Another mass shooting. It is hard to count the number of them this year. One reporter said 50 during the past 5 months. When will it end? We become almost numb to the situation. A CNN headline pops up on my phone: A mass shooting, somewhere in the United States, the assailant has been shot, on to another day. For some of us, we can't read or hear about these stories. After the Uvalde school shooting, there was a video of one of the children who survived and what she had gone through during the time in the school. I couldn't listen to it. I think of the posttraumatic stress disorder that she will likely suffer for the rest of her life. These are children, again, and I'm reminded of Sandy Hook and of the children there who were first and second graders. This does not mean to say that the adults killed in Buffalo were less valuable-hardly. One would think you could be safe in a grocery store doing what everyone does, shopping. But after Boulder and now Buffalo, buying groceries might be considered threatening. It all hurts, badly.

What does this say about our country? What does it say about us, the people?

In the fall of 2013, an organization, the Gun Violence Archive, was formed. It is an independent research and data collection organization that provides comprehensive data for the national conversation regarding gun violence (Gun Violence Archive, 2022, para. 1). This organization is not affiliated with any advocacy group. From January 1 through June 7, 2022, there have been 253 mass shootings. A mass shooting is defined as four or more individuals who have been shot and/or killed in a single event, not including the shooter.

There is some action in Congress that addresses what they deem important in preventing mass shootings. Will it make a difference?

Conflict of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Funding

There is no funding associated with this article.

Pamala D. Larsen

Reference