That’s the thing, you have a solution in search of a problem here. Banning guns or making them available only for “a million dollar[s] with bullets costing 1000 bucks a pop.” doesn’t prevent these, it just removes the right to self defense and makes a population helpless.

You brought up Columbine (in the worst way possible) so I’m going to focus here on attention seeking random mass shooters with the goal of getting coverage on cable news and not the more frequent gang style violence that gets counted as “mass shootings” to inflate statistics because they are very different problems with very different causes/solutions. Cable shootings per capita do not correlate with gun availability and the US isn’t even in the top 5 among its peers statistically; this is a constantly ignored, inconvenient fact for gun grabbers so it always just gets shouted down and ignored. I’m fully expecting you to scoff and insinuate I’m crazy for even thinking this but the real world facts don’t change just because you get angry at me for pointing them out so go ahead and get it out of your system and when you’re done you can go back to ignoring it along with all the other facts that don’t meet your preconceived notions. Based on European countries with a higher rate of cable news shooters, like France, saying that if you banned guns they wouldn’t happen is absurd. You specifically brought up Vegas, the highest body count shooting in US history (but not the worst massacre) but despite having a dedicated and rich shooter that used terrifyingly effective tactics, it still had a lower death toll than a gun-free attack in France and the worst school massacre in the US also featured zero people shot. The bottom line is saying that without guns these things wouldn’t happen is straight up false, even taking into account the difference between “no legal guns” and “no guns.” So not only are you flat out wrong when you say “This shit only happens when weapons are available freely and CHEAPLY” but your perfect scenario still leaves the same people (and more) dead without guns.

Bad people will do bad things if they decide to. Assigning the evil actions of men to an inanimate object is the easy thing to do mentally if you don’t want to face this fact but it just doesn’t solve anything. Addressing the underlying causes and triggers is the only meaningful way to stop these but all effort is instead spent on deliberately triggering them and in an attempt to ban guns. The bottom line is that they are deranged individuals who do it for the attention; forensic phycologists are in virtually unanimous agreement that publicly naming them and glorifying them on a 24/7 news cycle is specifically triggering them and yet that is exactly what we do every time. It has also been established that this news coverage triggers additional copy-cat events which is why they often happen in clusters, yet the media gives them exactly what they want every time and refuses to change. The end result of all of this? People like you specifically calling them by their first names in internet comments 20 years later, which happens to be just what they wanted in the first place.

When it comes to suicide the media has a specific way of reporting to prevent triggering copy-cats. You never see an article of “John Doe hanged himself in his closet Tuesday after a night of heavy drinking” because that is known to make other people do the same. Instead you see “John Doe was found dead in his apartment Tuesday night, no foul play is suspected.” This of course goes out the window when it’s a celebrity and celebrity suicides almost always trigger a small wave of additional suicides right after but this is seen as an acceptable loss in exchange for the ratings. Mass shootings on the other hand result in media coverage that is specifically what the experts say not to do every single time (unless the shooter’s identity isn’t politically convenient to the media owners) and as such, they trigger more. Responsible media reporting standards are the #1 thing that can be done to make a meaningful impact on these events. It would take a generation to actually take effect but that’s not unheard of; Japan’s success in slashing their suicide rate over the last two decades is an example that deep rooted cultural issues can be solved with systematic and deliberate effort. This unfortunately would require mainstream media to care more about innocent lives than their political narratives though so I won’t hold my breath. It also can’t prevent every single act of terrorism which unfortunately are on the rise in Europe, but it likely would have at least some effect on the lone wolves who are currently contemplating their own shot at “glory.”

Now beyond not actively rewarding the monsters that are inclined to commit these atrocities there’s another common aspect of the stereotypical cable news shooter and that is coming from a broken home with a rough childhood. It doesn’t really take a PhD in psych to realize that fucking up someone as a kid can make a fucked up adult. This is also the area of focus that applies to gang style and non random shootings with multiple victims as well. Gun availability, poverty and race; none of them correlate with crime as strongly as single parent/broken households. A healthy upbringing in a functional house is the #1 way to prevent someone from getting to the point of wanting to murder other people for any reason. As such, proper sexual education that actually teaches high schoolers how to not have unplanned pregnancies instead of useless abstinence only religious garbage is needed immediately. Groups in the US like Planned Parenthood need to be properly funded and available, especially to those in most need. This would also have the benefit of vastly reducing the need for abortions so even the most religious nut jobs should like this. Women’s rights and bodily autonomy are absolutely necessary to break the cycle of poverty and crime. A meaningful reduction in unwanted and unplanned pregnancies is the single change with the greatest effect that can be done to prevent future crimes before they even start. Additionally, focusing on result based and functional social safety nets rather than feel good grandstanding that wastes absurd amounts of tax dollars can help keep the next generations healthy and able to avoid the lives of crime that they are currently being born into.

Cable news shooters are a manifestation of the worst aspects of modern society. Facing these issues head on is difficult and uncomfortable but the one thing that is sure to perpetuate them is to take the “easy” way out and try and assign 100% of the blame to a scapegoat scary piece of black metal. In the meantime, I’ll keep my means of protecting my family and country and focus on not giving the assholes that commit monstrous acts exactly what they want.