Nothing we can say can pack the emotional punch of what we can see with our own eyes. For those of us who support a level of gun control in the United States equivalent to that in other advanced countries, it ought to be clear by now that facts and logic are not enough to change public policy on the issue. We need ugly pictures. Not the pictures of the sweet faces of the children of Newtown, Conn., before they were slaughtered, but the awful sights that so shocked the first responders.

News organizations, law-enforcement agencies and medical professionals are unlikely to publish the images of the bloody, mangled bodies that gun violence produces. But husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, can do what Emmett Till’s mother did. They can insist that we see the result of our weak, ineffective and poorly enforced gun policies. They can find ways to publish the pictures in all their gory detail.

Some might say this would disrespect the dead. I can think of no more respectful way to treat the dead than to allow the loved ones of those who have been slain to show what actually happened to them. If we think these images are too awful to see, then we should change the circumstances that create them. – Mark Funkhouser for Governing, Why We Need to See the Grisly Reality of Gun Carnage

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

89 COMMENTS

  1. And caption every photo ” This is what happens to innocent people who are not allowed a proper means to defend themselves. End GFZs now!”

    • Exactly. Their problem is that half the country responds to mass shootings by realizing that the government can’t/won’t protect them so they tool up for their own defense while the other half cries for gun control. Showing gory pictures will only reinforce both predispositions.

        • Kind of like showing you a picture of an antibody. You’re predisposed to believe they don’t exist, and a picture isn’t going to make you believe otherwise.

        • Sorry, PG2 you got owned. And a super weak come back with your troll/auto bot troll, but that is the typical loser speak. What was the video supposed to show? Kid looks fine to me.

        • Once you’ve set up your avatar it follows you regardless of what name you post. So all of my comments have the little picture of baby O’Bama swimming after the dollar.

        • I completely agree with [<entervalue:otherNPC= "pg2"]. Everything they said about [<entervalue:NPCargument= "showing pictures of dead kids"] is absolutley true! Everybody here at [<entervalue:targetwebsite= "TTAG"] are racists and hate [<entervaule:targetexpoitationgroup= "children"]!! For shame! SHAME!!!

        • I really wish pg2 would go somewhere that hasn’t eradicated small pox, polio, the black death, etc. through vaccination. Either he’ll see what life without vaccines is like and change his tune, or die and stop posting this garbage.

        • For Jason
          <some YouTube link>

          Wow…a case where one something happened after a person got vaccinated. We should, of course, ignore all the evidence that conclusively proves that severe vaccine side effects are incredibly rare and focus on one anecdotal story about how something bad happened to a person after getting vaccinated, regardless of whether there’s any evidence that the vaccines were a factor (hint: there usually isn’t).

          I had appendicitis a few years ago, a few months after getting a tetanus booster shot. I bet the vaccine caused my appendicitis, because if one thing happens after another, the first thing must have caused the second. That’s how science works, right?

          People like you are just looking for something to blame for a tragedy. We rational people are looking for the cause of the tragedy, so we can prevent them in the future (with tools like VACCINES). When we don’t know the cause, we don’t just blame something at random. We accept that we don’t know at the moment, and keep searching.

        • I actually watched that video you linked. It’s literally nothing but pictures of some kid as a baby then after developing some disorder along with some text blaming vaccines without any evidence beyond “A precedes B, therefore A causes B”.

          It doesn’t state what the disorder was.
          It doesn’t state what the cause of the disorder was.
          It doesn’t state what, if any, research doctors did to diagnose the disorder.
          It just tries to tug at the heart strings by contrasting cute baby pictures with sad pictures of a sick teenager.

          It sucks when kids get sick and die, but vaccines prevent millions of cases like that every year, and probably had nothing to do with this one. The reason this sort of event bothers us so much is because it’s such a rare thing. Before vaccines and other modern medical science, living to 18 was uncommon enough that it would be rare for a person not to have attended multiple funerals for children who died of a disease.

          That looks like a neurodegenerative disorder (IANAD), which would likely be genetic, not environmental, but, of course, the video doesn’t say anything about that, because the anti-vax movement has no use for science and facts.

        • Jason, pg2 takes it even one step farther by claiming that the vaccines themselves don’t cure the disease. He doesn’t just believe in some mysterious and nefarious substance that ‘big pharma’ puts in the vaccines to make children sick because they’re a bunch of homicidal maniacs or something, he disbelieves the concept of immunity itself. I don’t know if he thinks disease is caused by bad vapors or what, but he clearly doesn’t seem to believe antibodies, maybe not even viruses. Possibly doesn’t even believe in protein.

        • @govwaxtsbhoa, vaccines are not meant to “cure” anything….. youre not even smart enough to understand the story you are supposed to believe ….

        • I was speaking of curing society of a disease, not the individual.

          Note he doesn’t deny his disbelief in antibodies…

    • We should end so called gun free zones now. They’re an affront to the rights of everyone. Still, you cannot seriously expect spree shootings or mass murders in general to end with the end of gun free zones.

      The killers will either shift to murderous means other than guns, like arson or bombings, or else they’d just use guns on larger crowds where they could rack up the body count quickly before being taken out themselves. We might even see the return of snipers, who can kill at a distance without incurring return fire from concealed carriers.

    • Exactly.

      Underneath it can say: There exists people in the world that want to do this to your small children. And only a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun/knife/bomb/poison/truck. When you call the police because a mass murder shows up, who comes to your savior? A good guy, in uniform, with a gun. But – it could take 10-15 minutes for this guy to show up. And a lot of damage and loss of life can be incurred in 15 minutes. End gun free zones now. Dedicate some good guys with guns at your school now.

  2. Sure, just as long as we can also show the ghastly results of when Leftists slaughter in the multiples of tens of millions of people, using such means as starvation…

    • I was going to mention something about posting photos of holocost victims, and and other forms of government controlled genocide and post the simple phrase of, this is what happens to an unarmed society.

    • I think we should educate out kids about guns…in school…from grade school through college.
      That would include safety…interviews with veterans, doctors, gunshot survivors, police…etc etc etc.
      They should know the reality of what happens when you use a gun…the good and the bad.
      I am pro 2A…and with great rights come great responsibilities.
      We have to instill those responsibilities in the future generations…not leave it up to themselves to find out on their own.

    • And.. We should show the mugshots of every one of their fellow Democrats that are responsible for 97% of the gun homicides committed in this country annually…

  4. I also support immigration and birthright citizenship like in other advanced countries…but dems/libs want us overthrown by illegals…so there is THAT…LOL

  5. Another pointless and stupid article by another idiot with a political agenda. Btw, I’ve seen and smelled a lot of violent death resulting from all kinds of things from plane crashes to artillery. Screw him.

  6. It would simply encourage people to commit murders so they can increase their thrill level. Mexico publishes the gory details of murders and their murder rate is higher than ours. Murder rate is a cultural thing, not a gun thing.
    Look at the UK, knife and physical assaults are going way up because guns aren’t available like they used to be.

    In the old days, may folks were skeered of God and behaved accordingly. With the “death” of God for most folks, that fear of final judgement is gone and many people live only for their personal immediate satisfaction.

    • Came here to say this. Many of us know that there are some people who hear these perpetrators’ names all over the news and then want, and make, their moment of fame. Likewise, this will spur some on to have the pictures of their mayhem, gore, and evil to be “better”.

  7. The so-called “advanced countries” is a leftist myth. From England to Greece the populace lives on welfare. Not too long ago we had the term “PIGS”, that stood for Portugal, Ireland ,Greece and Spain. All needing bailouts because of crappy government, like what the deamonrats want here. E.G.- UK have to get permission to buy a pointed knife. Or look at the ultimate paragon of leftist paradise, France. Once the American Experiment was started the rest went down fast. 2 world wars and riots in the streets. Also remember, most of Europe is disarmed.

    • The more and more I’ve looked into it, the more it’s seems that the “advanced countries” go by timeless tradition of “there’s no crime if you don’t report it”.

      • That has been the official policy of the UK Home Office since the 1960s.

        Senior Police receive 6-figure bonuses for reporting year-on-year crime reductions so there is an institutional motivation to fudge the figures.

  9. “Civilized” Europe is no such thing. The average annual murder rate in Europe for the last century is over 350,000 per year. They have been in a slow period for quite a while but the pot is simmering and will explode again within a decade or two.

    • Yeah, I got banned on a(several actually) Facebook pro abortion page for showing actual pictures of abortions. What needs to happen is the stranglehold the left has on media needs to be broken.

  11. Isn’t it pretty much accepted now that these psychos commit these acts for the infamy?

    If that is true, i’m sure heaping even MORE publicity on their acts by showing the dead will improve the situation (eyeroll…)

  12. I, for one would like to see some effective gun violence policies.

    Like, for instance, if someone’s unhinged enough for mental health people to “red flag”, maybe the mental health people should do something to help, or monitor the flagee.

    That would sweep up violence the flagee might do in other ways. Or do people only do violence using guns?

    • Effectiveness is not whether it actually does anything to reduce gun violence, but whether it further restricts gun ownership and/or use in some way. These “red flag” laws focus solely on removing guns from the “dangerous” person, and doing nothing else, because taking away someone’s guns is the entire point of the law.

  13. “equivalent to that in other advanced countries”

    That’s liberal, racist code for “Yeah…..well…..of course murder rates are so far off the charts that there aren’t even good government records of them in most of these hell holes, despite guns being uniformly banned in all of them, but those countries don’t count. Those countries are all populated with blacks or Hispanics or whatever other non-whites there are out there. We only count ‘advanced’ countries because that means primarily white countries.”

    Of course, the antis don’t use that same logic within the U.S. If you look at extremely white states like Maine, Vermont. Iowa and such and compare their miniscule homicide rates to any other state with substantial minority populations, you’ll see that high rates of gun ownership have no positive correlation to homicide rates.

    In fact, if you exclude the urban black on black crime in the U.S., you’ll find that the U.S. has wven lower homicide rates than Europe. We don’t have a gun problem. We have an urban gang subculture of death problem.

    • Clearly ray ciss, but interesting thought! What majority non-white country on this planet is considered “advanced”? Would China count? Are they “advanced”?

      • China is a big place with many different cultures and languages. 56 different ethnic groups and 292 different languages. Some are just barely out of the stone age, others could be considered on a par with the US and similar.

  14. They won’t show what happens to disarmed people in some of those “advanced” countries they admire because it’s always a one sided argument.

  16. Why not.
    Just make sure to include the same for car crashes, suicides, rapes, gang violence, drug problems, etc..

    Everyone turns a blind eye to those as well so they don’t have to acknowledge there’s a problem.

    From an EMS point of view, I have see FAR FAR worse from auto accidents than any firearm and that includes suicides via shotgun in the mouth.
    You really want to save people, pass a law limiting autos to a max of 20 MPH (Mechanically)
    Sure it’s going to hinder a lot of people’s every day lives, but eventually everyone will learn to adapt around it, right? We would save thousands of more lives! Probably HUNDREDS of thousands!

    But why don’t we? Cars aren’t protected by any of the constitution or bill of rights?
    Because it affects nearly everyone is why, If firearms control affected most of the population, deaths by whack jobs would be acceptable losses.

    Heartless??

    So is letting a car full of 16 year olds die because they aren’t mature enough to know the real costs and dangers of distracted high speed driving.
    Stare at that bloody pile of society’s loss and then come back to me with your tear jerking bull crap.
    Mass shootings are rare, almost EVERY high school in the USA has had at least one car accident related death, guessing more than half have one every year or more.

  17. Start publishing what the Drug Cartels do to their unarmed enemies as well..bet the Border gets strengthened then!

    As posted earlier, the mainstream media stranglehold on the legal and justified use of firearms must be broken….I’m just not sure how it can be accomplished.

  18. I do admire the honesty of writing a whole long article confirming that they are disregarding knowledge in favor of emotion.

  19. So you admit that you can’t win the debate without using the logical fallacy of appeal to emotions? Well that’s refreshing. Typically one attempts to hide what they’re doing in this situation not come right out and say it.

  20. People can visit best gore dot com to see what disarmed people look like and what well armed people defending themselves look like.

  21. sure, right after we start showing pics of drowned toddlers from swimming pool accidents. If they truly are concerned with “the children”, then they need to prioritize. I am in favor of maintaining as many freedoms as possible, but their tunnel vision of the guns and ignoring of larger root causes of unintended death says all I need to know about their true goals. Thought policing and control of a political bent.

  22. This is stupid, this guy is arrogant enough to believe that people who are pro gun don’t care about the lives of the innocents who are murdered by crazy people. I can’t even begin to quantify how arrogant such a perspective is if it’s actually a belief.

    How about giving people in schools and other GFZs the right to defense?

  23. We should have access to video and audio of the family dynamics of the shooter. We can see the emotional distraction from feeling feelings, substituting food, attention and things for love, and of course trophies for participation.

    Then the parents will see themselves and the reversals can start. Teens can see what not to do when they be some parents.

    That will make America great again.

  24. Shootings such as Parkland and Sandy Hook should have the shooter’s identity stricken. These losers should have no publicity. It’s been repeatedly found that these losers research past shootings and seek the same fame.

  25. “Funkhouser: Gun Control Advocates Should Show Gory Photos of Mass Shootings”
    how stupid can you be … gun owners will simply show photos of the much higher deaths of gun controlled areas.

  26. The reason they don’t post those pics is because they know it would harden the resolve of pro-gun people and get anti-gun people to come around to our side.

  27. I think we need to educate everyone, not just children, that a random sprinkling of people that they deal with every day are out to get what they get and are not too particular as to how they get it. This cuts across all artificial societal divisions. Some people are OK and some are no dang good at all. “By their deeds you will.know them”. “Trust but verify”, RR. -30-

  29. Well I guess it’s nice that we’ve reached the point where the grabbers are admitting that the facts aren’t on their side.

  30. Here’s the deal Fu@khouser. For each of your “gun death” photos I get to show 100 “abortion results” photos. You are getting a deal because mine would only show half of the annual carnage on your side.

  31. Will the Atheists or Liberal gun owners support showing pictures of aborted babies? Will they support showing pictures of blacks lynched from trees? Historically atheists and the Libertarians, Liberals, and the Left, have always been against using pictures of the murdered.

    There is one group who has had no problem from the three L’s when they show pictures of murder victims. Jewish people have had the acceptance from the larger media in show pictures of holocaust victims. Check out any high school history text book. You will see pictures of dead bodies from the concentration camps.

    I could be wrong. The children’s history books may have been changed since I was in High school back in the 1970s.

    The fire breather, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, used pictures of blacks hanging from tress during his many speeches. He used the pictures as a reason for blacks to arm themselves. Yes he was a racist. And so was Rabbi Meir Kahane. “To every jew a .22” The rabbi was correct. But it 2018 now. It should be, To every jew a 9mm. Hopefully the JPFO can lead the way.

    But I guess it all depends on who ox is being gored. I have told family I support showing pictures of murder victims. But they are hypocrite Liberals. They disagree.

  32. I’d be far more disturbed by pics of aborted (murdered) babies stuffed into biohazard bags and discarded like common garbage. In fact, the mere thought if it literally makes my insides squirm; like sick clear down in my soul kinda nauseous.
    As the father of 3 kids, the thought of anyone causing them harm makes me want to do unspeakable violence on anyone whom would cause such harm. The thought that a human being would willingly consent to a Dr. murdering an utterly defenseless infant is just unfathomable. Those whom would purposely harm infants and children deserve the worst form of death imaginable.

    See, even the mere thought of such a thing sends me into an off-topic rage.
    Showing pics of mass shootings will only strengthen the resolve of BOTH sides and cause the trenches to be dug even deeper. We on the thinking side know that making more people defenseless WILL NOT solve the problem (make it worse, in fact) and those on the emotionally driven side will see the horrifying pics and insist on more gun control laws because they have been programmed to believe that that is the answer.

  34. So not only does Mark Funkhouser think nobody should defend children, he wants to force everyone to gaze upon all the glorious carnage that occurs in his precious “gun free” kill zones.

    Fucking subhuman ghoul.

    • That is bit insulting to the rest of the subhuman ghoul community. They don’t like him any better than we do.

  35. I think that gun control has now become as emotionally charged and intractable as civil rights and the Vietnam War once were.

    Now there’s irony for you. The entire article cites civil rights movements as he screeched to remove civil rights.
    I don’t think civil rights means what he thinks it means. -I.M.

    • And what is it about all these lefty sites that have no comment section. One would think they are closed minded or something.

  36. I don’t think a picture of a kid shot with a 223 would get the gore effect as one shot at close range with a sawed off double barrel shotgun. If they really want gore pics though maybe pictures from a war zone, dead burnt bloated bodies. Then again most humans have become desensitized to gore pictures, we see death and gore on TV and video games all day long, .I have thought long and hard on a “what if it was your kid, would you hate gunz”
    With that I flashed to a bad motorcycle wreck my son had racing in MX. I felt like throwing that bike in the river, hated it. Then I realized it wasn’t the bike but the sport he chose and loved. With that I’m feeling the blame should not be put on the gun, but the person pulling the trigger. I’ve decided the system can’t fix that problem, maniac with a gun, so the system goes after the thing it has a chance at controlling, the firearms. It can get rid of the gunz( with much difficulty), but not the maniacs. Guns do kill, no one can deny that, but a firearm cannot kill on its own. The problem lies with society,and the powers that be can’t easily fix a social problem that I believe has developed because of the way the “Powers that be” have formed this society. And it’s not just this country it’s the world over. I’ve also decided that the perpetual nuclear fusion bomb I was building isn’t going to work.( Adding cement to water in an attempt to make heavy water was a fail) So now I’m working on a perpetual neutrino fission bomb, that should just about take care of the universe and no one will have to worry about anything after that.

  38. A study should be done on the success of blaming inanimate objects for crime while coddling the criminals. Shouldn’t take long to do. I remember when the Clinton cartel was in the Whitehouse, ole cuddly Bill stated that if all the criminals just had a college degree then they would not be criminals. The Clintons and others disprove that theory.

  40. Fine, then gun advocates can post pictures of criminals victims. Those who were beaten, stabbed, clubbed, raped, kidnapped etc. I mean, fair is fair right?? Stupid a– ho—s!

  42. They should show pictures, but not because of the violence, because of the Smith Mundt Modernization Act of 2012.

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