Connecticut School Shooting: Piers Morgan and ‘Morgan Freeman’ agree; the media should focus on the victims, not the perpetrator

Clockwise from top right: White balloons decorate the sign for the Sandy Hook Elementary School, alleged gunman Adam Lanza, a woman comforts a young girl during a vigil service and Sandy Hook principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, who was killed in the shoot (AP; Rex Features)

In the wake of the tragic murder of 26 children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut people have understandable been looking for answers and ways to prevent such a tragedy from recurring.

The call for tighter gun control is a prevalent theme (in Europe especially), but another suggestion has also been circulating. Some words attributed to the respected actor Morgan Freeman* have been circulating on social media and obviously struck a chord: "You want to know why? This may sound cynical, but here's why. It's because of the way the mediar reports on it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing somthing worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody."

The British newspaper editor turned US media personality, Piers Morgan has expressed similar sentiments on his Twitter feed. He dedicated an RIP tweet to each of the 20 children killed in the shooting and one tweet for the six adult victims. He also criticised what he saw as the "totally inappropriate" behaviour of the Newton medical examiner at the press conference.

*Although it seems unlikely they actually originated with him.