The first time I heard the term “The People’s Right to Know” was during the Viet Nam War. It was supposed to be the reason secret information was released. I think it’s one of those “in the eyes of the beholder” conundrums. Some things should never see the light of day and others should.

As a co-founder and first president of the Grundy County No Tolerance Task Force, I learned that one of the best ways to fight gang recruitment was to wash off or cover gang signs, keep their activities from being recorded or reported as such, and to tamp down any activity that involved recruitment. The object was to reduce copycat activity by wannabes.

How does this affect today’s right to know? I believe the Dayton mass shooter was influenced by the publicity of the Wal-Mart shooting. We know one school suicide is likely to spawn others if it is publicized very much. A few days ago a man walked into a store with body armor and an assault gun. He did nothing because he had no intention to do anything or had not found the targets he was hoping to shoot. Since Dayton and Wal-Mart, other men have killed using the same type weapons with some reaching the four people shot criteria for mass shootings. Most of those were reported locally and not given much publicity outside the immediate area.

The question is still valid today. Is the public’s right to know causing more shootings and unnecessary fear? Instead of getting headlines across the world, should the media and the internet downplay events thus preventing copycat mass shootings?