Why the Media Needs to Start Using “Murdered” Instead of “Killed” When Referring to Mass Shooting Victims
“I just killed a mosquito.”
“I can’t believe I was so worried about that presentation. I totally killed it in there today.”
“Can you kill the lights on your way out?”
It would not be at all unusual to hear any of these phrases today.
But, try a little word experiment. Replace the word “killed” with the word “murdered.” Those phrases now take on a different tone.
Not only would it sound unusual to talk about murdering a mosquito or a presentation or lights, but the word conjures up a specific act in your mind; the planned extinguishing of a human life.
For a word that has such a serious meaning, “kill” has been neutered via slang usage (like killing time) and the fact that it can be used to mean the extinguishing of any life. You kill bugs, you kill weeds, you kill bacteria. The word is used in marketing all the time for these exact purposes.
Also, even if you are using “killed” to talk about a human life being extinguished, that person could have been killed by an accident, by a disease, by a wild animal encounter, or any of a thousand different ways that didn’t involve another person planning their death.
“Murder” is different.
It tells you that another person planned to extinguish someone’s life or, at the very least, was responsible for it even if it wasn’t actually planned in advance.
While “murder” is used in media, it’s not generally used in marketing (unless something being advertised — like a show or podcast — actually has “murder” in its title). It’s a word with more gravity to it and one I believe we should start seeing in connection to mass shooting victims.
One organization that regularly uses the term “murdered” instead of “killed” to great effect is the Auschwitz Memorial Twitter account, which is run by the Auschwitz Museum. The Twitter account tweets mini-profiles of Holocaust victims every day to put names and faces to the numbers we often hear about the atrocity.
If the museum knows for certain that a victim died in a gas chamber, they use the term “murdered” instead of “killed,” as in “murdered in a gas chamber.”
I can only speak for myself, but the usage of the term “murdered” affects me more than if they just said “killed.” It reinforces the notion that these people did not die in an accident or in some other way. Someone deliberately extinguished their lives.
Someone murdered them.
When the media talks about mass shooting victims, I still see the word “killed” being used in lieu of “murdered.”
I understand that in some cases — like where the shooter survives the incident and they are going on trial — there may be legal reasons to avoid using “murder,” as the news outlet may want to wait until a conviction has been rendered.
But, even in cases where the shooter has died and it’s a known fact that people perished due to their actions, there is still a tendency to use “killed.”
Take this CNN story about the anniversary of Canada’s worst ever mass shooting incident that happened in April of 2020.
The only mention of murder is that a man went on “a murderous rampage.”
But, when talking about the people who died as a result of that rampage, the less pointed “killed” is still used.
- “22 victims of Canada’s worst-ever mass killing”
- “22 Canadians were senselessly killed”
- “a murderous rampage in rural Nova Scotia, killing 22 people”
- “His pregnant wife was killed in a mass shooting.”
(The second of those excerpts is from a statement by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who also opted for the less pointed term.)
Now let’s do our word experiment again.
- “22 victims of Canada’s worst-ever mass murder”
- “22 Canadians were senselessly murdered”
- “a deadly rampage in rural Nova Scotia, murdering 22 people”
- “His pregnant wife was murdered in a mass shooting.”
See how those statements are more poignant now?
(To be fair, the last of the excerpts from the CNN article linked to a different article on the site that includes the phrase: “was murdered on her way to work,” so they clearly use it sometimes.)
I’m not trying to pick on CNN here. That just happened to be the article I chose to illustrate this point. Although it’s just anecdotal evidence, it seems to me that when I scroll through Twitter and read about the weekly mass shootings that happen, I often see the word “killed” and almost never see the word “murdered” when talking about the victims of these atrocities.
The words we choose to use matter a great deal and I think we owe it to the victims of these crimes to tell the truth about how they died. They weren’t simply killed.
They were murdered.
