Are you shocked about Tucson? Aren't we all?
No. Not the least bit. I expected it--or at least a shooting like it--and I would like to make a desperate plea to everyone to feel the same. 33 people on average get shot and killed in this country every day, in every kind of neighborhood. Every day. 12,000 every year. Mass shootings--at malls, school, stores--happen multiple times every year. Like clockwork.
33 people. 6 people died in Tucson, but about 25-35 people died elsewhere. 214 people on average get injured daily--so while 12 people got injured in Tucson, about 200 got injured elsewhere.
So how dare we be shocked, shocked when a Tucson happens. If you have 250 million guns--and your gun-control laws basically require people to wait 3 days before they can shoot someone--then this is going to continue to happen on a regular basis.
While our gun laws are absurdly ineffective, still a huge piece of the problem is that more than 11,900 of the annual 12,000 tragic deaths don't shock most people at all. At all.
England, Scotland, and Wales combined have about 50 annual gun-related homicides. Which means that people in those countries have earned the right to be shocked when 6 people get shot to death.
Until we find all 12,000 deaths shocking--and until public support materializes for serious, effective restrictions on guns... Well then, at least I beg you, when the next Tucson happens--which will most likely be this year--then, first, to be sad, and then, to say to yourself and all your friends...... "Of course it happened, and it's going to happen again very soon."