Quote of the Day
People complain that we shouldn’t need to have armed security everywhere. But we simply need to break the mass shooter fever. Make it undesirable to the nutcases.
If a series of these losers find not infamy, but rather a quick and humiliating end by armed guards or private citizens, they will stop trying and this dark “trend” will end.
Not unlike how serial killing isn’t much of a thing anymore due to improved strategies to counter them.
Kostas Moros @MorosKostas
Posted on X, September 28, 2025
I think there is another component required to “break the mass shooter fever.” If a person intent on committing a mass shooting (or mass murder by any means) is stopped after the first or second victim there isn’t much publicity and almost certainly no national or international reporting of the failed attempt. Hence, the “humiliating end by armed guards or private citizens” does not get the attention required to deter future criminal acts of similar nature.
I’m not sure what the solution to the restricted reporting is. Sure, there is some bias in the reporting. Major media outlets have a strong anti-gun bias and don’t want to “encourage more gun violence” by reporting death or injury by gun in a positive manner.
My guess is that just as big a component is that a story about 10 innocent people being murdered is more of a news event than one innocent murdered and one criminal put down. The first story gets more clicks/attention than the second. And that means more revenue when the first type of story is reported on than when the second type of story is reported on. The successful defensive gun use story has to compete for resources with other stories of wider interest such as “climate crisis”, “orange man bad”, and “defending democracy.”
My best stab at remediating the problem are the following ideas:
- Work at increasing the successful defensive gun use cases so that the total number is decreased. This results in fewer “heroes” for the copycats to emulate.
- Report successful defensive gun use events in social media.
- Encourage media outlets to report on successful defensive gun use. And to use the keywords “mass shooter” appropriately like, “probable mass shooter.” Even if the larger media outlets don’t respond appropriately the placement of the stories on the Internet will show up in search results and enable the copycats to find large numbers of alternate endings for their quests of notoriety.
- Encourage the justice system to treat mass murders in humiliating ways while respecting their rights. I’m thinking of pictures of suspects brought to trial in cuffs, chains, shackled, wearing clothes too big for them, hair messed up, and surrounding by extremely tall, muscular, law officers. This makes the suspect appear small and weak.
Does anyone else have other ideas?
Dean Ing had an interesting notion in his novel “Soft Targets”, about deterring terrorism by mocking the motives and sanity of the perpetrators. In his story it was a concerted effort among media outlets, though — and therein lies the problem for putting this notion into practice.
One thing that might help bring the media on board with this is to reward writers whose mockery is sufficiently entertaining that it attracts audiences/clicks.
When I still watched Big 4 broadcast TV (and even now that I don’t) the idea of employing someone for being “entertaining” was foreign to the bosses. Even being truthful. I submit as proof the sturm und drang over Kimmel being pre-empted for a few nights. All of the liberals who weren’t watching (let’s face it, only empty waiting rooms were tuned in) pitched a fit. The network backed down and agreed to go back to losing money.
Disney (and the other network owners) are stupid that way. Investors should reward that stupidity with pain. Lots of it. Bob Iger should go down in history as a major strategic blunderkind.
It won’t happen because some really nasty people will always help prop up the agents of Western destruction, starting with Xi.
The local paper (that I no longer subscribe to) doesn’t employ writers or editors who entertain or inform. They hire propagandists for the Democrats and run the AP stories that support terrorists. They would never hire someone who told the truth in an interesting or informing way.
Notice that I proposed that as a possibility, not as a probability. Revenue is still a motivation.
Easy, and it would cost absolutely nothing! Eliminate ALL the GFDZ’s (Gun Free Death Zones).
EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
Yes, including (and especially) SCHOOLS!
Just the possibility someone could be armed eliminates such places as “soft targets.” Question: with all the firearms around, why are there NEVER mass shootings at shooting ranges, gun shops, police stations, or military armories? Answer: Because of all the firearms around.
There are usually no more than one victim of an ND (negligent discharge) which do occur at ranges and police stations.
You should drop the idea that military areas are awash in readily available weapons for defense. Absolutely not true. The military bases of the US, both stateside and foreign locations, are nothing but giant gun-free zones. Our soldiers are never trusted to be in possession of weapons, which sometimes is displayed as a ban on ammo for the gun that is being ostentatiously displayed by a gate guard. Live on base? Your personal weapons are locked in the armory, to keep the brass safe, I suspect. (what else explains it?)
I should point out there have been a number of mass shootings on US bases. One had approx 20 victims, by a muslim doctor.
Yep. My husband always thought it weird that he was trusted to stand topside watch on the boat with lots of ammo, but we couldn’t even be trusted to have archery equipment in the off-base base housing. And he retired from the Navy in ’03.
If the mass shooters murder to give their oxygen-wasting lives some meaning, instead of merely not mentioning their names in news reports, give them a number. Something like 2025-000001, 2025-000002, etc. Will the murderous nutters want to be a mere number? I don’t think so, and the anonymity would be even greater.
The numbers would also alert the voting public about the number of murders each year.
I’m OK with the perp of an atrocity being given a randomly generated two word code name, adjective and noun, by the FBI, provided those words are unpleasant. A condition of an FCC license, to operate in the public interest, would be to only use the code name for the perp.
Look forward to being known to history as “Oozing Worm” or “Inadequate Sponge” or “Flaccid Plank”, dirtbags.
Suggested reading:
First 30 Seconds: The Active Shooter Problem
https://www.amazon.com/First-30-Seconds-Shooter-Problem-ebook/dp/B0FG1L2VFQ
$4 on Amazon’s kindle
This quote should at least influence one to check out the link,
“Ed Monk is today’s leading expert on thwarting mass murderers. His recommended strategy is by far the most effective, as proven in cases where the defenders did what Monk suggested.” — Massad Ayoob
This. Average police response is 6 minutes fromfirst 911 call.. It’s not their fault, just time and distance. GFZ means you are accepting a double digit body count. The whack jobs compete for body count so this takes the incentive away. Them being dead is a side effect but doesn’t deter as that is usually their plan. Calculus changes for ideological killings but you still reduce casualties. You need an armed and trained defender right there, not at the end of a phone connection or even the other side of the venue. Sniper attacks are a different can of worms.
In a word? Drugs.
90% percent of almost every social problem we have today is related to drug use. From alcohol through SSRI’s to fentanyl.
Both big pharma and cartel actions are driving most all of the “mass shootings” of today.
Black on black shootings? Drug routes, territory, drug money, retaliations.
School shootings? Straight out of big pharma.
Domestic disputes? Alcohol and drugs.
Are drugs the only thing? No.
But removing them and the desire to escape the reality of the world you have to deal with, would drop so called “gun violence” to almost nothing.
And then deport those that show themselves as having a natural tendency toward low impulse control.
Mass shootings would almost disappear.
It wasn’t that many years ago they were almost never heard of. So rare that the NFA was a reaction to an almost singular event.
The Saint Valentine’s day massacre. Which once again was over the drug of choice for it’s day. Alcohol.
We lose a 100,000 people a year to OD alone.
Not counting car accidents.
Mass shooting don’t even come close to the crime drugs have afflicted on our society.
Looking to deter crime? Start with drugs.
Author is on to something.
Figure out what the payoff is (most likely fame, notoriety, spreading/sending a message, public reaction of some kind) and deny them it. Which should be pretty easy to do unless the payoff is simply hurting others, which is kind of baked into the cake on this one.
Unless they want more mass shootings, in which case ensure as much payoff ensues as possible.
Which scenario do you think we are currently experiencing?
A major factor in the increase in such violence is the fact that our society allows insane people to wander about freely…and do whatever the hell they want. Start locking up the nutjobs in a booby hatch and these incidents WILL diminish. It would be wonderful if we actually had effective treatments and interventions that worked on the mentally ill. Sadly we don’t. Unless/until we find such things we MUST sequester the insane from normal society. For their safety and the safety of everyone. And “transgenderism” is a HUGE screaming admission of insanity,
Lock up the nutjobs, great idea. I’ll start with Dan.
Insanity is, for the most part, in the eye of the beholder, and seems to be particularly highly concentrated within the ranks of people the State does not like.
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I’m old enough to remember a rash of people streaking onto the field during nationally televised sporting events in the 70s. The networks all agreed not to give these jokers the attention they craved. Eventually, it stopped happening.
There’s a lesson in that…
I remember that, too.