Once again, the news is being dominated by another mass shooting.
Once again, another mass shooting in the United States seems to take everyone by surprise, although no longer quite shocked.
Indeed once again, we seem to be growing almost numb to the shock value of these tragedies, because of just how frequently they occur.
Some things change, of course. The location of the shooting, the specific circumstances, the names and situations of both the victims and the shooters, and the number of people killed and wounded. Those things change.
Yet, for all of the things that change, some things seem very similar with all of these incidents. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that some things never seem to change. The fact that when there is a mass shooting, you can almost guarantee that it happened inside of the United States. It seems that 90% of the time that you hear about these kinds of things, it happens inside of the United States.
That is not to say that they do not happen in other countries. Obviously, they do. There was the Bataclan tragedy in Paris a couple of years ago, and a few months before that, there was the shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. There was that shooting in Norway in 2011, which killed something like 80 people or so. There have been other mass shootings in Britain, and in Germany, and in Australia, and perhaps a few other countries, which I am not specifically remembering at the moment.
However, no country has nearly as many mass shootings as the United States. It's not even close. Just about six weeks after the worst mass shooting in modern American history took place in Las Vegas in early October, we have another major mass shooting in early November, this time in Texas.
Once again, the numbers are high, although we seem to be growing desensitized to that. These days, if the number of people killed does not reach at least 20 or 25, it seems to pass out of the news cycle relatively quickly.
This one was big. The latest reports suggest that 26 people were killed, including several children. In fact, the age of those killed ranged from 5 years old, to 72 years old.
It all happened in Sutherland Springs, Texas - a town of about 400 people. A man, Devin Patrick Kelley, was wearing what was described as all-black “tactical-type gear and a ballistic vest.” He parked at a Valero gas station, and then walked towards the church, firing his assault rifle at people outside of the church, as well as into the structure itself, before walking in and firing still more with his weapon.
At some point, a local with a gun shot the man, and may have wounded the active shooter, as he dropped the gun. He retreated to his car, where the man who shot him pursued. It was a high speed chase, and resulted in Kelley ultimately crashing. He was found dead by police later on, although it was unclear if this was because of the crash, or by gunshot, and whether or not that was the gunshot from the other man, or self-inflicted.
Predictably, President Trump quickly declared that it was "too soon" to talk about any kind of measures to restrict gun access. That is one of the things that also never changes, whenever we have some kind of a mass shooting. The names and positions of the politicians making this declaration might change. It was President Trump this time around, and for the Las Vegas shooting, as well. But it was other prominent Republicans, and probably some Democrats, before Trump became president. Those are some things that you can bet your bottom dollar that you will hear from a politician, most likely in the pay of the NRA. That, and sentiments that they are sharing their "thoughts and prayers," an expression that a growing number of Americans are getting sick and tired of hearing, since it suggests a rehearsed and very well-worn expression of official sympathy, but rarely, if ever, is followed up by concrete action.
Trump was very quick to dismiss any kind of debate on increased gun regulations, although since he has all of the answers, he was not so quick to diagnose what the real issue here was:
"Mental health is your problem here."
"This isn't a guns situation. This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It's a very, very sad event."
"A very, very sad event, but that's the way I view it."
Thank goodness we can count on President Trump to shed light on these kinds of issues, right?
The President also stated that "based on preliminary reports" the shooter was "a very deranged individual."
Again, let's be thankful that we have a man who can diagnose the mental condition of a shooter after the fact. Who knew that a man who dresses up in all-black and seems ready for combat, and then takes his assault rifle and shoots dozens of people attending church services on a Sunday morning, including young children and senior citizens alike and indiscriminately, might have mental health issues?
Thank you, President Trump.
Predictably, President Trump quickly declared that it was "too soon" to talk about any kind of measures to restrict gun access. That is one of the things that also never changes, whenever we have some kind of a mass shooting. The names and positions of the politicians making this declaration might change. It was President Trump this time around, and for the Las Vegas shooting, as well. But it was other prominent Republicans, and probably some Democrats, before Trump became president. Those are some things that you can bet your bottom dollar that you will hear from a politician, most likely in the pay of the NRA. That, and sentiments that they are sharing their "thoughts and prayers," an expression that a growing number of Americans are getting sick and tired of hearing, since it suggests a rehearsed and very well-worn expression of official sympathy, but rarely, if ever, is followed up by concrete action.
Trump was very quick to dismiss any kind of debate on increased gun regulations, although since he has all of the answers, he was not so quick to diagnose what the real issue here was:
"Mental health is your problem here."
"This isn't a guns situation. This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It's a very, very sad event."
"A very, very sad event, but that's the way I view it."
Thank goodness we can count on President Trump to shed light on these kinds of issues, right?
The President also stated that "based on preliminary reports" the shooter was "a very deranged individual."
Again, let's be thankful that we have a man who can diagnose the mental condition of a shooter after the fact. Who knew that a man who dresses up in all-black and seems ready for combat, and then takes his assault rifle and shoots dozens of people attending church services on a Sunday morning, including young children and senior citizens alike and indiscriminately, might have mental health issues?
Thank you, President Trump.
Here's the thing that I wonder about, though. President Trump also suggested that mental health is an issue in other countries.
Yet, what strikes me is that in no other countries are these senseless kinds of seemingly random acts of mass gun violence such a prevalent issue. So, do we have a bigger problem with health care in this country and, if so, does it maybe have something to do with the costs of healthcare being so unaffordable here? Or, is it an issue of the prevalence of loose gun regulations, and the generally easy access to guns in many states, including states like Texas and Nevada?
For that matter, will we ever have high-ranking politicians actually do anything more than send their "thoughts and prayers" to the families of the victims, and talk about things like this as a "senseless tragedy?"
It seems clear to me that President Trump is not prepared to go any farther with it than that. And indeed, maybe there is a problem with mental health in this country, because my understanding of insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, and expecting a different result.
Once again, in the aftermath of another mass shooting, we have so-called "leaders" expressing their increasingly meaningless sympathies and "thoughts and prayers" while not actually being prepared to protect the American people who they have been elected to represent. A strong majority of Americans, even a majority of Republicans, are in favor of tighter gun control laws, yet this seems to be a non-starter right from the beginning. Indeed, that seems to me to be the most glaring thing that never changes, and just remains the same, time and time and time again.
And already, all signs point to none of these constants changing following this latest mass shooting.
All quotes, and specific information on this latest shooting, were taken from radio reports from NPR earlier in this day, and/or information from the following two articles:
Trump says Texas shooting result of 'mental health problem' not US gun laws Jeremy Diamond 2017 By Jeremy Diamond, CNN, November 6, 2017:
Texas church shooting victims’ ages range from 5 to 72 By Linda Massarella, Emily Saul and Max Jaeger, November 5, 2017:
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