Bob CollinsThe Columbine High School shooting 20 years ago this month is the massacre that started the wave of mass shootings in the modern crime era.
We’ve come a long way since then and many shootings never make it to the front page; they’re that common now.
So present-day students at Columbine are trying to bring back a sensitized news audience by launching a drive to pressure the news media into showing images of the dead bodies after shootings, CBS News reports.
The students are calling on people to put a sticker on their driver’s license, which says, “In the event that I die from gun violence, please publicize the photo of my death.”
“We’re numb, stuck in a loop, seeing the same images over and over again. So how do we end the cycle?” a video from the #MyLastShot campaign says.
That’s a bridge too far for most any legitimate news editor. They’re just not going to show the bodies of dead kids, and if they did, it would be a short time before that, too, no longer stirred the conscience, thus making the campaign largely symbolic.
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Symbolism has also failed to stem school shootings to any degree.
