General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A "high firepower weapons ban" [View all]onenote
(42,296 posts)First, it would be difficult to prove that publicity is a motivating factor in many "rampage" killings. Sometimes its revenge, particularly in workplace shootings or gang/drug related slayings (where someone wipes out an entire household). Plus, attention getting may be the impetus in slayings that target only a single victim, such as attempts to kill a celebrity or even a politician. While we allow plaintiffs to maintain their anonymity in certain types of civil litigation (such as civil actions for abuse), that is generally not the case in criminal suits. For example, laws that prohibit the publication of the name of a rape victim (or someone alleging to be a rape victim) have been struck down as unconstituional on several occasions. And there certainly is no precedent, particularly in our legal system which is based on public trials, for barring the disclosure of the name of someone accused of a crime. Son of Sam laws that try to prevent a criminal from profiting from their crime may survive constitutional scrutiny if narrowly drawn, but several have been struck down. If its not clear that the state can constitutionally prevent a convicted criminal from writing a book or being paid for their story its hard to imagine how the press could be prevented from writing a book or telling a story about an accused or convicted killer.