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I have the solution to lower the frequency of mass shootings

I have presented this tactic before a long time ago. It wasn't received well at all.
But I was reading a debate on the subject a minute ago and I keep seeing the same tired arguments.
More gun control. Stricter background checks. Lower ammo capacity. Ban the evil Ar-15 weapon of war.
None of which help.
They banned all that stuff and way more for a 10 year period back in the '90's. It was intended to be an active investigation in the reality of it's possible effectiveness.
The results were that there was no significant improvement in shootings. That would include mass shootings that have been on a steady rise since 1966.
What I am proposing with this post is an alternative to the worn out ban, ban ,ban, stricter requirements... more detailed background checks etc... etc.. etc ....

So if you are interested in exploring the actual reason behind the ever rising mass shootings and the actual only effective way that I can see that there is any chance at slowing them down guaranteed, read on.
If you just want to try to discredit my information and continue to push the age old ban, ban, ban, restrict, restrict, restrict, .... You are welcome as well. :-)

There is a saying in Japan that most people are grasping the wrong end of the stick way too tight.
Gun control is a perfect example of that.
I think the biggest punch in the face as far as mass shootings go was Columbine. They have been an issue since 1966 and on a steady rise.
Columbine was particularity sad because it was kids that got shot. Before that it was people going postal ... which actually really started as a post office phenomenon. Then other people started shooting up there places of employment as a last act of disgruntled employees. I remember this even tho when it started to take off I was pretty young. I think like maybe 8 or 10. Crazy stuff.

So most of these mass shootings are done with the ever popular AR-15.
It is actually the most popular gun on the market.
But I just read that most gun murders are actually committed with a pistol.
But the weapon of choice for a mass shootings or school shooting is the AR.
Funny thing about that. The Ruger Ranch Rifle is pretty much the same thing but doesn't look nearly as cool. Does the same thing the same way. All the same attachments. Nobody trying to ban them too.
So the Ar is being demonized simply because it looks way cooler and nut jobs think it's deadlier than the Ruger that is actually about 1/3 the price of the AR. This will all be relevant in a second.

So something that is happening on both sides, the shooter and the people that want the AR banned is perception. The shooter thinks because the AR looks like the M-16 that it must be able to kill more people easier than say the Ruger Ranch Rifle which is almost the same thing with the same attachments but doesn't look like an M-16. It literally doesn't shoot any faster or more accurate.
What I am trying to show with this is that the AR doesn't give any radical advantage in a mass shooting.
Actually most of the mass shootings are what is considered to be close quarters shooting. The Ar is a rifle and intended to be shooting people 400 yards away. Not 50 ft.

If mass shooters were to actually choose the correct weapon, it would be a semi auto 12 gauge shotgun. You don't need to aim. Just get close. Multiple targets with a single shot. Tons of penetrating power. Don't need a huge drum of ammo because you can reload right off your ammo vest as you shoot. Quickly and easily.
It is horribly destructive up to 50 yards +. You can shoot through solid wood doors effortlessly or even a desk or a car door. The AR, or even a pistol, has to be pointed directly at the intended target and must be held pretty steady in order to be able to hit your man sized target with the tiny round. Every wiggle at the gun, which happens every time you pull the trigger and only magnifies more the faster you try to pull the trigger, cause the accuracy to diminish exponentially with the further the distance away magnifying it even more.
No this isn't a mass shooter tutorial. It's a lesson in in accurate perception. If you hang in there I have a bad ass punch line to all this.
The second choice for shootings is a pistol.
Actually, it is way more adapt for postal style shooting except that it doesn't have a stock to steady the weapon with making it even less accurate than the rifle because it really wiggles when you pull the trigger and same as the rifle it only magnifies the faster you try to shoot it.

The 50 and 100 round drum magazines are a particularly special point that I like to address.
Most people think that the only thing one of them is good for is being able to shoot more people faster. It would appear initially to greatly increase the shooters ability to kill way more people faster because he doesn't have to stop to reload as often. Sounds logical.
But what really happens is that the drum adds considerable weight to the weapon. As well as bulk. I couldn't find the specs on it but just pick up a 20 round box of 5.56 ammo and feel how heavy it is. Then start multiplying. I am only guessing but I would bet a snickers bar that it would have to add at least 40 extra pounds to the gun. That makes maneuvering the weapon substantially more awkward. Think about it. The shooter tries to move the weapon from left to right quickly but when he tries to stop to draw a bead on his target the gun is going to still be in motion. Not like with a regular 20 round mag that that makes the gun weigh about 10 lbs it now weighs about four of five times that.
In reality. If you are ever in a mass shooting situation on the target end .... pray that the shooter also thought this would make his job that much easier.

So with that bit of information about the right tool for the right job I hope you can see the flaw in the ban the Ar and huge drum magazines. They are being used under misperceptions that they increase your effectiveness when in fact they are a huge detriment to the shooters actual goal. So I hope you can see that the only reason the AR and huge drum mags are being used isn't actually because they are extra deadly. It's just a weapon at this point. Nothing special.

So now comes that part that gets people the most worked up for some reason. The actual reason that mass shootings are getting more popular.
We live in an undeniable copy cat culture. If you have any doubts of this or the extent of how much it effects our lives, check out TicToc for about 15 minutes.
You will easily be able to see a minimum of 75 individuals doing the exact same thing.
One thing is the young teen girls wearing no bra and a tiny T-shirt kind of dancing to most likely the same song as hundreds of other girls and I kid you not they are even doing the same damn moves. No originality.
Another thing that runs rampant is people lip sinking a recording of a comedian telling a joke. They all use the same audio clip but for some reason they think that when they do it, it is some how funnier than the other eighty thousand people that did it. I am not joking and am barley exaggerating.
To me it was baffling at first. But as I looked into it more I found out this has been an issue long before TicTok.
Back in the 60's and 70's or maybe even earlier it was unheard of for a news station to report on celebrity suicide. They would report the death but would withhold the fact that it was self inflicted. They did this because the news that it was suicide caused huge numbers of people to also kill them selves as well.
Ok. Now I bet you just rolled your eyes at that fantastically wild statement. But all you have to do is look up copy cat suicides. or copy cat culture. They call it suicide clusters. There are way to many hits on this topic for my liking. Ok and I guess it's not huge but it is prominent.
So if people copy cat suicide what do you think they do with a mass shooting? Or worse yet. A mass shooting in a school full of innocent children. The more Michel Moore's who make feature length big screen movies about the topic the more it just causes it to happen. The bigger deal the media makes about it and mass cries and demands that are made to do something about the evil Ar-15 and the millions of outraged kids they bus to Washington D.C to demand the president to make it harder to get a gun and get rid of those heavy ass 100 round drums and all the old tired same ole attempts to make it stop are actually the reason it continues to grow in popularity.
I personally think that when a school shooting happens, or actually anything like that, it should never be aired outside of the area that is directly effected by it. I mean what is that information doing for me 1200 miles away from where it happened? It's not like they are giving me information that I can use to keep it from happening in my home town. Hell. That's the best way to make sure that it happens in my home town.

Well that was long.
I hope this helps some people realize that banning guns and magazines and making life miserable for a whole lot of people that will never break the law with their evil AR-15 with a 40 lbs magazine hanging under it isn't the answer.

Bonus paragraph.
There is no way to un-invent the gun. It is here to stay and we need to find proper ways to deal with gun violence and the illegal use of them.
I am a machinist and metal fabricator by trade. I have all the knowledge and abilities it takes to build my own fire arms as well as ammunition. For the most part, it doesn't take high speed digital controlled zero tolerance machines and computer cad with a draftsman with a college degree or years of study to be able to build a reliable semi or full auto firearm. You should see the tolerance on a basic Chinese SKS assault rifle or Russian Ak-47. The most expensive tool you would have to get is a welder.
I'm just one of thousands and thousands of people who can do the same thing. All the materials can be purchased at the hardware store.
What I am referring to is a reliable functioning weapon similar to something you could by from the store. But it doesn't have to be like that. There are some types of guns that only have a few basic parts and the only tool you would use is a drill. Think they call them boom sticks. Two pieces of water pipe. A threaded pipe cap. A nail and a shotgun shell.
Then there is also a makeshift rifle that I saw constructed from the same kind of stuff, in the military issued improvised weapons handbook that every solder gets issued to them when they join the military. So that would would be millions of other sources of homemade firearms.

Ok I guess I will stop now.
Tune in later this week for my 2 hour long power point presentation on the simplified synthesis of nitro powder from household chemicals for your own high powered home made ammunition. :-)
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spjennifer · 61-69, T
The only problem with your idea is that everyone or almost everyone has a smartphone now and access to social media. If the News services stopped reporting mass shootings, we'd be getting a lot more opinion based news from those sources without the filter of a for profit based news service. Not that the MSM are always honestly reporting the news but there is at least some semblance of integrity there guaranteed simply by the number of news agencies reporting from the scene.
Dainbramadge · 56-60, M
@spjennifer I see what your saying. You think that the information would still flood the social media only by complete amateurs who would actually make the situation even worse than just the normal supply of information.
Some one else made a similar observation.
To be brutally honest my first thought is to just dismiss the idea that anything of any actual magnitude capable of comparing to a world servicing 24/7 sensationalizing machine could even be possible to any real magnitude.
But, you may be on to something and just as prohibition only laid the ground work for organized crime so may the omission of certain topics that are already wild fire fuel as is could possibly create an information machine that could possibly reach even more people. The net is an information supply chain and that any 12 year old can master and exploit.
I may need to examine that possibility a little closer. I mean this is the second time, at least, that the topic has been brought to my attention.
Thank you for your participation with this. :-)
spjennifer · 61-69, T
@Dainbramadge You need only look at SM posts that "go viral" even if for no other reason than that a bunch of people decides that it needs to for it to happen. I'm not saying it's right that this is what would happen, but you have to understand that it most probably would, regardless of whether it's right or wrong... Perhaps more might be gained by getting all of the news services and all of the social media outlets to agree to not publish nor allowing the publishing of the perpetrator's name, ever, that might have more positive results in reducing the notoriety effect of mass shootings but then you'd have the whole 1st Amendment to deal with too?
Dainbramadge · 56-60, M
@spjennifer Nice addition. I was thinking the freedom of the press issue as I read your comment.
Yup. In the beginning of the mass information sharing tools called public media they some how all figured out the copy cat thing and some how all decided the best thing to do was to omit the suicide part. For the greater good. It wasn't deceiving anyone for nefarious reasons or gain just made sense and everyone agreed and all did it. But at some point some one... I know I am over simplifying but, decided that they needed to have an edge over the competition and since this honor system information omission was a voluntary thing and unenforceable legally and actually specifically protect by the law they would stop not reporting the actual truth any more.
Also, prohibition is a perfect example of what happens when you remove the ability of people to get what they want. Get rid of alcohol and create organized crime. Stop reporting gore fest's and a billion Youtubers step up and take over and then it gets even worse. And when we create the path for those evil replacements with the best of intentions .. they are here to stay. LOL
Thanks again :-)
spjennifer · 61-69, T
@Dainbramadge Sadly, I don't see these mass shootings stopping anytime soon for the reasons specified and others too, like mental health. I don't think we can ever hope to see the overwhelming numbers of guns disappearing anytime soon as those numbers increase every year. Perhaps by reducing the availability of ammunition might be one answer or method, or make it ridiculously expensive to buy, or only those with a license can buy it? Nothing in the Constitution protects the right to ammo???
Dainbramadge · 56-60, M
@spjennifer Right. Most of what you posed has or is being implemented presently.
You may be right on it never stopping too for the simple fact that the cat is out of the bag.
Can't un invent the gun so you are probably correct. It may be to late for my plan.
That only leaves one option that has any chance at stopping the mass shootings at least at schools.
That would be the very unpopular armed guards. Not just one either. Make those schools like prisons.
I can't recall any mass shooting ever at a prison.
spjennifer · 61-69, T
@Dainbramadge I don't know, many prisons have riots. Not sure I'd want to send my kids, if I had any, to a school with armed guards present, or being necessary. The other side of that coin is where does all this end? armed guards in schools, in hospitals, in malls, at movie theatres, grocery stores, churches, at Walmart, some on every street corner? If these mass shooters are afraid to confront armed guards, you know they will move on to places where there aren't any... It's a sad indictment on our so-called "free society" that we even need to discuss possible solutions to something like this...
Dainbramadge · 56-60, M
@spjennifer You are correct. And I know that people are very unconformable with the thoughts of armed guards in our schools. I get it.
But, I would much rather deal with that issue than except the fact that we will never be able to guarantee that we won't just have to live with it happening some times.
I mean really, what do you dislike about armed guards for our kids.
The thought of them living like they are in protective custody?
spjennifer · 61-69, T
@Dainbramadge Yes, I dislike the fact that it's even necessary and believe there has to be a better solution. Kids are smart and they can see what's going on too. You know they're going to start asking questions as to why it's necessary and I'm not sure I want to see kids educated in places where it's necessary to protect them with armed guards, I've been in countries where that happens and I'd like to hope that we can be better than that. WE as a society have to be able to do better and find an equitable solution that works for everyone and prevents this from happening over and over again while still allowing legal gun owners the freedom to own guns if they so choose.
Dainbramadge · 56-60, M
@spjennifer Well said. I feel what you are thinking.
I am a hardcore realist but I am also a very over the top out of the box thinker.
So when I see the things you are presenting and the possibilities of them actually being the hard cold facts I look at the undeniable way to make sure they stop shooting up our schools. That is armed guards and lots of them. Not pretty and yes leaves the feel of third world countries all over it but I am pretty sure that would fix our problem with out infringing on anyone pursuit of happiness.
spjennifer · 61-69, T
@Dainbramadge We'll agree to disagree on the armed guards in schools. I just don't want kids to be educated where that's necessary. There has to be a better way.
Dainbramadge · 56-60, M
@spjennifer I am all about exploring better options. That is why I wrote the post was to show the connection more so from the media rather than video games and guns themselves.
I mean look at how much energy and time has been spent demonizing the AR-15 when the thing that has a larger influence over the actions wasn't the gun but the sensationalizing of the act.
spjennifer · 61-69, T
@Dainbramadge What often happens is that people look for an understanding of what happened and also look for someone/something to blame when these mass shootings happen. The AR 15 is an easy target but in reality it is an inanimate object with no power to kill on its own, someone must use it for it to kill. What we have to look at is the culture behind why people are doing this and that is more closely related to mental health. We had the 2nd Amendment in the first half of the Twentieth century and guns were readily available then too but we didn't have all of these mass shootings, so what was different then?
Dainbramadge · 56-60, M
@spjennifer Well from what I have seen so far the mass shooting thing didn't begin to be recorded until around 1966.
spjennifer · 61-69, T
@Dainbramadge Not quite true, there are many sources for this but here is one below, a "mass shooting" is considered to be one where at least 3-4 people were killed, depending on who is doing the recording. Not that they didn't happen before the 1960's but certainly not at the rate we have now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States
Dainbramadge · 56-60, M
@spjennifer Right. I think the site I got that thing about '66 from may have been using a different criteria too.
You know that is an awfully low number in my books to be called a mass shooting. Hell the mob shoots more people in one sitting than that. LOL
I would think that 10 people should be the lowest number to be considered mass shooting.
spjennifer · 61-69, T
@Dainbramadge I don't think I'd want to quantify the numbers as anything, even one is too many for me. I don't think that for example, when a teenager kills his entire family should be considered a "mass shooting" though, it's usually more of a murder or murder/suicide. I would consider any event where several people are shot in a public place, even if not all die, to be a mass shooting event and leave it at that.