Well, here’s a post-Sutherland-Springs-shooting take that’ll make you think:
There are only two nearly universal characteristics of mass shooters: They're men and they use guns https://t.co/lEXlpThKwE
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 6, 2017
WaPo’s Philip Bump concludes:
Advocates for reducing gun violence, then, are left in an unfortunate position. There are often warning signs that can be addressed before a shooter decides to open fire, but there often aren’t. There are demographic factors that seem to recur — but not universally. The one consistent factor is that the shooter has access to a firearm, and that’s perhaps the one factor that has proven politically impossible to overcome.
OK, first of all:
GP How can something be "nearly universal?" Seems it's either universal or it's not. Sort of like being "kind of pregnant." https://t.co/4Zjc0o2ADU
— The Gormogons (@Gormogons) November 6, 2017
And second of all, weird wording aside, what, exactly, is so profound or surprising about the idea that mass shooters use guns?
Wait, shooters use guns?!
— Mark Earnest (@mark_earnest) November 6, 2017
Shooters use guns? What a surprise.
— Aryon (@AnElvishMale) November 6, 2017
Shooters use guns? So insightful.
— Dailey (@The_Dailey) November 6, 2017
So let me get this straight, mass SHOOTERS use…guns? You are a fantastic fact finding dynamo of a news organization.
— M. Brendan OConnor (@OneAmericaWins) November 6, 2017
Mass shooters use guns?! NO FUCKING WAY!!!!! https://t.co/EpL1SQEImu
— Heather (@hboulware) November 6, 2017
It’d be pretty hard to commit a mass shooting without a gun…
— Jordan Parker (@_jordanparker__) November 6, 2017
Please name me one mass shooter who doesn’t use a gun….
— Señor Don Gato (@astewartfs) November 6, 2017
Ah yes, a common characteristic of shooters is that they use guns. I hear fishermen use fishing rods too.
— Eli Zidel (@elizidel9) November 6, 2017
Wait, so shooters don't use bubbles or marshmallows? I'm stunned, I tell you. Stunned.
— Juli Caldwell (@ImJuliCaldwell) November 6, 2017
Mass shooters need to switch to non-lethal throwing swords. Thanks Washpo. You’re helping.
— Wittorical (@Wittorical) November 6, 2017
Well…if they didn’t use guns they couldn’t be shooters, right? About the level of intellectual sophistication I’ve come to expect from WP.
— Social Cat (@Il_Male_Tiranno) November 6, 2017
It's brilliant that WP caught what I'm sure everyone else missed: mass shooters always have guns.
— William R. Bowen (@Bibowen) November 6, 2017
Shooters use GUNS? Thank you, Washington Post. What ever would we do without you?
— Bourgeois Norm (@ProgDisorder) November 6, 2017
I see #Pulitzer in the future for your headline writer.
— Ben Strange (@BenStrange) November 6, 2017
