Hindsight from The New Gun Week November 20, 1999

Is International TV Responsible?
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

Workplace shootings in Honolulu and Seattle at the beginning of November prompted Vice President Al Gore, Attorney General Janet Reno and congressional Democrats to renew pressure on Republicans to pass restrictive new gun laws for Americans. The anti-gunners accused the GOP and the so-called gun lobby of stalling gun legislation.

Gore descended the Senate stairs for the cameras on Nov. 4 and promised to give gun control a prominent role during his bid for the White House.

"This is going to be a national issue all over the United States of America," Gore said.

"The leadership of the majority, the Republican Party, in the Congress today is frustrating the will of the American people by refusing to take up legislation that the American people support," he added. "How many tragedies does it take before the members of the Republican leadership bottling up this legislation get the message?"

Republicans say enforcement is the solution, not more laws. They blame the current Administration for failing to enforce existing gun laws. And they got a boost at a recent congressional hearing from award-winning actor and NRA President Charlton Heston.

"This Administration, as a policy, is putting gun-toting felons on the streets in record numbers," Heston told the House Government Reform Committee's panel on criminal justice, drug policy and human resources.

Heston said the White House lacks "the time or the spine" to enforce current laws. "Why does the President ask for more federal gun laws if he's not going to enforce the ones we have?" Heston asked.

International Events

But while the anti-gunners were trying to exploit the shootings in Honolulu and Seattle to get their new gun laws passed, the United States wasn't the only country in which seemingly random mass murders were taking place. The same week as the Honolulu and Seattle shootings, there were similar rampages taking place in Brazil and Germany.

Most Americans didn't notice, and neither did much of the world. That was because the shootings in Brazil and Germany were not given the same coverage as the US events by American television networks, particularly CNN.

In both Brazil and Germany, officials echoed comments heard from elected officials in Hawaii and Washington state. Their comments were strangely similar to those made by local officials after the various suburban school shootings in the US in recent years.

"Oh, no, not us," they exclaimed. "That only happens elsewhere."

Perhaps such denial is linked to perceptions of reality, and many of those perceptions come from television-with amplification from American newspapers, radio stations and news magazines.

In the United States, there are a lot of television and other news sources. But elsewhere in the world, the people do not have as many television news sources available. Satellite communications technology has made it possible for people around the world to down-link CNN, which has made a conscious bid to become the world's primary news source.

During Desert Storm, the availability of CNN to Saddam Hussein in Iraq became the source of ironic humor. But it's not a joke any more.

US Image

The image of the US around the world today is shaped by American television, especially CNN. If the people of Senegal think America is so lawless and dangerous that everyone risks being shot in stores, schools, parking lots and workplaces every day, that is the image that Ted Turner's gang has created. It is a curious thing though, that as Turner and friends try to show how dangerous this country is because of guns, the people of Senegal, or Brazil, or Germany, or anywhere else are still anxious to come here to live, study, work and even just enjoy themselves.

Be that as it may, even people in the America media community are coming to realize that there is a strong copycat element to the mass murders we have been experiencing. Television doesn't make everyone go out and commit mayhem anymore than video games, music, movies or guns do.

But a few people in the world-no matter what country-are not as finely balanced as the majority. Some may even be taking mood-altering drugs such as those prescribed as a regimen for several of the teenagers who gunned downed fellow students.

And just as such a student or students in one school in one state in this country can commit a horrendous crime that gets a lot of media-especially television coverage-so that it sets off another similar person in another school in another state, international copycats are also possible.

Global Links

Consider what links separate events around the globe which all occurred the same week. If there is a real copycat element, it is conveyed through the communications industry. The following incidents did not necessarily happen in the order presented here, but they all happened almost simultaneously. Any one could have ignited the others.

There was the shooting at the Xerox company facility in Honolulu on Nov. 3. That's when a Xerox repairman allegedly shot to death seven of his co-workers. He was formally charged with seven counts of second degree murder and one count of first degree murder on Nov. 4. The workplace murder spree was considered the worst killing rampage in Hawaii history-in what some claim is the safest city in the United States.

If convicted on the first degree murder charge, the shooter could be sent to jail for life with no possibility of parole, the most severe punishment in Hawaii, where there is no death penalty.

The Hawaii rampage was followed on Nov. 3 by an unrelated shooting in Seattle, where a gunman killed two men and injured two at a shipyard office with no apparent motive.

As this is written, almost a week after the event, the shooter in the Seattle shipyard is still at large, although tensions in the city have started to ease.

In a small Alpine town in Germany on Nov. 1, a 16-year-old boy opened fire from a window of his home and killed two people on the street as well as wounding six others during a lengthy shooting spree. When police did not hear any more shooting after several hours, they entered the house and found the shooter had shot himself and his 18-year-old sister.

Reports after the fact included the usual comments about such things happening in the US but not Germany. But now in Europe, such things do happen, even though gun ownership is strictly controlled.

Brazil Shooting

Then on Nov. 4, a 24-year-old medical student in Sao Paulo, Brazil, stood up in a crowded movie theater and opened fire, killing three people and wounding five.

As in Honolulu, Seattle and Germany, officials were shocked and suggested such events were more American than Brazilian. Reporters noted that the gun was American-made and so was the movie: "Fight Club."

And there were similarities. Brazil has a high incidence of violent crime. But the shooter in the movie theater, like those in most of the recent school incidents, was from a well-to-do family and lived in a good home in a good neighborhood.

Of course, Brazil and Germany have very strict gun laws. So does, Hawaii-perhaps the strictest in any state of the country.

Somewhere, there may be an explanation. Causes may be found. Guns are not it. Gun laws don't help. But we should be looking to see if international TV has any responsibility. The copycat killers are going global.

---

The New Gun Week is published three times a month by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) on the 1st, 10th, and 20th. Hindsight is a commentary written by SAF President and Gun Week Executive Editor Joseph P. Tartaro. This commentary may be reprinted so long as credit is given to the author and the publication. For more information or to subscribe, write Gun Week, PO Box 488, Buffalo, NY 14209, or call 716-885-6408 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, or inquire on Compuserve to John Krull, Production manager-JohnSAF@Compuserve.com or gunweeksaf@broadviewnet.net

Also, check out the New Gun Week at http://www.GunWeek.com