Biden, predictably, rehashed a series of tired gun-control talking points in response to the latest school shooting incident at Abundant Life Christian School: ban assault rifles, ban “high” capacity magazines, universal background checks, and Red Flag laws. As per usual, none of the proposals would have stopped this shooting. Or any other. To wit:
The shooter, Samantha Rupnow, was 15 years old. It is already illegal for 15-year-olds to buy firearms
She used a handgun, obtained from her father via “lies, manipulation, and my father’s stupidity”
“Universal Background Checks” is a canard. Go to a gun show, walk up to a table, and try to buy a weapon without an FBI background check. They won’t sell it to you. The only “loophole” is family and person to person transfers. Would addressing that have stopped a single shooter we know of? Nope. And regulating who has access to a particular firearm inside a family home? Exactly how far into your bedroom do you want the government to be?
Video games have taught every kid on the planet that switching to another gun is faster than reloading one. Most school shooters simply carry multiple weapons, rendering bans on large capacity magazines pointless.
Obtaining firearms illegally is not something the law will ever stop.
Red Flag laws would not have done anything, either, as she had not been in treatment or diagnosed as a danger to herself or others. And when there have been warnings in prior shootings, those warnings have been repeatedly ignored by both local and federal authorities.
If we can’t enforce existing laws, how does anyone think we’re going to suddenly start enforcing more extensive versions? And continuing to focus on firearms (which have been widely available since long before school shootings were a thing) absolves the other areas of American society and pharma-psychology driving this heinous phenomenon.
There are a number of similarities between this latest act of madness and prior ones: a mentally deranged student obsessed with violence who wanted to kill themselves in a way that would make people finally pay attention to their pain. In this case, Rupnow had a demonstrated obsession with prior school shooters and violent anti-humanitarian attackers. Rupnow “had planned to commit suicide a long time ago, but felt committing a shooting was ‘better for evolution rather than just one stupid boring suicide.’”
We’ve created a society where social media “influencers” are killing themselves for fame at an extraordinary rate: “Body Positivity” advocates are eating themselves to death, daredevils are splattering themselves all over the landscape, and street prankers are getting shot, stabbed, and beaten for their antics. Further, many – perhaps even a majority – of police shootings should be classified as “suicide by cop.” Accordingly, it should be no surprise that suicidal teens are choosing a path to “fame” on their way out the door, and a method that increases the likelihood that someone else will do the deed for them.
What can be done?
Media outlets should not EVER share the name of any of the shooters. Take away the notoriety, you take away a significant element of the motivation.
Bring back mandatory in-patient treatment centers for people who are a danger to themselves or others. Acknowledge that there are some people who simply can’t now, or perhaps ever, be entrusted to coexist safely with others.
Study – honestly – the impact of SSRIs and Puberty Blockers on suicidality and reformulate clearly failed, drug-dependent approaches to psychology and pharma-psychology.
Stop coddling criminals and address gang-violence as the major cause of firearm homicides in the U.S.
An armed society has certain tradeoffs. But, as we’ve seen across Europe, people committed to doing mass violence will find a way. They’ll obtain illegal firearms. Or use knives. Or homemade explosives. On the other side of the coin is that every Western society that has significantly restricted or banned public ownership of firearms has seen a marked rise in government authoritarianism in the years since. For example, look at Australia’s covid concentration camps (an idea, at the time, supported by a significant majority of the American left). Or the current censorship and thought-policing going on in the U.K.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Sam Stone only and not his co-host Chuck Warren or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.
