Has America Become Immune to Mass Shootings?
Our nation should be outraged
It’s been two days since ten people were killed in the grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. I watched in horror as the story unfolded. I flipped my channel back and forth from regular tv to the CNN channel. Updates weren’t available until after 10:00 EST. I saw interviews made by people who were in the store. I saw a video made by a man standing in the front door of the grocery store as shots could be heard in the background. What the heck was he doing there talking to another man who was just standing around? Why didn’t they run?
Yesterday, the shooting was just a blip on the evening news. Late Night with Seth Meyers addressed the tragedy. I checked my Facebook posts, and no one said a word. Nothing. Today, I checked with the CNN news site, and there was a tag midway down the page.
My only explanation is that we must have become a country that has become immune to such tragedies. If not, wouldn’t we be talking about it more? Wouldn’t we be more outraged?
Now gun control is front and center. No one agrees. It’s going to become the Democrats against the Republicans, yet again. We look for other things to focus on rather than the issue at hand. The issue? Don’t forget about the ten people killed as they went about their daily business. Their stories will become another blip on the radar.
According to CNN, the shooting in Boulder is the 7th mass shooting in the U.S. in seven days. I live two hours from Atlanta, where a gunman killed eight people in three spas. Fortunately, the gunman was captured on his way to Florida, where he planned to kill even more. Another tragedy was averted.
The CNN articles cite more shootings in Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, and Gresham, Oregon. More tragedies. Do we as a nation even care? Or is that the chance you take just for going about your daily business?
I don’t know what the answer is. I know we need more action and less arguing. It shouldn’t be about politics, it should be a quality of life in our country. We deserve to go about our daily lives without fear of being the victim of a mass shooting.
UPDATE: I watched a news story and learned the explanation of why the man was standing in the door of the grocery store. He is autistic and he was looking for his autistic girlfriend. Both worked at the store. That explains why he was putting himself in danger but it doesn’t explain why the man videoing the scene was there. Unfortunately, the man’s girlfriend didn’t make it.