As we wrote a couple of days ago, mass murder can be accomplished with an auto, with fire, with poison, or with a variety of weapons. People kill people, sometimes with guns, sometimes with other means, most of which we are unwilling to live without.
So, how could we control violence? By controlling violent people. Reopen the long-closed mental institutions and warehouse there the sad, lonely angry young men who, with suicidal acts of mass murder, seek revenge on a society that never liked them. A science fiction alternative to warehousing - buy them a robot friend for company, or a dog.
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Here is a research question somebody should examine: do mass murderers of the Sandy Hook or Charleston sort ever own dogs? I ask because (H1) being responsible for an animal that relies on you, and of which you are fond, may dissuade you from suicidal violent acts. Such acts would leave the animal uncared for and perhaps lead to its death at an animal shelter. Or alternatively, (H2) do such shooters kill their pets before going out to die themselves?
