A Reddit user asked the public, what could be done to prevent mass shootings? and the answers majorly revolved around three options.
1. Handle Domestic Violence
The first most popular idea was to handle domestic violence and related crimes in a better fashion.
“A lot of these mass shooters aren’t just coming out of nowhere, according to this study a solid majority of mass shooting were part of domestic violence or the shooters had a history of domestic violence. Not going to spend all night digging into this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if mass shooters are llikely to have history of other violent or otherwise antisocial (Stalking for example) crimes and behaviors.
Mass shooting isn’t generally the start, it’s an escalation, and I think it’s a pretty good indication that we really need to habdle domestic violence and other such crimes a lot better, if not for how messed up it already is, then to stop it from escalating into something worse.” shared one.
2. Stop Making Them Celebrities
The second most popular opinion was to stop making them celebrities or giving them excessive media coverage.
A user shares “Stop turning shooters into celebrities in the media. Not making them celebrities doesn’t mean talking about mass shootings. Just not plastering their names and faces everywhere.”
“Psychologists keep telling us this, and media vultures keep ignoring them.” added another.
and, finally, the obvious.
3. Restricted gun laws.
“Restricted gun laws. Yes it’s that easy.” said a user. As you might have guessed, this quickly turned into one of the most controversial comments in the thread.
“There have been more mass shootings in the US than there are days in 2023 (45). In Canada, between 1900 and 2023 (123 years), there have been 28 mass shootings. Yes, the population is much smaller, but the main other difference between the countries is greater gun control in Canada.” added another.
“In the U.K. the general public doesn’t have easy access to guns, the last mass shooting was in 2010 and there have been 4 mass shooting in total in the past 35 years. In the USA It seems to me that its not your average criminals, who may more easily get their hands on a gun, that carry out these attrocities, it is someone in the general public that snaps. It seems such a simple solution to stop allowing the general public to buy guns” said yet another user.
A Swiss user goes ahead and shares his opinion “In Switzerland virtually everyone has a gun (they get to keep one after they finish mandatory military service) and to my best knowledge there’s been very few mass shootings ever. And violent crime is one of the lowest in the world.
Switzerland also has a much more strict purchasing process than the U.S., as well as better access to healthcare and social safety nets. And no they don’t just “get to keep” their service weapons. They have the option to purchase their weapon after service and still need to go through the process of acquiring a permit for the weapon first”