You all know the name David Hogg, right?
Why do we all know it?
We know it because this 18-year-old high school student blamed the availability of guns in America for the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting in February and became an instant darling of the U.S. media, Democratic Party and totalitarian left.
But, the kid actually had an interesting suggestion about the most recent school shooting in Texas.
He suggested the media should stop using the low-life's name every five seconds – one I will not repeat here in solidarity with young David Hogg's new-found awareness.
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"We make these sick people known worldwide for their horrifying acts, let's stop that," Hogg tweeted last weekend.
Let me explain this phenomenon with a real-world analogy. I'm a baseball fan. One thing you will never see while watching a baseball game on television is a fan running out on the field. Why? Because Major League Baseball is smart enough to realize that televising that kind of behavior only encourages it.
When I was a kid, this was not the case. Fans used to run out on the field frequently. I recall seeing some of my own friends do so on Mickey Mantle Day back in 1969. I couldn't believe my eyes. The next day these kids were celebrities at school.
It doesn't happen much anymore, and I strongly suspect that's because MLB diagnosed the problem and effectively solved it.
Why don't my esteemed colleagues in the media give this same approach a try to curtail a much worse and deadly problem than baseball fans holding up a game – denying the celebrity that comes with school shootings?
You think it's not part of the motivation?
Don't kid yourself.
Remember the unprecedented notoriety given to the first major school shooting incident at Columbine? Remember the attention to detail that was provided by the media? Not only did we learn everything there was to know about the assailants – whose names I will avoid here, but you certainly remember them – but there were TV movies and books written about these misfit killers.
Is it unthinkable that they influenced future sociopathic minds – like that of the Texas killer who even dressed like them?
It's unthinkable to me that the fame factor should not be considered as a contributor to this new epidemic of mass school shootings. It certainly makes more sense than confiscating every gun in the nation.
Today, every kid in America knows that the commission of a horrible crime like this is assurance of unprecedented public attention and notoriety. The act itself requires no exceptionalism other than being willing to kill innocent people.
The media's level of attention dedicated to these acts is overwhelming in many respects. It no doubt causes subliminal suggestions to a psychologically vulnerable subset of people to act out.
So, what would be the harm in learning a lesson from Major League baseball?
Why not deprive future fiends their moment in the spotlight – possibly the very thing that motivates them to commit mass murder?
I'm not suggesting ignoring the heinous crime – just the name and story line of the killer or killers. Why not deprive them of the infamy that may contribute to these killings in the first place? I know there's a morbid curiosity about the perps, but do we really need to fuel a future act of bloodlust the attention may bring?
What about an experiment?
Isn't it worth a try?
Isn't it a better solution than forcibly confiscating 300 million firearms from responsible citizens who occasionally use them to defend themselves and more often give them some peace of mind and a sense of security?