Five Best Wednesday Columns

Dave Cullen at Buzzfeed proposes that we stop naming the perpetrators of mass shootings. Cullen, who wrote Columbine, argues that mass killers are "seeking attention" and that "we keep encouraging them." In the wake of the D.C. Navy Yard shooting, Cullen thinks the only way we can discourage these events from happening is to stop naming killers in reports. Cullen claims he's already done this himself for over a year, using only "the perpetrator" or "the gunman" in interviews. He suggests using the killer's name sparingly for the first 48 hours after a shooting and then stopping all use. Anthony de Rosa, the editor-in-chief of Circa, agrees: "Stop giving mass killers the fame and attention they seek." Even actress Mia Farrow weighed in, tweeting: "Mass shooters seek attention . . . can't we please stop naming them." Carina MacKenzie, a staff editor at the TV news site Zap2it, is more skeptical: "An interesting point, but Dave Cullen wrote a bestselling book about the Columbine shooters. Motives. Methods. Names."