I would have thought by now that we’d realize that mass shootings (even in schools!) aren’t a flaw in our system; at this point, given what we know, they’re an intentional feature. We know from study after study, from one statistical analysis to another, that we have excess fatalities because of the number of guns we have. We know that having a gun in the house makes the inhabitants thereof more rather than less likely to die of gun violence. We know that the “good guy with a gun” scenario is a rarity of rarities, and can even cause confusion and errors among first responders. We know from every other advanced country that reducing guns overall reduces deaths by guns.
We know all this and choose, as a society, to do nothing. So when four schoolchildren die at the hand of a classmate, it’s because our nation has decided that a certain level of death and destruction is okay, so long as it helps the gun industry’s bottom line and salves the anxiety of people who delude themselves that packin’ heat will keep them safe.
Just another day in America.
[Originally posted on Facebook.]