I really don't think it would be occurring with the frequency that it does without the coverage. Without the warped incentive to become famous, the mental illness would manifest itself in a different way.

Interesting thing though, we can't know. All we have to go on is the testimony of kids who have tried and failed, or tried and then not killed themselves. They all have WAY more than a passing awareness of their "heroes" who have gone on before them.

The adolescent mind -- even at its best -- has a very hard time discerning the difference between famous and infamous. And we keep making the offenders -- the shooters -- into larger-than-life people all the while blaming their acts on our favorite political scapegoat.