ANOTHER SCHOOL/PUBLIC SHOOTING

[HairOfTheDog]

I would think a little of both would curtail some of these incidents. Colleges today should have some type of security. They certainly make enough money to afford it. Its really not black and white.

If someone did have a gun and shot the guy before he killed so many people would they have been charged with having a gun? Probably.

Better background checks would be OK but I really don't think that would stop very many truly motivated nut cases.

Yeah, regardless as to how it turns out this shooter got his guns (he actually had 3 hand guns, a rifle, lots of ammo, and body armor), I continue to think a combination of gun violence deterrents is what's needed too.

Closing the background check loopholes, full/consistent mental health reporting to NICS by all states, full-force prosecution of straw buyers in all states, better equipped security in public areas, and a stronger push for the public to report suspicious behavior (and police to appropriately investigate it) in advance -- in combination -- would really help reduce public mass shootings, in my opinion.

It's still being investigated as to whether it was yesterday's shooter who posted a school shooting warning on 4chan the night before. But, it's been confirmed by postings on his own blog that yesterday's shooter was kind of in awe of the disgruntled shooter who shot the tv reporter and cameraman to death on the air last month. He mentioned in his blog how that killer went from a nobody to somebody whose name was on everybody's lips in one day.

I don't think the media is responsible for creating killers. But, I do think some suicidal, disgruntled, messed-up individuals are motivated to take as many people as possible with them by the notoriety that comes with a large-scale spree or mass murder.

I don't personally like the idea of censoring the media from reporting all facts and I like facts, but I don't object to media sources choosing not to release the identity of such killers (which might set the tone for social media users - or not), in attempt to deny the killers the desired notoriety. The Sheriff in Douglas County is refusing to say Mercer's name in media interviews and I get why.

Anyway, while I see pros and cons to suppressing that killer-specific information, I have no doubt that the news could be released effectively without it being repeated incessantly for several days across all the tv news outlets.