![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I remember after the Columbine shootings and then the shootings at Taber in Alberta, the public reaction went haywire. People were jumping out of their skins at the slightest abrupt move from the young people in their midst. The subsequent reactions were insane with students being suspended or severely punished for actions that had been previously mundane. No one wanted to be caught off-guard by the boogey-man again and for a change, geeks were feared.
I can already see this happening at people start the recovery and healing process. The gunman's website has been yanked, but not before the photos and the rhetoric were copy/pasted in every media canvas as possible.
On the radio and print media, people are reporting having read the gunman's journal and stating that the threat should've been recognized and dealt with before it became deadly. All the indications are there, they're saying. We should've been able to keep this guy from hurting anyone, apparently.
Even with inflation being what it is, hindsight is still trading at 20/20.
No one is saying exactly HOW this guy could've been stopped. Hoopla Harper wants to legislate the problem away, but illegal guns, by their very nature, exist outside the system. And last time I checked, as long as it was registered, it was still legal to own these semi-automatic rifles as long as you had a permit.
So what do we do? Lock up everybody who has stuff on the Internet that is deemed inappropriate, violent, too dark, or could lead to violence against others? Do all the Goth websites need to come down and their authors locked up just in case they act on their darker desires?
If that's the case, here's a list of people you should be looking at right now. These people celebrate violence, death, and destruction through their art, their work, and their published works.
Quentin Tarantino
Anne Rice
Anne Coulter
Clive Barker
Stephen King
James Wan (director/writer of Saw)
Wes Craven
Horror Writers Association
Ambrose Pierce
Edgar Alan Poe
Shirley Jackson
Bram Stoker
and others...
Of course, the main difference between these people and the Dawson gunman's website is that these people have a budget and are supported by their fans.
As always, the answer is neither black nor white, if there's an answer at all. The media folks are all wondering why this guy did what he did, but what's the big mystery? He was suicidal, but instead of just taking himself out, he decided to take out the people he viewed to be the reason he was so miserable.
And the worst of it is, there's a little bit of this gunman in all of us. Tell me that in high school, when you thought about the people who bullied you, beat you up, took your lunch money, and made your life difficult, you never thought about getting some kind of revenge.
Of course, you didn't act on your darker desires, but why didn't you? Why did he? What would have made the difference?
Tough questions, difficult answers, always searching.
I can already see this happening at people start the recovery and healing process. The gunman's website has been yanked, but not before the photos and the rhetoric were copy/pasted in every media canvas as possible.
On the radio and print media, people are reporting having read the gunman's journal and stating that the threat should've been recognized and dealt with before it became deadly. All the indications are there, they're saying. We should've been able to keep this guy from hurting anyone, apparently.
Even with inflation being what it is, hindsight is still trading at 20/20.
No one is saying exactly HOW this guy could've been stopped. Hoopla Harper wants to legislate the problem away, but illegal guns, by their very nature, exist outside the system. And last time I checked, as long as it was registered, it was still legal to own these semi-automatic rifles as long as you had a permit.
So what do we do? Lock up everybody who has stuff on the Internet that is deemed inappropriate, violent, too dark, or could lead to violence against others? Do all the Goth websites need to come down and their authors locked up just in case they act on their darker desires?
If that's the case, here's a list of people you should be looking at right now. These people celebrate violence, death, and destruction through their art, their work, and their published works.
Quentin Tarantino
Anne Rice
Anne Coulter
Clive Barker
Stephen King
James Wan (director/writer of Saw)
Wes Craven
Horror Writers Association
Ambrose Pierce
Edgar Alan Poe
Shirley Jackson
Bram Stoker
and others...
Of course, the main difference between these people and the Dawson gunman's website is that these people have a budget and are supported by their fans.
As always, the answer is neither black nor white, if there's an answer at all. The media folks are all wondering why this guy did what he did, but what's the big mystery? He was suicidal, but instead of just taking himself out, he decided to take out the people he viewed to be the reason he was so miserable.
And the worst of it is, there's a little bit of this gunman in all of us. Tell me that in high school, when you thought about the people who bullied you, beat you up, took your lunch money, and made your life difficult, you never thought about getting some kind of revenge.
Of course, you didn't act on your darker desires, but why didn't you? Why did he? What would have made the difference?
Tough questions, difficult answers, always searching.
