Taking shooters' 'ideas' seriously gives them toxic influence

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A series of shootings over the weekend have once again left us all reeling and searching for answers in the aftermath.

Ten people died Saturday in what authorities call a racially motivated shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y. The shooter targeted a Black neighborhood and left a trail of white supremacist statements for investigators online.

On Sunday, a 68-year-old Asian man chained the doors shut and opened fire at worshipers inside Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, Calif., killing one and wounding five. Orange County investigators found scribbled notes in the shooter's car saying that his actions were motivated by anger over Taiwanese independence.

I grieve for the victims, some of whom remind me of my own family. And I'm girding myself for the highly politicized aftermath, which often becomes a more lasting source of pain for shooting victims.

Mass shootings often spark a search for meaning with entirely understandable motivations. Many mass shooters leave manifestos, hoping to cloak their violent actions in noble speech. Victims and survivors of these shootings, seeking to give the deaths of their loved ones meaning, sacrifice time and sanity campaigning against gun violence. And inevitably, these highly individual tragedies of loss and grief become faceless pawns in various political causes.

But America is that kind of country. Ours is the only democratic country on Earth in which regular mass killings are tolerated. This weekend was brutal, but it was not particularly out of the ordinary. There have been about 198 mass shootings so far this year, an average of about 10 mass shooting incidents a week, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

After covering the aftermath of many mass shootings, I'm increasingly ambivalent about participating in this outcry for meaning. There's a growing body of evidence suggesting that the attention paid to mass shooters offers notoriety that motivates more shooters.

And it just seems wrong to allow someone who shot a bunch of unsuspecting people to dictate public discourse. Engaging in the debate the shooter was hoping to spark seems to treat gun violence as an acceptable political expression.

For example, the Laguna Woods church shooter told Orange County authorities that he was upset about his treatment growing up in Taiwan, and that he wanted to strike back against the Taiwanese independence movement. The Orange County Sheriff's Department labeled it a hate crime.

Taiwanese independence is indeed a critically important and influential issue. It is the central issue in most elections there and the main point of contention separating Taiwan's major political parties. Taiwanese politics are so intense that many Taiwanese Americans maintain dual citizenship and fly back each election to participate.

But I reject the idea that I am now supposed to discuss Taiwanese politics because one man shot several people and wanted everyone to think it was because of Taiwan. I'm reluctant to lay these deaths at anyone's feet but the killer's.

Am I to believe that the political disagreement has grown so intense that my uncles and aunts would commit violent acts against their children, or vice versa?

The Buffalo shooter, in a rambling manifesto, wanted to draw attention to American white people who fear being replaced by nonwhite people. I believe strongly that white supremacy and white racism need a loud and frank public discussion.

But does that mean I believe the ideologies the shooter admired deserve more attention?

It's not that I don't believe shootings raise important issues for public debate. I just believe they raise only two real issues: the lack of mental health infrastructure combined with easy access to guns play a significant role in every shooting case.

If these events — the 198th mass shooting in the U.S. this year and the latest of countless violent incidents involving mentally ill perpetrators — could motivate political change on these issues, I would gladly participate.

But I am cynical, because I have been participating in these circular debates for almost my entire career.

And I've decided that the most meaningful way to respond to these killings is to deny the shooters the attention and significance they sought. To allow their meaningless, senseless actions to mean nothing and make no sense.