(Image source: Self portrait, 2016)

Since Columbine in 1999, America has had to, through increased frequency, become used to the idea of mass shootings becoming a realistic any-day possibility. So much so now, that other nations are updating their own travel warnings to their citizens that America, because of terror risk, is not necessarily a place worth risking your life over.

What is obvious in this setting is that ignorance, in some form, is allowing these tragedies to continue and in greater frequency. What hasn't been solved though, is WHOSE ignorance? But not for lack of effort on the part of our talking heads.

Any American mainstream media outlet routinely piggybacks on the latest mass shooting as a justification for swift, heavy-handed gun control, sometimes even as the bodies are still being collected from the scene. Not only is this callous and opportunistic on the parts of these elites in said media (whose homes ironically are the ones that tend to be gated and more secure than that of the average American), it's also wrong. We know this simply by the places on the globe where near-total gun bans (Mexico) or similar limited-exceptions-only style gun bans (France, UK) already have been tried, but still do not solve the societal problem of ever-increasing violent mass murders.

It should be noted here therefore that the epidemic at hand is not simply gun-related murders, but rather murders period, the methods of which used by the perpetrators having evolved as required to get around the "gun control" hurdles put into place by the elite bureaucracies. Although as Bataclan showed us in Paris, even these hurdles don't always succeed in stopping guns from being the method of choice.

So if laws on pieces of paper don't deter killers and stop the mass murder epidemic, what deterrents might exist that haven't yet been given the benefit of broad consideration by our ethically-challenged mainstream media?

Since 9/11, the United States has never enjoyed more ability to track the daily lives of all Americans. Edward Snowden, for better or worse, exposed PRISM and other government programs that began to give the public an idea for the very first time just now monitored their lives had become. With this in mind, it is worth noting that a simple Google search of the name of nearly any US-based mass murderer plus the terms "fbi watch list" will show you how shockingly often these individuals came under some form of FBI or other agency surveillance long before they ever fired a shot, used an IED, etc. A brief list is below:

2009, Ft. Hood Shooter ignored by FBI despite being watched:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lawmaker-report-shows-fbi-ignored-accused-fort-hood-shooter-nidal-hasan-out-of-political-correctness/

2013, Boston Marathon bombers on various US government watch lists including FBI alert 2 years before attacks:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/us/tamerlan-tsarnaev-bomb-suspect-was-on-watch-lists.html

2016, Orlando nightclub shooter on terror watch lists, according to then FBI Director:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/us/omar-mateen-fbi.html

2017, FLL airport shooter contacted FBI saying he was being told to kill people by other government agencies, no action taken:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/07/fort-lauderdale-airport-shooting-suspect-esteban-santiago-said-he-heard-voices-officials.html

2017, father of Las Vegas shooter a former FBI Top Ten Most Wanted list member**:

http://www.businessinsider.com/las-vegas-shooter-stephen-paddock-dad-fbi-ten-most-wanted-list-2017-10

Upon reviewing this list of recent American mass murderers, there can be little doubt of the pattern presented -- the FBI, and its fellow agencies, are very often well aware of the threat posed by these individuals long before their respective attacks occurred. This begs the question, why do nothing, time after time?

The answer is either rooted in incompetence / inability or worse, a very deep rabbit hole that involves complicity from our leadership in law enforcement.

To the first idea, there are those, primarily in government, who would venture that in addition to disarming you, law enforcement everywhere still needs more tools, more data gathering programs, and more weapons to stop the bad guys from killing our loved ones. Without going any further than re-stating the vast data available via the programs exposed by Edward Snowden, one could reasonably ask, "What else could law enforcement possibly need that it doesn't already have?"

Thus, to the latter, there are those that believe something far more sinister is at play. They would have you consider the possibility, for example, of MK Ultra style behavior modification (brainwashing) programs still existing, and that this is the reason why our ever-snooping government could still somehow "fail" to stop so many attacks from happening at the hands of those already on their own watch lists. Frankly put, it doesn't add up.

Regardless of the root cause, the metadata presented here and elsewhere shows us all that the FBI, again out of foolishness or worse, is not protecting the American public from mass murderers. The reports filed in the wake of these bloodbaths never result in any meaningful action that would prevent the next killer from killing, and so it happens again and again.

While our Constitution is clear about our rights as citizens including that of privacy, it is also self-evident that the first responsibility of any ethical government is to protect its citizens from those who would endanger their lives. Rather than take Constitutional self-defense rights away from everyone, perhaps it's time we all start fervently asking the question why the world's lone superpower fails so often to save its innocent citizens from those it is already watching. The answer may be more than we're prepared to accept.

**Father died in 1998, not involved in 2017 Las Vegas shooting