WWIT What Was I Thinking About Mass Shootings
Last week there were two shooting incidents in the US that made headlines, and required political responses. The shootings were horrible young white men used big guns to shoot innocent people in public places. Nobody wants this to happen. But how can we keep it from happening? Probably we can’t but a political response is required. The left want to restrict gun ownership and the right wants to increase mental health profiling. Neither response will have much effect on the incidence of these type of shootings in the near term. But it is doing something which the public demands.
I want to think about shaming the young men’s families and friends. The spectacle of Mothers testifying publicly about what they knew and why they didn’t go to the police might have the effect of keeping some of these young men from shooting because they don’t want to humiliate their Mothers.
Photo credit: I took this picture of a modern painting at the Carnegie Art Museum in Pittsburgh.