"No way to prevent this"

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens 

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TX—In the hours following a violent rampage in Texas in which a lone attacker killed 27 individuals and seriously injured several others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Sunday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place.

“This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said Kansas resident Britt Mulvanos, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. “It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this individual from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what they really wanted.” At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past eight years were referring to themselves and their situation as “helpless.” 

Reposted in its entirety from The Onion, which has been reposting this same story repeatedly after mass killings since 2014, changing only names and dates.

(Hat tip to TYWKIWDBI)

Another mass shooting - ho-hum...

I first posted this just over a year ago on June 13, 2016, when our country was shocked, shocked by another mass shooting. I could have posted it almost every day since and it would not have been out of order, for the truth is hardly a day goes by in this country when we don't have a mass murder with guns. But by now it has to be something truly spectacular - like 59 people dead and over 500 injured - to get our attention.

And a further truth is that it will continue. There will be another and another and...

What would it take to jolt our representatives in Washington into action?

~~~

Monday, June 13, 2016

Thoughts and prayers won't stop bullets

So, here we are again. Another day, another massacre. Once again, we see cynical politicians offering their "thoughts and prayers" for the victims of another mass shooting, often on Twitter.

With one hand they send their sorrowful tweets and the other they hold out for their payoffs from the NRA for offering nothing but thoughts and prayers. No action. No sensible gun control. No universal background checks. No banning of assault weapons. They won't do anything to upset their masters.

Thus, Congress, the only entity that might be able to stop or at least inhibit these periodic massacres of our fellow citizens, refuses to act, except to offer thoughts and prayers and moments of silence. And, thus, the massacres will continue. Tomorrow, next week, next month, there will be another one, and we'll be outraged and sad for a few days and then we'll just move on, accepting that there is nothing we can do to stop these events.

Poll after poll show that a majority of Americans - 55% in the latest Gallup poll -want stricter gun control laws. Why then do these same people keep sending elected representatives to Washington who will not take action to strengthen the laws? Wasn't it Albert Einstein who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Perhaps our society suffers from mass insanity.

On such a day, it is really hard not to despair.