Last night as I sat relaxing and watching TV with my husband, his family group text starting dinging uncontrollably. The subject? An active shooter situation at Michigan State University, my husband’s alma mater and the current home of his nephew, who was sheltering in place inside his dorm room while a lone gunman stalked around terrorizing the campus. The shooter ultimately turned the gun on himself, but not before killing three people, wounding numerous others, and teaching thousands of teens and young adults that they are not safe, even on a bucolic college campus.
The grim news shared space in my newspaper with remembrances of lives lost in other recent shooting massacres that took place on or near Valentine’s Day, among them the horrific Parkland, Florida, high school incident that left 17 dead and the killing spree at Northern Illinois University that resulted in 6 dead and 21 wounded.
There have always been dangers in the world. But never before have Americans had to fear such ordinary activities as going to school and work, shopping at Walmart, going to church, or seeing a movie at the local theater. Have people become inherently more violent than in times past? I don’t think so.
There are other factors at play. The most obvious one is the proliferation of guns. The more gun violence that occurs, the more the gun lobby digs in its heels and blocks the most common sense legislation to curb firearms ownership by known violent or unstable individuals. There will always be altercations between individuals. But when a gun is handy, those altercations can only too easily turn deadly.
Another factor I see, particularly in mass shooting events, is the widespread media attention given to these incidents. The fact that Valentine’s Day is becoming increasingly associated with these massacres is indicative of a copycat feature to disturbed young men’s decisions to arm themselves to the teeth and prey on random innocent populations. While I know that news organizations must report on the news, I think it’s worth examining the way these incidents play out on camera. It’s incumbent upon the media not to give undue attention to the shooters, not to publish nonstop photos and other information about these clearly disturbed individuals. Instead, news outlets should focus on the repercussions these senseless acts cause to the victims and their families.
People of good will need to come together and find solutions. How do we protect the rights of law-abiding citizens to own firearms while at the same time limiting their distribution to criminals and people with severe mental illness who are a danger to themselves and others? How do we create a society that deplores rather than celebrates violence? How do we hold the media to account for their inadvertent glorification of the mayhem caused by disturbed and violent individuals?
Valentine’s Day should be for lovers, not for shooters.
Because I Said So 