Here Is Why Our Policy Is To Never Publish The Names Or Photos Of Mass Shooters

This is a rant.

Their names and faces flood the media with relentless force after they’ve done the unthinkable. The reason? Because people are curious. They click. In turn, the media website or TV channel generates more revenue. In the end, it’s a sales pitch. Its a way to get that click.

It’s society’s fault, really. If we didn’t crave the information, the media would change the way they publish content. If we stopped clicking, new methods and policies would be adopted.

A mass shooter wants two things: To do as much damage as possible, and to be remembered.

Being remembered is done one of two ways. You’re either remembered for doing great things, or you’re remembered for doing horrible things. To a mass shooter, there is only one option for the general public. It doesn’t matter, though. They aren’t expecting to be loved or understood. They are, however, expecting to be remembered and talked about for years, if not decades.

These loners and losers of life generally have nothing to lose, and not a whole lot going for them. It’s a way for them to leave a mark. To be brought up at the dinner table during discussion. To be feared.

What information, really, do we need to know about a mass shooter? Certainly not their name or picture. I, for one, do not require this information to draw any conclusion of what occurred.

The conclusion is simple: a person, with no resourceful identity, made the decision to take the lives of others for reasons inside of their own mind. Do I need to read and decipher a manifesto written by one of these mass shooters? Absolutely not. If professionals in the mental health field find them useful, then by all means read them. The general public, myself included, should not be giving any of these cowards the time of day.

There is no reason for us to step into their minds. They want to be studied, and they want to be picked apart. They want their memory to last.

Inspiration To Others Who Look To Do Harm

It’s no secret that other mass killers have used previous mass killings as inspiration to carry out their own fantasies. They study each other and maybe even look for ways to ‘improve’ on different methods. It’s sick, I know. Setting them up on a pedestal for all to see is not the exposure they deserve.

Swap The Media Roles Of Killer And Victims

Take a moment to think of the names of any mass killers from our country’s past. If you can think of even one, things are horribly wrong.

Now take another moment to remember the names of any of their victims. Which list is longer?

The overwhelming majority of people will not be able to name any victims at all, but are likely to remember a coward or two.

If the media spent the amount of time on the victims as they do the killers, we would be a lot better off. We could take the time to remember the victims. We’d see their faces over and over, and hear their names called out. We’d truly remember them. Not just as ‘victims’, but as real people with real names. They lived real lives.

The only lives we truly get to know –and let into our homes– are the lives of the killers. We learn intimate details about who they were, what they did and what they were thinking.

I’m here to tell you flat out, again; It doesn’t matter. The killer doesn’t matter.

At Concealed Nation, we refer to these cowards just as they are. Although the word may change with the story, the message is the same. “The Killer”. “The Coward”. “The Gunman”.

Remember, their names and faces are not necessary.

The most recent: The South Carolina church mass shooting. How many times have you seen the killer’s face come across your TV screen or your computer? I’ve seen it many more times than I care to. This killer’s face is now known by the entire country, and most know his name. The media has given him much of what he was looking for, and they’re profiting along the way.

I saw an entire thread dedicated just to the killer’s haircut. The sad truth is, he’s still getting undeserved attention. I see this asshole and his stupid haircut in my mind, and it’s there for a while because we make it that way.

We allow them to win by living on, long after they’re gone. We freely give them this.

A Call To Action from the Firearms Community

While it’s been our long-standing policy not to publish their names and faces, I call upon other websites and blogs in the firearms industry to do the same. We have grown to a strong force and have numbers behind us. If we can do this, we can start to change the way we report on these horrible acts.

We, Concealed Nation, will not let them live on. At least not on our servers.