Memes before Matter: A Good Guy With a Gun

Reducing a complex problem to a meme only creates division. It solves no problems and only spreads propaganda.

Following the shootings in a Maryland school it was less than 12 hours before the memes about how there were no parades and no reporting about how the the "good guy" with the gun killed the school shooter. This is one of three memes, I've seen. One uses the NRA's "good guy with a gun" propaganda.  Another was a share of a status post also using the "good guy" propaganda. This was despite the fact that there was a bunch of reporting about it. It is also still unclear whether he shot the school shooter or the shooter killed himself. (Update 3/28: The shooter took his own life.) All that is actually known is that shots were exchanged. For some reason, all of the memes I saw announced that there was no coverage especially on CNN.

Let me be clear, the "good guy with a gun" did exactly what he was supposed to do. At least the above meme got that part right. He was the school resource officer, a member of the St. Mary's County sheriff's office, and a member of SWAT. In other words, he was not just some guy with a conceal-carry license with a few hours of training which is what the "good guy with a gun" memes imply. He was not some teacher who thinks guns in the classroom is a good idea. What he is, is a hero who did exactly what he had trained much of his adult life to do. Everyone agrees that his quick actions clearly stopped Maryland's Great Mills High School from becoming much worse. His name is Officer Blaine Gaskill. Much of this information comes from CNN, by the way.

I'd heard the reporting about Gaskill on CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and two local news reports. Had it received the amount of press that Parkland did? No. But then again, a hero cop stopped the shooter before 17 people died. Will there be a parade? I have no idea. I am also unsure what students are having a parade. There have been some walkouts which are not quite the same thing as a parade. Vigils? The only person to die was the shooter.(* Update, late Thursday Jaelynn Rose Willey, one of the two victims of the shooter, was taken off life support and died late Thursday. The county flag was ordered to half-staff.)So why would there be a vigil? I do know that Gaskill would be only the second School Resource Officer to shoot an active shooter since Columbine if his bullets did hit the shooter. He is not some random "good guy with a gun." He is a trained professional. He is a hero. His work is more important and more complicated than to be reduced to propaganda in a meme.

You see what bothers me about these divisive memes is that they are clearly political and agenda driven. They are using a hero to propagate something that is not true.  Here is a list of CNN news stories on the Maryland shooting:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/22/us/maryland-school-shooting-jaelynn-willey/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/us/stoneman-douglas-students-stay-home/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/us/maryland-school-shooting-resource-officer-response-trnd/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/03/20/maryland-school-shooting-governor-larry-hogan-presser-sot.cnn
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/03/20/great-mills-high-school-shooting-maryland-orig-llr.cnn
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/us/parkland-students-great-mill-shooting-trnd/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/03/20/maryland-school-shooting-sheriff-sot.cnn
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/03/20/shooting-maryland-high-school-great-mills-student-sot.cnn
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/03/20/shooting-maryland-school.cnn
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/us/great-mills-high-school-shooting/index.html


Yep, CNN had practically no coverage as long as you don't count these reports. This list took me all of a minute to find by typing in "Maryland School Shooting" on CNN.com.

If you are a gun rights activist, go for it. Try making your arguments without misleading propaganda or attacking people with whom you disagree. Reasoned argument not a meme will help others understand you. I know, far too many people want to make it simple. It seldom is. This kind of meme serves one and only one purpose: propaganda.

Try finding out the truth.

It is really quite simple if you're willing to leave the bubble.