Why Mass Shootings Should be Handled More Like Fatal Car Crashes
It bothers me a lot how the politicians and the mass media love to belabor mass shootings to no end. The hours of television with the grieving parents and interviews with police really serve no purpose but as a the interruption to commence, education and every day life.
I was reading the other day how Israel handles terrorism – they arrest and prosecute the perpetrators – but also emphasize returning to normalcy after a terror event. People get blown up and killed, their bodies hauled away, families notified and the scene quickly restored to its prior status – blood cleaned up, bullet holes patched, damaged walls repaired. Life returns to normal within hours of a terrorist attack.
In America on contrast businesses often remain closed for an extended period, memorials are constructed, scars left exposed for the maximum time. It plays to the terrorists’ or shooter’s advantage – as they are able to extract their maximum harm to the public.
America does know how to quickly restore infrastructure and normalcy after many types of death and destruction. Fatal automobile crashes are often cleaned up and the highway fully reopened and restored within hours of the crash. The ambulance comes and takes away the deceased, the firefighters put out the fire and sweep up the broken glass, the tow truck tows away the junked car and the DOT replaces the smashed guard rail. The families who have lost grieve in private. Often news coverage is limited to reporting traffic delays due to lane closures – the fatality if reported at all is in passing.
Fatal car crashes aren’t completely forgotten even as normalcy is quickly restored. Every one is carefully logged by police and placed in the FARS database – which is carefully examined for highway safety improvements and potential changes to the design of automobiles to enhance safety. FARS is also used in a thoughtful way to decide if changes are needed to laws to make roads safer. But FARS isn’t emotional, it doesn’t glorify crashes or their victims. It’s statistics gets news coverage but doesn’t make profits for news media or the police.
Losing a loved one is sad. People should grieve in private and be taken care of to make sure their needs are met. But instead of glorifying terrorists and shooters, the priority should be normalcy and quickly restoring order rather than belaboring private tragedies.
Gen Zers are drinking less than young people in past generations: about 20 percent less alcohol per capita than millennials did at their age, according to a report from Berenberg Research.
And many are forgoing booze entirely. The share of college-age adults abstaining from alcohol has grown from 20 to 28 percent over the last two decades, a University of Michigan study found.
The shift away from alcohol stems in part from a heightened awareness of the risks that come with drinking, from poor decisionmaking to addiction to negative health impacts.
Young people “are actually learning that alcohol is toxic to humans,” said Charles Smith, an addiction specialist at the American Addiction Centers Recovery First Treatment Center in Hollywood, Fla.
The Adirondack Park Agency is eyeing a building in downtown Saranac Lake as its possible future headquarters.
The three-story building is the former site of the Paul Smith's Power and Light company and was constructed in 1927.
The Saranac Lake Village Police are currently headquartered in the building, though the village is considering relocating the police to a large public safety building.
National Grid PLC NGG 1.18%increase; green up pointing triangle is exploring a possible sale of part of its pipeline network serving the Northeast as lawmakers there look to curtail fossil-fuel use, according to people familiar with the matter. One option under discussion at the British utility company is to sell a minority interest in the network, some of the people said.
