Trey Smith
Shootings, like the one that took place in Newtown, Connecticut, shock our sensibilities because of the staggering loss of life in one solitary event. When many of the victims are children, our reaction is magnified. But while we naturally focus on singular crimes of unfathomable proportions, death by gun is a frequent occurrence in this country. It is so frequent, in fact, that we often ignore the headlines.
As I'm penning this post on Sunday morning, I decided to look at those headlines (Source: Yahoo News). Here are a smattering of headlines in a typical day in violence-prone America.
- Gunman fires shots outside California mall, no one hit
- Ind. man with 47 guns arrested after school threat (Indiana)
- Shooting inside St. Vincent's; 1 dead, 3 others injured (Alabama)
- Man killed, another injured in double-shooting (Maryland)
- Four wounded in street shooting in Oakland (California)
- Major Case Squad investigates homicide at Cape nightclub (Missouri)
- Man In Serious Condition After Being Shot In Minneapolis (Minnesota)
- Police investigate shooting that killed juvenile in southwest Denver (Colorado)
- Man killed in Sumner drive-by shooting (Washington)
- Conroe drive-by shooting leaves 4 wounded (Texas)
I arbitrarily decided to end the list at 10, but I probably could have filled a page. Imagine how many pages I could fill for an entire year!!
These headlines represent a self-inflicted plague. Each death or injury is to someone's son, daughter, spouse, partner, relative, friend, neighbor or co-worker. Each one of these deaths causes someone to grieve.
When will we do something about this plague?
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