The more the media sensationalizes these incidents, doing breathless 24-7 coverage for weeks on end, delving into the shooter’s possible motives, family life, what might have led him to this; the more you will see copycats.
Reporting events and reporting valid updates is one thing but making what amounts to a cult hero out of these turds just encourages the other turds to make their own moment in history.
The endless reporting goes along with the endless political bloviation that goes on about these events also plays a big part in the copycat aspect of these shootings.
These shooters invariably are looking for attention and because of the volume of publicity and attention these shootings garner, the negative publicity is better for them than any positives.
How many people will know or remember the name of the armed individuals in the incident the other day and this one who stopped the shooter? By tomorrow, nobody because their part in the play are not as report worthy as the killer’s.
The press still adheres to the old saw of “if it bleeds, it leads” and nowdays the press and politicians will bleed all of the corpses dry and then parade the corpses for personal and political gain.
The media didn’t have much to say about the gun violence targeting Republican congressmen playing baseball...
That was quickly out of the media news cycle.