Another Voice: Policing the internet will not stop massacres - Buffalo News

New York Attorney General Letitia James has conscionable released a study commissioned by Gov. Kathy Hochul to code the relation that online platforms played successful the fascist wide execution that took spot successful Buffalo connected May 14.

Although James’ study contains harrowing and heartbreaking eyewitness descriptions of the rampage astatine Tops, her recommendations for preventing akin massacres successful the aboriginal permission overmuch to beryllium desired.

We did not request this study to archer america that the net is crawling with cockroaches, but James’ suggestions for societal media policing look similar the modern equivalent of blaming our nation’s ills connected Dungeons & Dragons oregon dense metallic albums. Neither the close to escaped code nor the endless permutations of net civilization and exertion volition licence her solutions.

James did not see the existent origin of these wide shootings arsenic a prelude to pulling this weed erstwhile and for all: the occupation is not the First Amendment, but the Second.

Explaining the massacre astatine Tops arsenic the effect of online governmental radicalization is relevant, but lone up to a point. The murderer’s spree mirrored respective racist attacks successful caller memory, specified arsenic 2018’s Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre and New Zealand’s Christchurch Massacre. But however bash authorities explicate Uvalde? Or Parkland? Or Sandy Hook? Or Virginia Tech? Or Highland Park? Where was the achromatic supremacist space successful each of those – and galore different – horrors?

Shut down the full net and our supermarkets and simple schools volition inactive beryllium turned into abattoirs. AG James is connected the incorrect trail.

What James did not accidental successful her study is that the seeds of Payton Gendron’s massacre were not planted by 4Chan oregon Twitch. The slaughter did not statesman there. It began astatine Vintage Firearms, a quaint mom-and-pop weapon store successful Endicott, N.Y., that sold a young psychopath a Bushmaster battle firearm suitable for warfare successful Fallujah, and with hardly a question asked.

Big Tech can't beryllium held much liable than Big Guns for the upland of victims that wide weapon unit has piled up since the pivotal Columbine massacre 23 years ago.

The adjacent massacre of the benignant that occurred successful Buffalo – 1 that volition daze our nation’s conscience, adjacent though galore different wide killings volition person preceded it – is owed to get soon, arsenic predictably arsenic the past dozen. Does anyone judge that shaking our fist astatine the net volition forestall it?

Don’t we cognize successful our hearts that it is our impotent weapon laws and our irresponsible weapon dealers that are to blasted for these absurd and wholly preventable tragedies?

Jason Yungbluth is simply a Monroe County typical to the Green Party of New York State.