbies were, where he lived, what he believed, who his parents are, how he was raised, who he’s married to, his eye color … nothing.

These guys need to be shamed and punished. Not put on exhibit. I know we don’t necessarily MEAN to honor them (or maybe we do, if we have an agenda to promote). But by plastering their face everywhere and telling the world their deepest secrets and beliefs and past, we perpetuate the problem. We recruit others who are hungry for attention to follow suit, not because committing heinous crimes is good, but because committing heinous crimes will make them a “celebrity.”

Clearly, in this culture, you do not have to be honor-worthy in order to receive honor.

Unfortunately, celebrity status is what so many are after today. We live in a selfie world where most are trying everything they can to promote self. Most common citizens do that in constructive – or at least harmless – ways. But there will always be the few who do it in destructive ways.

Ceasing all media promotion of these exhibitionists is just the start. Those considering shooting up groups of innocent people should know a few things: killing will not get them known by the world. They will be prosecuted if they make it out alive, and by prosecuted, I mean if their victims have died, so will they. If they blow their own head off, they will still not be known by the vast majority, if others have been hurt in the process. And if they so choose to go down in a blaze of so called “glory”, fine. But they will do it at the hand of citizens who are armed and trained to take them out – hopefully before they hurt a single soul, but definitely before they hurt a mass of souls.

There’s nothing glorious or honorable about the crimes these punks are committing. So let’s start sending THAT message and see where it gets us.