Mass murders
Whether it's killing people in church, or James Holmes shooting up folks in a Colorado movie theater, or a sniper from a Las Vegas hotel window, or a Colorado high school mass shooting, or a gang shooting in a Chicago hood, the killers are all people who are losers. They have no self worth, no morals and don't care a whit for the sanctity of life. Obeying the laws of civilization, including those related to gun ownership or against wife and child beating, mean no more to them than traffic violations. And without exception, they always blame others for their own failures. They know they will never be famous, but also they see that mass murder will make them infamous, and remembered, if they take killing to the next level. In their twisted minds, it's their only shot at their "15 minutes of fame". Gun laws won't change them any more than making alcohol illegal changed people in prohibition. There are only two ways to change such twisted minds, with the first being impossible and the second being highly improbable. The first would require a total censorship prohibiting all reporting of these senseless acts, and the second would be a change in society that returns us to a level of morality not known since the 1950's and prior to anything goes liberalism.
If all young people today were trained in safe gun use and there were more sane people carrying guns every day the mass shootings would be greatly reduced.
Elimination of gun laws will make people more safe. Existing (and additional) gun laws only increase the likelihood of more shootings, and the statist politicians know it.
The notion that "only the rich" educated their children 200 years ago is false. State controlled education was imposed for ideological motives following socialist utopians and statist philosophy in Europe. The first drive leading to state controlled education in this country was in New England in the early 1800s and was due to a religious battle between Unitarians and Catholics for control of education.
All these murderers are operating on emotions without regard to the value of living a life of reason, which is the basis of individualism and its consequent respect for the rights of others. Indoctrination in 'civics' classes without regard to explaining the necessity of reason in human life for morality is hopeless, and when indoctrinating duty to society is in the wrong direction.
“A sad pathetic human”; “Perhaps small moths were actually intimidated by this coward”; “Undortunately he wet himself, and demonstrated to the girls that he was ‘unarmed’!”
This is what needs to be on the media for 10 min, followed by a public auction of the perpetrator’s body to be used as dog food, a weekend target practice or for leather goods in Bangladesh.
No digging into the perp’s mind, endless discussions of sadness or fame.
Guns are not the irresponsibility. Making the perpetrator into a famous martyr is irresponsible.
I will even drive for over half an hour to the other side of Birmingham because I know where I can renew a driver's license without passing though a metal detector.
The City of Hoover is also where my favorite indoor pistol range is located.
If they can control the question, though, it's more important than the answers. "What are we going to do about mass shootings?" "What does anyone need with a...?"
I question how effective a ban on reporting mass shootings would be. It depends on how many of the shooters are motivated by being nationally famous rather. It would probably stop a percentage of them. It's hard to say because mass shootings are so rare.
It's obvious to me that pushing people to an earlier decade of morality makes things worse. Violence has decreased since the 1950s. Spousal abuse, violent fights among kids, abusive discipline of kids, and violence in policing were all worse. There were having violent protests for racial integration and equal rights, with the scared authorities often brutally oppressing people. The answer is to go forward along the trend of decreasing violence.
But your point is valid in reference to the lawless makers too. Neither one are conscious beings, but must have some animal like awareness to do what they do.