Read In Case of Mass Shooting
If you’re reading this, another mass shooting has happened. At the outset, let me say that any loss of life is tragic. Our support and prayers go out to all who are injured. Our sympathies to the victims and their families. Let us know how we can help.
We should do everything we can to bind up the wounds, as well as our nation’s wounds. Don’t be quick to leap into policy decisions when we should first grieve the loss of precious life. It’s easy to leap onto “New Gun Control Legislation” because we feel helpless at times like these.
Take the time to grieve, America. But don’t forget to read on…
Make no mistake: this was no tragedy. Mass shootings are a crime, an abomination, a disgusting, repugnant offense to our humanity. We as a society cannot glorify the act or the perpetrator in any way. I wish we didn’t have to know the name and details of the depraved life that took the lives of so many, but we need to keep a record, and learn.
How We Process Horrific Events
Humans are meaning-making machines. We need to find the cause for the violence because our fears and anxieties cannot continue without some action. We refuse to live in chaos, and so we want to label, identify, and discard, to make policies to prevent, so we can rest in the knowledge that we’re doing what we can to protect our loved ones.
And for that reason, many stupid arguments get started. First we must put our minds right.
Malcolm Gladwell described that mass shootings were once inconceivable, but thanks to Columbine, they have grown from shocking aberrations to almost commonplace:
Yes, we used to have a culture that believed in certain basic principles, values, behaviors, and assumptions for life and civil discourse.
We cannot pretend that Leftist indoctrination hasn’t had some impact. In the 1950s, we didn’t have school shootings. We also had stronger families, stronger faith traditions, personal responsibility, and problems that weren’t constantly externalized.
Our culture has divided to the point where we don’t have differing views, but alternate realities. And blame culture is everywhere. If you can’t blame the other side of the political aisle (though I will make a strong case), it’s the parents, the school, the other race, the economic system, the political system.
In such a culture, we cannot pretend that confiscating every firearm and sharp object from 318 million Americans is going to prevent sick souls and criminals from causing harm.
Assigning Blame after Mass Shootings
Strap in, this going to be a bumpy ride.
Blaming the other side of the political aisle is how Leftists build their cultural coalitions that degrade public discourse. At the first sign of violence, the cry quivers: “Americans love guns more than our children!”
To make meaning from a horrific event, first ask a few questions:
1. Have we gathered enough information?
If not, wait until significant, verifiable information comes in. No sense in going off half-cocked (like your FB friends and late night talk show hosts). Those who knee-jerk “confiscate all guns!” are just jerks.
2. Can we infer the perpetrator from the victims?
Not really. It depends on who you listen to — and that is part of the problem…
Who shoots up a black church? Racists, you might say, but not if we’re in downtown Chicago. And racists run left and right, and it’s likely a gang thing. The Left wants to claim “White Supremacists” belong to the right, but these radicals also support big government, socialist revolution, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and other fascists. The GOP has NEVER accepted these tools into their ranks.
Who shoots at a gay nightclub? Right wing Christian Conservatives? Ah, nope: Muslim radicals. Or mentally confused, sexually abused individuals torn between “traditional American values” and the licentious LGBTQ+ community bent on destroying traditional American values (see Anderson Lee Aldrich).
Who attacks a school or other civic gathering? If not Jihadis, or leftist BLM or Antifa activists, then the mentally disturbed, right? Yes, and almost all are leftists. One could make the case that with very few exceptions, all leftists are mentally ill and all the mentally ill are leftists.
Not that they want to admit it. Bernie Sanders refused to claim responsibility for the Bernie Bro who shot Congressman Steve Scalise at a GOP softball practice.
The trans community didn’t embrace Audrey Hale who killed three students and three staff at The Covenant School in Nashville in March 2023. Authorities suppressed her “tranifesto,” and the LGBTQ+ community warned of an epidemic of anti-LGBTQ+ violence. That’s a case of blaming the victim to protect the perpetrator’s beliefs.
Can we NOT do that, America? Can we at least agree that victims don’t [necessarily] reflect the perpetrator?
3. So what are/were the perpetrator’s beliefs?
Sites like Mass-shootings.info provide interesting information on recent shooters, but we need to go deeper than race stats. We will never cure America’s racial divide if our stats stop at race. I’ve seen too many “blame whitey – white people love killing” tweets and too many under-reported mass shootings in Chicago to know that’s not true.
Instead, we should be asking about the perpetrator’s beliefs. His values and upbringing. The subcultures that nurtured his rage. (Yes,
“his”. The stats are overwhelmingly male)
Quick tip: if you don’t know, or if the media doesn’t cover it, he is/was a leftist.
In the off chance he’s some “right-wing, [fill-in-the-blank] supporter,” you’ll know. The media will beat that drum ad nauseum.
For example, one of those mental illness exceptions could include Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 and wounded 17 more at Parkland high school, February 14, 2018. This poster child for the mentally ill had antisocial and borderline personality disorders, got expelled/flunked out/transferred among schools six times in three-years, and researched how to become a school shooter.
Fortunately for the anti-right media, he also fell deep into white supremacy (which is largely big government leftist, BTW), espoused racist, antisemitic, xenophobic, and homophobic views on this Instagram group chat (according to CNN), and allegedly wore a MAGA hat on a possibly fake Instagram profile:
We may never know for certain, but just as the AI/deep-fakes have Trump in a prison jump suit (or shooting AR-15s while riding a flying dinosaur), if the media can spin it against the right, they will.
If you don’t know definitively after a couple days, it’s safe to assume the perp was left-wing. The media may even say the perpetrator’s motivations are unknown, or impossible to determine. Don’t believe it.
- Is the perp a Muslim? Most terrorism in the world is perpetrated by Muslims. Don’t let the media reduce that as “lone wolf” incident either. It’s important to keep score. Yes, this is reductionist, but Religion of Peace doesn’t lie.
- Did he read Mein Kampf? If yes, he’s a leftist. Hitler was a socialist.
- Did he admire Mao, or Che Guavara, or any South American strong men? Leftist Communists.
- Did he believe in Antifa, BLM, universal healthcare, or abortion on demand? Sorry, statist leftists.
- Member of the LGBT+ community? With exceptions, they hate Christian/traditional values, and support leftist causes (which is also part of the Naked Communist playbook to destroy America)
- Did he vote for Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden? Um, leftist. Hello?
Don't Let Leftists Shift the Narrative
While the media is quick to blame rising “right wing” fanaticism and “white supremacy,” the truth is usually the opposite. Leftists don’t want you looking too closely at events. Or they’ll claim that there’s enough blame to go around. There are bad apples on both sides (Yes, and a kiddie pool and Lake Superior are both bodies of water).
They called George Zimmerman a “white” Hispanic, remember? The Bernie Bro who shot up the GOP softball game is somehow not indicative of socialist Sanders supporters or the DNC or an immoral victim culture perpetrated by the left, but Kyle Rittenhouse represents the “angry, white supremacist inherent in the system”?
Wrong! When Kenosha, WI police refused to protect its community, Kyle, armed with a medical bag and AR-15, stepped up to prevent the destruction other George Floyd rioters perpetrated on other communities. He was attacked by psychotic, WHITE, child-molesting thugs. Kyle defended himself, shot them with excellent trigger discipline, then turned himself in. He was tried in court despite a clear case of self-defense, and was acquitted.
Kyle was NOT a mass murderer, but a hero — like former NRA firearms instructor Stephen Willeford, who stopped a mass murderer with his AR-15.
But the left will have you focus on them instead of…
- Leftist atheist Devin Patrick Kelley who killed 26 church-goers in Sutherland Springs, TX
- SC Church shooter, Dylann Roof, confused racist white supremacist -- also a leftist
- Black radical, Darrell E. Brooks, who plowed his SUV through a Kenosha, WI Christmas parade, killing 6 and injuring 62
- The black "bullied" Texas school shooter, Timothy George Simpkins, who was released the same day
- Black nationalist Frank Robert James who shot 29 people on the NYC subway
These and So many others you’ll never hear about don’t fit the narrative so the leftist media blame the object, like the gun or SUV, or “bullying,” or “systemic upticks in crime.”
At the same time, they’ll try to shift the focus to unjustified fears of “backlashes” against “historically disadvantaged” minority groups, like violent Muslims or violent black communities, more recent angry LGBTQ+ communities, or violent white leftists dressed in black.
Even rare cases, when the media can claim the shooter came from a supposedly Christian or conservative background, the narrative rests on it. Anderson Lee Aldrich shot up Club Q, a Colorado Springs gay bar, killing 5 and injuring 25. The media pushed the victims’ assertion that hateful GOP rhetoric toward the LGBT community caused the violence. The media won’t tell you that he a sexually confused, angry bigot who changed his name at age 16 to distance himself from his broken home, before landing on an FBI list for wanting to shoot Christians and government employees, and who claimed to be non-binary after the mass shooting. Does that sound like a Conservative Christian to anyone?
Don’t let leftists shift the narrative.
So How Do We Respond to Mass Shootings?
Gun Control! Down with the Second Amendment?
The right to self-preservation is enshrined in our Second Amendment. It means that the weak have an equalizer against an attacker. Women can protect themselves against abusers and stalkers (because when seconds count, police are minutes away).
More importantly, in a free society, a citizen has the right to self-preservation against a tyrannical government. ANY government. That’s actually what the second amendment says:
In other words, the right to self preservation is a fundamental right. The end.
No, we won’t have a civil discussion about it. It’s not open to discussion. For you leftists out there: “It’s settled law.”
Citizens, don’t fall prey to the stupid arguments:
The Non Sequitur / False Argument
Every OccupyDemocrats post is world-class stupid and these are no different:
First, most terrorists worldwide are Muslim. Islam conflicts with EVERY culture in the world. We didn’t create that problem; it’s their imperialist ideology. The idea of banning immigrants with this mindset is smart. Japan and Australia did it and they’re not the worse for it.
NO ONE wants to lock up all blacks. That’s a straw man argument.
Democrats and their fears of “white supremacy.” That’s your anti-Fox News indoctrination talking. But mental illness is a thing. How about we talk about common sense control of the mentally ill. No? Because too many are Democrats, right?
The “History has changed” argument
The Constitution never goes out of style. The founding fathers wrote the Second Amendment expecting the average citizen to be armed with the BEST AVAILABLE weapons. Yes, at the time, that included muskets… As well as canons, explosives, warships, and as much ammunition is necessary to fight off an attack from a tyrannical government. Or a zombie apocalypse (which goes without saying).
Leftists still think they can read the minds of the founding fathers, inventing rights that didn’t exist (free healthcare, abortion, etc) and reinterpreting in ways they would not. But had they listened in school, or studied at all, they wouldn’t be leftists.
Counter argument: Assuming this argument holds water (and it doesn’t), the founders also didn’t imagine the press could reach the whole country either. Will journalists revert to moveable type presses and town criers? See where that gets you.
And NO, you shouldn’t change the laws merely because some weapons are more effective. And no, that AR-15 can’t fire 600+ rounds a minute. Automatic weapons are ALREADY ILLEGAL. Magazines hold roughly 30 rounds. In order to shoot 600 in a minute, the perp would have to be knee deep in fully loaded magazines, be trick shooter accurate with a gun that couldn’t jam (they tend to), and be able to reload faster than a video game. Get serious.
The “Be Reasonable” Argument
GOD GIVEN RIGHTS are not negotiable. That said, we do have many laws:
- There is NO SUCH THING as a gun show loophole.
- No, the mentally ill cannot buy guns.
- There is a waiting period.
- Full auto is illegal.
And NOTE: there is NO SUCH THING as an assault rifle. Whenever you hear someone babble about “banning assault rifles,” know they’re talking out of their backside. The AR in “AR-15” stands for ArmaLite rifle, the company that developed it. It does NOT stand for “assault rifle” or “automatic rifle.”
The Bait and Switch Argument
Republicans don’t have to insist. Self protection IS a right. It’s settled law, you control freak. Move on!
The GOP does NOT believe medical treatment is a privilege. False dichotomy alert! Healthcare is a RESPONSIBILITY. Not a privilege; a responsibility. That’s the other choice, and the correct one.
Now, if you want the a mass murderer’s insurance (life insurance, auto insurance, whatever) and all other worldly possessions confiscated and used to support the victims and their families (the only form of redistribution that makes sense), then sure, run that idea up the flag pole and see who salutes it.
If other absurd requests arise, we will add them, but the above tends to solve the stupid argument.
So we can do NOTHING?
Again, the Leftist argument to do nothing or do something very stupid. We don’t have to accept that false dichotomy.
We are a nation of 330 million people in 50 laboratories of liberty and human expression. We can come with better solutions that anything with “comprehensive” in the title.
As mentioned, we must first put our minds right. First comes personal responsibility. Local community. The Parkland kids came out strong for gun control but the truth is, the local police and social services failed the community by not acting against that shooter before he attacked. The school security hid until the shooting stopped!
What We Should Do After a Mass Shooting
Our reset after a tragic incident should NOT be to blame law abiding citizens, restricting their choices and making them weaker in the long run. That is why gun control is always the wrong answer.
If we are in the business of building stronger citizens (and we are), we need to figure out how to distribute the responsibility to the citizen, enabling them to make wise choices. We need to make local institutions effective.
Here are several strong resets:
- Don't let the media run the narrative. Citizens should correct the lies immediately and hold these propagandists to account. That includes telling knee-jerk celebrities to get stuffed.
- Stop making martyrs of murderers. Deny them fame by telling the media to stop celebrating their miserable deeds with details and life stories (Remember, the Boston Marathon bomber got a Rolling Stone cover). But make sure we tally how the monsters are made.
- If this was a school shooting, accuse the media (and those who swallow their narrative) of using our children as human shields for their gun confiscation schemes. EVERY government building has security... except schools. Why? Because they want the next mass shooting to be the last straw, when you relinquish your duty and God-given right to self-protection to government authorities unwilling and incapable of providing them. Remember Parkland.
- End "gun-free" zones. Fish live longer outside barrels. Arm school teachers if necessary. Chicago is a no-gun zone and it's more dangerous than Iraq. Think about that.
- Most important, raise our children well. Teach them to stand against bullying, to protect and uplift one another, and inspire goodness rather than glorify violence and chaos.
This last one is the toughest, because unlike the NRA – which exists to protect our God given rights from leftists – the entertainment and gaming industries make their living off the corruption of public and private morals. How many hours per week do we allow our kids to dwell on violence?
As Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death stands as the prophetic vision of American brain-rot in our entertainment culture, Dave Grossman’s Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie & Video Game Violence, stands against our culture of violence and human devaluation.
Any discussion of public policy in the aftermath of a mass shooting should consider the values of the subculture, the habits of the shooter, and the responses of American culture and not only foster but perpetuate the cycle.
We must build up the family. Care for those in our community. But I get it: it’s a lot easier to scapegoat guns.
Americans Have a Responsibility to be Good
Finally, perhaps we need to take the restrictions off churches and allow them to become stronger influencers in communities. That is, allow them to speak politically without losing their nonprofit status. Allow them to serve the poor and hungry with less red tape. Perhaps public institutions could work more closely, and on occasion prove funding, to improve civic responsibility, rehabilitation, and community relations.
Our culture has not been unified for many years. It’s time to agree that stopping the violence begins with the INDIVIDUAL, with RESPONSIBILITY. Government cannot legislate evil away, and in case anyone noticed, we have enough laws. Our country’s future requires a moral people, who value the right things.
Take Your First Step to Safety
You don’t have to wait for the political argument to play out. Take your first step toward preparing yourself and your family for the unexpected.
Gavin de Becker provides armed security for the stars, and his The Gift of Fear: And Other Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence demystifies the apparently random and unpredictable nature of violence and shows you how interpersonal violence can be detected and derailed.
His strategies just might save your life. Prepare today.
Stay in Touch
Reducing the impact of leftism, statism, and other negative influences can be difficult. Let’s do it together.
If you have suggestions for resetting our cultural conversation, or just want to be kept up-to-date, send me a question or comment.
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