It’s the Murderer, Stupid!

[On Friday, May 23], as people began celebrating their extended Memorial Day weekend, one demented little narcissist took a knife and slaughtered 3 innocent people in the opening act of a really bad play he called his “Day of Retribution.” He went on to kill three others and severely injure several more before finally taking his own worthless life.

Before I go on, let me make something really clear: I believe that all media, myself included, have a responsibility to avoid glorifying wanton criminals, minimizing reporting about the murderer. The efficacy of this approach has been proven in studies concerning the reporting of suicides.* I personally take that a step further by actively denigrating, shaming, and belittling the pathetic deviants for their evil actions. As a policy, I never repeat the name of one of these loathsome rodents, nor do I publish their pictures or their idiotic rantings, because doing so feeds the beast. It gives them what they wanted – fame and recognition – and it helps to motivate the next iteration of a murdering scumbag that we know is waiting in the wings looking for the trigger to change his life and make him “famous.” If all media would adopt a similar attitude toward these low-life no-accounts, I believe we would not see such aberrations occurring as often as we currently do.

In the most recent case, there are strong indications that the murderer was emulating a movie about another murderer, and there is some indication that his whole idea for a “Day of Retribution” – and the resulting “fame” – might have been triggered by news coverage of the Sandy Hook atrocity. Unfortunately, I see a high probability of this murderer’s story being turned into a feature film to help fuel demented sickos for years to come.

This deviant was an attention-seeking narcissist who loved his own voice and face, so there are tons of “selfie” pictures and videos for the media to regurgitate all over the airwaves and interwebs while asking “Why,” and suggesting that some sort of new gun control law is the key that might have prevented the tragedy and could certainly head off the next one before it happens.

The truth is, this was a pampered, spoiled little jerk who never learned empathy for his fellow man. He was so wrapped up in his own sense of entitlement that he believed he “deserved” to have beautiful girls lavish their affections on him – regardless of his attitudes or behavior – and that it was just and right to “annihilate” them for not “choosing him.” In short, he was an immature, effeminate, little brat whining about never having sex, and throwing a violent temper-tantrum.

Oh, but if he hadn’t had easy access to guns, these people wouldn’t have died – say the anti-rights extremists, ignoring the fact that he murdered just as many people with a knife as he did with a gun, and also ignoring the fact that California is ranked Number One by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence for having the strictest gun laws in the country. Every major gun control restriction seriously debated in Congress over the past 10 years or more has been enacted in California, along with a number of their own additional restrictions.

This punk began planning his heinous act over a year ago. He purchased each of his three guns separately, waiting at least a month between each purchase, passing a background check, observing the mandatory 10-day waiting period, and duly registering his purchases with the California Department of Justice each time. One of the guns cost around $500, while the other two were reportedly purchased for over $1000 each. Like most mass killings, this was not a spur of the moment thing; it was thoroughly planned out – almost scripted. The killer was thwarted in part of his plan because his father was in town, preventing him from being able to safely kill his step-mother and two half-brothers. His father’s proximity also prevented the murderer from being able to take his father’s SUV, which the killer wanted to use in the final rampage because he felt it would do more damage to people when he hit them with it as opposed to his sleek BMW coupe.

With such detailed and graphic planning, it is almost certain that, had firearms not been readily available, this sick little puke would have come up with some other, possibly more effective, way of carrying out his horrible “retribution.”

The other fact ignored by the radical gun control zealots is that there are over 300 million guns in civilian hands in the US – one in almost half of all homes – and over 99% of those guns are never involved in any sort of criminal activity. Guns don’t cause the crime – criminals do. The media and some politicians are again using a horrible atrocity as a launching pad to push for stricter gun control laws – ignoring the failed mental health system and the failed gun control laws this murderer – and most mass murderers – obeyed.

It’s time to remind the politicians: It’s not the guns, it’s the criminals, stupid!

* References: The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, The Lancet Psychiatry, The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

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