Don't Accept Collect Calls

During the occupation of Poland by the Nazi's, a doctrine referred to as "collective responsibility" was employed. It was simple really; if a person helped out a Jew that person and that person's immediate family were shot. If a German was killed a couple of hundred Poles were killed in retaliation.

You're likely familiar with the system itself as it's carried out in schools, the military, some occupations and detention facilities. It's just that if little Jimmy was caught chewing gum in the hall, he wasn't killed, but his entire class had recess cancelled for that day.

This can be effective, as it lends to a group doing the dirty work of whatever authoritarian is in charge by trying to keep everyone else in line. It can also bomb horribly and generate the opposite effect from that which was desired.

Gun owners know all too well the downside of this little bit of intellectual pysch-ops; when there's a mass shooting, folks try to take away our guns, even though we weren't anywhere near said shooting site and hadn't shot anyone at all, ever. So it's slightly irritating that gun owners themselves fall for this particular line of bullshit as often as they do.