What It’s Like to Cover Mass Shootings — One After the Other

About every two days the equivalent loss of life that occurred in Orlando plays out in firearm homicides in the low income black and Hispanic communities across the US, most in urban areas. Not to discount the tragedy of the mass shootings that make the headlines, it is the day in and day out violence that accounts for almost 75% of the firearm homicides in the US. The NYT had a few articles and appeared to be starting a series to cover the problem, but again it seems to have been swept aside by what is apparently a better vehicle for what the NYT really wants, which is more gun control.

The focus on mass shootings won't reduce the firearm homicide rate in the US as the daily toll of firearm violence is committed primarily by illegally obtained and owned handguns, by perpetuators who tend to be well known in their communities. This is a problem that will yield to effective community and policing efforts, much more so than attempting to address to mass shootings with gun control. It will also do much more to reduce the overall deaths and injures committed with than firearms in the US. Remember that even the Justice Department acknowledged that effect of the last assault weapons ban was largely unmeasurable, because the weapons are responsible for relatively few deaths to begin with.

If something still sticks in your throat remember, every two days.

Very moving article. To the people who write that there is little we can do, I say, you are wrong. You can register to vote and make sure you vote for Representatives who won't be bought by the Gun Lobby. Vote for Democrats. There is so much we can do to change our gun laws. Don't let anybody tell you that it's not about the gun. It is All about the Gun. If Congress won't change our gun laws- then we must change Congress. Our lives depend on it.

For the naysayers out there, this ought to restore your faith in journalism, at least a little. Very moving. Thanks, NYT.

That last line is heartbreaking because there is so little we can do, as ordinary citizens, to escape these kinds of killers, no matter how aware we are that they are out there and we are not protected. It is one of America's most profound beliefs that children deserve a period of innocence, a golden time before the shape of reality comes clear. I remember my own innocence (though life was not perfect; my family was not perfect) and its shattering; and I remember how each decade of my life has left me more aware of the pain and anger so many understandably carry from every kind of misfortune life can dish out. Depression is no mystery and hardly seems like a "disease." I admire and envy those who believe ever more deeply that life is worth it, despite all. Me? I miss my (imperfect) innocence, walking to school alone, playing in the backyard, climbing trees, and thinking I and my siblings would never die. Even then I knew, from books, that children die, parents die. But it wouldn't happen to me. Until it did.

I, for one, would appreciate a follow-up article in maybe 6 months and then a year about how Officer Hyland is doing. He is a victim in a different sense yet a victim nonetheless.

Reading this report, it is worth noting that the GOP labels itself the "pro-life" party. What with gun madness and the death penalty, we live in a culture of acute irony. The hypocrisy of it seems to be utterly lost on us.

www.endthemadnessnow.org

Its all so overwhelming on so many levels, it boggles the mind. Thank you for your heart-tugging insight.

God help us if we don't put an end to the 'gun madness'. One can only pray you never have to cover another mass shooting . . .

Yes, the mass murders are indeed hideous and I truly believe that those hateful evil events have become a 9/11 for all those communities. August 22, 2010 became and will remain forever my family's 9/11. Any human being who innocently answers the door to their local Police (who have the terrible duty to inform the family) and hears the worst most unbearable news any human can absorb is never innocent again. All of us, the families of gun murder victims are ourselves the secondary victims, scarred for life.
I wrote a note to Speaker Ryan this week reminding him that that the tenants of our shared ancient faith command him to obey GOD’s laws first and among them is “THOU SHALL NOT KILL.” I suggested to Paul that when it is his turn to explain to GOD the ways and means of his own life on earth he would be well advised to not mention the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. I gently reminded Paul that Catholics do not typically take a Lawyer (Paul's a lawyer) with them to the sacrament of Holy Confession and for the reconciliation of our mortal soul. I conveyed to Paul that I would pray for him so he might clarify his moral stance as a practicing modern Roman Catholic. I will not share my husband's views on fellow Catholic Paul Ryan, I'll just say said he was far less less generous and delivered with vulgarity.
The gun's is a tool who's only purpose is to main or kill members of the animal kingdom. usually man. Paul's official position is breaking GOD's laws.