David Hogg Finally Says Something That's Not Laughable

Few of those in the Parkland crowd are as vocal as David Hogg. The kid is usually running his mouth, and what comes out of it is often the product of either stupidity or ignorance. It’s hard to tell which.

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However, he recently made a statement in light of the Santa Fe High School Shooting that warrants some attention.

It’s a few days old, coming on Sunday, but it’s important to note that Hogg has a point. No, I can’t believe I just wrote that either. We shouldn’t publicize these killers names. There’s a reason you don’t read their names here at Bearing Arms. Ideally, that reason would be because we didn’t know their names. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world so Bearing Arms filters those names out. We redact them.

The last thing we want to do is help make these jackwagons famous.

The Daily Wire started doing that earlier this year for the same reason.

There’s evidence that many of these killers are looking for fame. They hold up people like the Columbine killers as martyrs or say they want to surpass someone’s “score.” They’re looking to join this evil brotherhood of psychos.

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But take the fame out, and the incentives decrease. It won’t eliminate them, because I’m sure some of these people just want to watch the world burn and don’t really care about fame, but it will damn sure reduce them.

To see Hogg advocate for this kind of thing is…surprising. After all, he’s been neck deep in the whole “guns are the problem, dur,” line of debate since Parkland. Of course, he’s also accomplished next to nothing during that time, but that’s where he’s been. I fully expected him to lash out exclusively about guns. To see him advocate something like this is more than a little refreshing.

Not that I think he’s starting to realize that gun control won’t happen. He’ll keep pushing to take away the guns of law-abiding individuals because of the acts of a few sick, bad actors.

But, for once, Hogg recognized that there may be something else to blame for these shootings. After all, they’re committed by people, and people have motivations that have nothing to do with the objects they use to commit terrible things. His most recent call to action may well be the dawning of light for many people that the problem isn’t guns, but people. Who knows, maybe Hogg will be one of those.

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I’m not holding my breath, mind you, but it could happen.

Who am I kidding? I know darn good and well that he went right back to blasting guns and will never let loose of his blinders and continue to blame guns for the acts of these maniacs. Nothing will change.

See?

Which is actually too bad.

You see, when people like Hogg typically talk about coming together for a solution, they mean stuff like gun rights activists sitting down, shutting up, and doing what we’re told. Generally, when we talk about coming together for a solution, we mean stuff like this. Removing the “fame incentive” will dissuade many would-be killers from trying this stuff.

No, it’s not ideal because they might simply figure out some other kind of brutality to elevate their fame, but it’s a start.

Plus, once we remove the fame incentive, we can then start to focus better on those who are so unbalanced none of this would matter to them. We can look at the psychological mechanisms that cause someone to completely flip their gourd and to shoot up a place.

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All of that said, it’s good to see more people starting to realize that we’re not doing ourselves any favors by making these killers famous. Instead, we’re feeding into the psychological pathologies that create more and more of these killers. For once, it seems like an anti-gunner is trying to address the roots of violence in this country, particular regarding mass shootings. This should be commended.

Now, of course, comes the work of actually ending this constant assault on the Second Amendment so we can actually get to work on whatever else is part of the real problem. After all, fame alone can’t account for these killings.

Still, Hogg’s comments are an oddly nice change of pace.

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