A mass shooting, this time in Thousand Oaks, California, left 12 dead — including a police officer, Ron Helus, who gave his life for others.
Now, there is no shortage of ideas when it comes to preventing such horror.
The problem is, the loudest voices only offer two choices.
It’s either: “You want more gun control” — or “You want to arm everyone.”
We need to escape this prison of two ideas.
Here’s how.
1.) We need a system that works. We once had a process for dealing with people who had a known mental illness, but the process is now paralyzed by fear.
People don’t want to be pegged as violating someone’s rights.
Today, psychiatric hospitals house less than a tenth of the people they did in the ’50s.
Yet our population has doubled.
If we can’t house them, then at least tag them so they can’t get a gun.
The shooter terrified his mom. That’s what we call a red flag.
2.) We need an industry focused on hardening soft targets. A shooter’s body count is limited by the time it takes for a second weapon to arrive.
Related: California Bar Shooting: At Least 12 Are Dead, Including a Sheriff’s Deputy
Enhanced security can only reduce that time.
3.) Finally, the media must limit the persuasive power of its coverage. Studies of suicides verify the copycat phenomenon.
With mass shootings, the spotlight’s no help.
Religious and political terror has an ideology.
Criminal homicide has a payoff — revenge or profit.
Related: The Hero in the California Shooting Was a Dedicated Cop
This is the only terror that exists as an end in itself.
We can stop it.
But to do that we need to open ourselves up to uncomfortable ideas, ones that take us out of our rigid teams.
For more on what happened in Thousand Oaks, California, on Wednesday night, watch this video:
This Fox News opinion piece is used by permission. It’s adapted from Greg Gutfeld’s monologue on “The Five” on Nov. 8, 2018. Greg Gutfeld currently serves as host of Fox News Channel’s (FNC) “The Greg Gutfeld Show” (Saturdays 10-11 p.m./ET) and co-host of “The Five” (weekdays 5-6 p.m./ET). He joined the network in 2007 as a contributor.
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