The Next Time

Sadly, in the wake of the terrible Sandy Hook killings of innocent children, gun control advocates continue to storm the country in favor of changes in the law which will prevent nothing. I understand their rage; I understand and sympathize with their sorrow. I just wish they offered better solutions, and real villains to attack…like Rolling Stone magazine.

Yes, I said Rolling Stone magazine. Why? The editorial staff of this once cool publication decided to be “edgy” and “controversial” (translate: “desperate to sell magazines at all costs”), by putting one of the Boston Marathon bombers on its cover, a photo that made him look rock-star cool.

I am refusing to publish the bomber’s name, not because I can’t spell it, but because I refuse to feed any ghoulish desire for publicity which he might harbor. This puts me way ahead of RS, which felt no compunction or moral obligation to avoid rewarding a murderer of children by providing rock-star quality publicity.
How sick and sad that those who own and control RS see no danger in feeding the ego of not just the bomber, but all those sad and warped wannabes twitching out there in the dark. “Guns Don’t Kill People; People Kill People” warns the NRA—trite; a cliché; but holding more than a mote of truth.

Even if you magically banned all assault weapons tomorrow—other weapons, or objects capable of being turned into weapons, remain readily available. Sad but true.

Shame on Rolling Stone for now having blood on their collective hands the next time, and there will be a next time, one of these unspeakable tragedies occurs. More than any gun maker, gun seller, or gun, glamorizing these sick monsters constitutes serving as an accomplice after the fact, and more, clears a psychological path for horrors to come.

I understand that Rolling Stone possesses important First Amendment rights; I fail to understand its utter abdication of social responsibility or conscience. Not only will I never again purchase a Rolling Stone magazine, I am exercising my First Amendment rights to call out Rolling Stone, its owners, editors, and subscribers for the cowardly, cringing enablers they are.

The next time, don’t focus on whatever convenient weapon facilitated the tragedy, focus on those who fawn over pure evil for profit. Focus on those who helped create the next dark day with their craven, venal, high capacity publicity machines of death, as to which they felt no compunction in pulling the trigger. Focus on those who scorned the idea that their words and pictures of today would almost surely result in future deaths…and just didn’t care.

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